The internet, especially social media, gives your radio station a chance to directly and immediately interact with your online audience. There are 2.3 billion active social media users worldwide (Brandwatch) and 67% of consumers have used a company\’s social media site for servicing (J.D. Power and Associates). Therefore, radio stations cannot ignore the huge opportunity to build trust by engaging with existing and potential listeners.

Communicating with your audience online quickly and instantly provides great service in front of a big audience. Your audience will become more loyal if they know that they can contact your radio station online, because they will know that you’re always available online to respond to anything.

Over 1 million people view tweets about customer service every week. Roughly 80% of those tweets are negative or critical in nature (HelpScout). It is therefore vital to address listener complaints as well as compliments. These complaints are an opportunity to turn your audience’s opinion around; making excellent testimonials once they are satisfied. They give you an opportunity to connect with people and will be available for anyone to read.

This brings us to our second way to build trust through engaging your audience online – via testimonials. Testimonial build trust as they are proof that you have satisfied your audience. Churn rate can increase by 15% if organizations fail to respond to customers on social media (Gartner). It is therefore essential to ensure you share and respond to your listeners’ compliments to make them stand out. The listener\’s profile is visible if they have shared testimonial on social media; helping to drive authenticity to the testimonial.

An excellent way to increase loyalty online is by using social media and your website as a platform to providing excellent content. Social media is especially important because it is the top internet activity; Americans spend an average of 37 minutes a day on social media (Wall Street Journal). Your content should either entertain or educate your audience. Your content could also start discussions or debates, or to gain honest feedback. An online platform is an excellent way for your radio station to communicate with their audience as it provides people with the opportunity to share your content with others. This builds trust as your audience learns more about your radio station.

Don’t be afraid to make your content fun – building trust through entertainment. Provide value in a fun way by putting out contests, polls, videos, apps, etc. Your content should not be all about pushing your online audience to listen to your station, it should be helpful and entertaining, making the audience want to listen to your station to hear more content live.

For help on increasing loyalty with your radio station’s online audience, contact us.