Facebook this week released its “Widely Viewed Content Report” showing the most viewed domains, links, pages and posts in the United States for the third quarter between July 1 and September 30, 2021. Content from three radio stations appeared in various parts of the report, but each case shows that despite the massive reach that their social media content brought to the station, no metrics can correlate that reach bringing new local listeners to the stations.
Seven of the twenty most viewed posts in the quarter came from either iHeartMedia CHR “101.9 Kiss-FM” KWNW Memphis or Cumulus Classic Rock “96.9 The Eagle” KKGL Boise. The posts were all open-ended questions meant to drive social interaction. The following post from KWNW was the second most viewed seen by 92.4 million people in the United States, shared 303,000 times, and garnered 7.5 million comments. But outside of the account posted it how is it supposed to drive a local, sellable audience to the station?
This KKGL post at least makes a reference to a character on the syndicated Bob & Tom Show that airs in mornings on the station in its caption, however none of the 3.7 million comments picked up on the reference.
KWNW has returned to focusing on simply posting links to articles on their website and screenshots of tweets. Despite having 337,000+ followers to its page, most of the posts getting less than ten likes and a handfull of comments. But this is also a radio station which registered a 0.8 share and a Cume of a mere 49,700 in the October 2021 Nielsen Audio ratings.
KKGL’s page content still does slightly better than most radio stations, except when its posts are are about station events and promotions, which makes sense when you consider most of its meme viewing audience is not in Boise.
Another iHeartMedia owned station, Variety Hits “104.9 Steve-FM” WSTV Roanoke VA appears in the report as the third most referred domain with posts linking to its page seen by 64.8 million users. You would think those links would go to some of the most popular websites in the world, but #1 was the Green Bay Packers Alumni Resources and #2 was a CBD store. None of WSTV’s posts had massive views individually, but that doesn’t matter when you’re just flinging stuff at a wall to see what sticks as the station’s page averages around two dozen posts per day. And even with those 64.8 million views in the quarter, the page has only 99,493 followers.
I asked former radio pro turned social media creative consultant and voice of the @30RockTree Matt Haze if he saw any value in these posts from the stations, “The only value in getting that many hits for a local radio station is if it is unique content that fits the radio station brand that would actually drive online listeners to a unique product. A silly meme from a radio station that has a local brand and has sister stations across the country serves zero purpose.”
Haze continues, “If I’m a local radio station and I serve local clients and advertisers, why does it matter if a meme gets 150 million views? How does that help a local car dealer sell more cars?” And that is the point here. Sure it’s fun to brag that posts have gone viral, but what do they do to help the station make money? There’s nothing in those viral posts from KWNW or KKGL with a call to action for the viewer that helps the station. Even if there was a link to the station’s online stream you would have the ability to potentially hook a new listener to make money off of. But asking them to name a fish without the letter A in it, simply brings lots of cod as opposed to cash.
The entire report from Facebook can be viewed here. The other posts from KWNW and KKGL that made the top 20 are shared below.
