When you have a small radio staff, trying to navigate your station’s social space can be overwhelming. And yet, it’s where your audience is (sometimes even as they’re actively listening to your station!).
A radio station partner recently emailed me this question:
“We have 3 people on staff – how do we manage social media amongst all the many other things that have to be done on a day to day basis?”
To this station partner, and others, while there is no one quick solution to offset management of “one more thing” on your daily to-do-list, here are 5 ways to optimize your time (and energy) when it comes to social media:
1. Prioritize Your Pages
While your station should have a social presence, it doesn’t need to be present on all social media platforms. Focus on the platforms where your target audience is active – for Christian radio, it’s likely going to be Facebook and Instagram.
2. Show Up Consistently
If you only have one hour a week to spend on social media, be consistent about it. Consistency is a better strategy than spending 3 hours one day and then 15 minutes the next week.
3. Schedule Posts
Ideally, create a routine of scheduling posts a week at a time. Schedule posts for a week on Monday to get a head start on the busy week ahead. There are several services available online to help you plan, schedule posting across your social pages – Hootsuite is a one-stop dashboard for all your social accounts. You can also utilize the scheduler within Meta (which now covers both Facebook and Instagram page posts).
4. Curate Content
Keeping a social profile active doesn’t mean you have to create social-specific posts day in and day out. It just means you enable your followers to discover useful content.
Part of being an effective social media user is to share content you find from other sources that your followers may enjoy.
Set aside time weekly to follow speakers, recording artists, authors, etc. that interest your listeners. (Email me for links to ready-to-post broadcast ministry speaker quotes and seasonal social media graphics.)
5. Stick with a Design
Create easy templates for quotes or Bible verses which you can use over and over. I suggest using Canva to create images – it’s a great free-to-use online graphic design tool. Once you land on a couple of templates, then just swap the text and the image (or even the color scheme).
While radio stations may face challenges when it comes to allocating time and resources to social media, the benefits of doing so exist. Yes, social media does add to a daily to-do-list . . . it also though, can serve to amplify your presence in your market and provide you with more opportunity to engage with your audience!
