The Power of Social Media

Posted Sep 01 in Opinion tagged , , ,

Over the last three months something interesting has happened to the Sydney radio scene, largely due to the power of social media. One radio station, 94.5 FBI, has been saved. Whereas another, the high profile Kyle and Jackie O show (2Day FM) has been severely wounded.

FBI asked Naked Communications to develop an idea that would encourage their loyal listeners to donate money to save the station. Previous donation drives had had only moderate success and we know from social influence theory that people don’t enjoy backing an ailing cause. Therefore, Naked had the idea to turn the listeners creative capital into financial capital. We encouraged listeners to creatively ‘Ask Richard’ Branson for $1,000,000 – whoever asked him in the most creative way also scored some dollars. Anyway, the creative peoples participation was enough to generate strong PR , Richard Branson called in to the station, people did silly stuff, and the campaign raised over $500,000. That was enough to save the station.

Kyle and Jackie O on the other hand acted in a deplorable, grubby manner. They angered many areas of the community and threw fuel on the fire by refusing to accept responsibility for their actions. Bloggers, and Twitterers demanded action, other media groups joined in, and advertisers listened. I personally participated in this action, and was pleased with the result; a 7 second delay, an investigation instigated, and a reduced public role for a very offensive man. Again, this result was at least partly due to the power of social media.

So what can we take from this?
1. Not all voices are equal: Brands need to find the influential few and invest more time with them .
2. Tap into your lovers passions: People got involved with FBI as we asked them to create inventive ways to release money from Branson, rather than just asking them for money. Don’t ask consumers to just name your product or write an ad (many people would find that boring / trivial) but look at ways they can get involved in ways they want to get involved.
3. Listen before responding: Kyle’s use of social media (The Punch) just inflamed the situation. He did not listen to the audience who was calling for action. His tone was as if he was speaking to his regular all forgiving audience.
4. Use social media: Social media, especially combined with other forms of communications is now even more powerful (through some fancy technological innovations). The FBI campaign cost $0.00, and raised $500,000 over the course of 6 weeks. The financial impact on Kyle was even more staggering.

It’s a neat case study. Two brands, same category, same media spend ($0.00) and with extremely different results. Social media is, as they say ‘hot right now’, and with good reason.

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Comments

  1. Ken

    Sep 1st, 2009

    With commercial radio it appears that there is a threshold. Listeners like to see the boundaries pushed but push that bit far and it goes downhill very quickly. What they did was approaching pedophilia and it is very hard to defend, and trying to defend just makes it worse but for some people it is impossible to admit that they stuffed up.

  2. Scott Taylor

    Sep 1st, 2009

    With all due respect to the Ask Richard campaign (great for PR as you say), as an FBi listener, I seem to be the only one who thought that if a community radio station needs $1 million to continue existing it's doing something very wrong. And with that, any money i can give is probably just getting flushed down the toilet.

    Does this back up the theory that people won't get behind an ailing cause?

  3. Fritz Bachen

    Sep 1st, 2009

    @Ken Im not sure there is a threshold with what listeners will lsiten too (I think we would still watch slaves been eaten alive by lions given half the chance. However, I do think there are limitations on what brands will put up with. Hence, it's adveritiser dollars, and regulation that will stop this kind of stuff – not 'people power'. Weird as that may sound?

    @Scott fair point. I've never ran a radio station. I've no idea what the costs are.

    However, I know the people at FBI and they are not only passionate, but extremely professional. If there were only a 100,000 listeners of FBI would it be unreasonable to ask them all for $10.00 each every 3- 5 years to keep the station on air? That's all they are asking for which seems fuck all to me?

  4. Scott Taylor

    Sep 1st, 2009

    Agreed, small price to pay relatively speaking. Maybe I just wanted to know what they were going to do with the money to ensure they keep the station going. Though realise I'm probably in the minority in wanting to know these details, and they don't exactly make great fodder for publicity.

    Also noticed i started my original post with "With all due respect". That's my meagre claim of credibility out the window.

  5. Zac Martin

    Sep 1st, 2009

    While I agree with the post Fritz and I think you make a smashing point, can you follow up on the claim that the actions taken by 2DayFM were a result "largely due to the power of social media".

    It wouldn't surprise me if the powers that be didn't listen to a single word said online, rather listening to feedback through mainstream media and their own research. And arguably, Kyle's post on The Punch only saw a few thousand eyeballs. Thoughts?

  6. Fritz Bachen

    Sep 1st, 2009

    Hi Scott, I think FBI were quite clear in what the money was being used for – and were clear that most of it would be paying back debt – here's a quote from them.When we launched the campaign, we said our goal was to not only meet the immediate threat but also to secure our long term viability. To achieve this, we need to raise $1,000,000 to pay down our start up debt and provide a buffer to fund our ongoing operational costs, so we are not constantly living hand to mouth. The response to the campaigns has been overwhelming and we can say with much relief that, thanks to the generosity and hard work of so many people, we have now addressed the immediate threat to the station.

    @Zac fair point. I was tempted to replace the word 'largely' with 'partly', as I cannot say for certain what the causal relationships were. As I understand socialmedia it's media that gives people a voice – and facilitates the sharing of that voice with others. Social media was quickly harnessed by people to express their disproval – this message was amplified by industrial media, which in turn would have fed the social media and so on.

    I think it was largely influenced by social media. My reasoning? If the same event had hapened before social media I doubt they would have been the same level of reaction. Dare I quote Edward Bulwer-Lytton! You get the rest.

  7. Scott Taylor

    Sep 2nd, 2009

    Maybe i should rephrase.
    What the Ask Richard campaign did for me (as in this what i personally thought when hearing it) is emphasise that the station had racked up the need for $1 million, whilst plenty of other community radio stations (no doubt smaller in scope, but at the same time community funded) continue to survive on much smaller contributions.

    It's great they stated what the money would be spent on, but I was hoping for a more critical look at their ongoing operational costs to be sure they're not going to get into the situation again.

    Again, all this said, this obviously wasn't your average Joe listers opinion so it's not such a big deal. Just looking to get your thoughts (thanks for replying).

    And just to clarify, I'm not anti FBi or community radio by any stretch. I actually worked on their audience research report this year, so good luck to them.

  8. I love FBI

    Sep 26th, 2009

    Interesting case study – and a great campaign for FBI – well done guys.

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