Social media stars at Radiodays

For a conference about radio, social media is certainly getting a big look in at Radiodays Europe.
 
So far the conference has heard from both the powerful (Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny gave a keynote on radio) and the famous (Kim Wilde presented on her new radio show and gave everyone a rendition of Kids in America) but the role of social media in creating successful radio seems to keep popping up:

 

International Sales Trainer and radioinfo contributor Pat Bryson (check out her Selling Radio blog here) is presenting on Day 2 at the conference but had some time to check out some of the sessons from Day 1. Here are her reflections:  

“We had a full day of sessions today, with the opening of the conference highlighted by four young gentlemen with drums that made you want to dance. Early afternoon we were treated to a keynote address by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Prime Minister of Ireland. His spoke on “Radio’s Enduring Strength”. His two most memorable quotes were,”Radio has lost none of our currency of intimacy and relevancy” and, “In the world of white noise of other media, radio endures.” Radiodays always provides us with great ideas and ways to share our craft with other broadcasters throughout Europe.” 

You can check out highlights from all the presentations here but here are some of our favourites so far:
 
Nurturing your radio family
 
One of the most well received presentations from Day 1 at Radiodays was from 2FM presenter Rick O’Shea on engaging your audience through social media.
 
O’Shea has been on Twitter since 2008 and despite people initially thinking it was a waste of time he says it’s become an important part of his show.
 
I think if you are a presenter or you have a show it’s [a social media presence] essential. You can choose not to but you are closing off both a way of promoting your show to a lot of people who might not otherwise hear it and a way of getting a lot of good content back in return and creating those things they always say that are good for radio shows – community and a sense of family.
 
However for a man so in to social media he seems to recoil from those things people most associate with the medium. When asked about sharing photos of cats, your dinner or selfies Rick says it’s a no-no. Not sure if everyone will agree!
 
Listen to Rick talking more about using social media for radio here 
 
 
Much to gain from on demand
 
In a session on looking at new ways to measure and understand listeners, on demand radio and using social media to push it out to new audiences became a big talking point.
 
Dennis Christensen from The Danish Broadcasting Corporation told the audience that linear radio had been losing listeners since 1998 and with the rise of the Smartphone on demand radio had been given a new lease on life.
 
According to the panel on demand’s value comes from the ability to gain “new listeners and the satisfaction of the regular ones.”
 
And the principles for using on demand successfully? “Listen, watch and share,” says BBC’s Patrick Collins. As always social media is valuable but we can always be doing more.  
 
Read more of what they had to say here.