When I was the Music Director at 107.7 The End in Seattle, I spent every minute of my workday trying to achieve the right mix of on-air content. Like most radio stations, we had expensive software that enabled me to a balance of new and old, hard and soft, fast and slow. The goal was to create an on-air product that appealed to a wide swath of listeners.
The goal of your radio station’s website is the same. But do you invest as much energy into getting the mix of content right?
Just like the music scheduling software you use for your on-air content, it’s helpful to have a tool to get the right mix of online content. Fortunately, it’s not going to cost you anything.
The Weekly Web Meeting and the Content Calendar
Radio stations should carve out time with the appropriate staff members for a weekly meeting to plan out the upcoming week’s blogposts. Spend the first half of the meeting on old business: review your website, social media, and email analytics, much like you would review callout research in a music meeting.
Next, turn to new business: The analytics you just reviewed can help you decide what new blogposts to write. In place of music scheduling software, use a spreadsheet to schedule the week’s blogposts. I recommend posting this spreadsheet as a shareable document in the cloud — as a Google Spreadsheet, for example — so everybody can log in at any time and see the latest version. This way, you don’t have to email back and forth about every blogpost.
In your weekly web meeting, decide what topics you want to cover in the blog during the upcoming week. For example:
- What events are happening in town?
- What concerts are coming up?
- What new albums will be released?
- What holidays are around the corner?
Once you’ve decided what blogposts to write, assign the posts to your staff members with the appropriate due dates.
Encourage your staff to check the Content Calendar regularly throughout the week. This way, not only will your blog writers will know what’s due when, but your on-air staff will know when there’s new blogposts that they can talk about on the air.
In short, it’s time that your radio station put the same amount of careful planning into your online content as you do your on-air content. A Content Calendar can help you do that.
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