Knowing
where and
when your brand is being mentioned on the radio can be hard to keep track of. This is especially true when considering that
South Africa alone has 295 radio stations — from Xhosa all the way to Afrikaans stations.
Enter —
media monitoring! This technology is hugely beneficial to your business, as it allows “
the tracking of a brand’s media coverage across various platforms.”
This means that, no matter what time of day, you’ll always be in the loop in regards to how your brand is being talked about on the radio. But why is that so important?
Let’s get right into it. Here are three reasons why you should monitor radio stations:
1. Radio stations are a lot more specific
Radio outweighs TV, with there being about
44 000 stations worldwide in comparison to the
33 000 television channels that are available.
Because there are so many kinds of stations out there, the chances of your brand being mentioned on one of them only increases. More than that, these stations are quite specific in terms of their community and audience.
This means that, if a station focuses on your industry specifically, you can easily pick up on whether the conversation is about you or even your competitors. Either way, it’s a win. If it’s about you, then great! You’re getting exposure and you can see whether that discussion is positive or negative.
If it’s about your competitor, then you can see whether their strategy is working or not. If it is, you can learn from it and improve on it. If not, then you can know what to avoid in future.
2. Radio stations help you find new audiences
Each brand has a specific audience that they would like to target. And although that’s important, there could be a group of people interested in what your business has to offer, and you would never even know about it!
For example, you could be an English brand that never even considered targeting Afrikaans audiences
But that doesn’t mean that your brand won’t be mentioned on these stations. However, you would never know that if you didn’t do broadcast monitoring. This service will keep you in the loop and allow you to see clips of when, where and why your brand was mentioned.
3. Radio stations are much more accessible
According to UNESCO, “
an estimated 44 000 radio stations broadcast to at least five billion people, representing 70% of the population worldwide.” Additionally, a study done by Statista found that there were “
1.7 billion pay TV households worldwide.”
This shows that a lot more people have access to the radio than TV, meaning that it is essential to monitor brand mentions on these stations as there are a huge number of people listening.
This is where keeping track of your brand on radio will prove to be
extremely important. Because you’re aware of all the different conversations happening on these stations, you can better keep your brand's reputation safe, allowing you to take action if there is a PR crisis or take note of what consumers appreciate most about your brand.
Why else should brands monitor radio stations? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
Want to learn more about radio stations in South Africa and the role that they play? Then check out The new landscape of radio in South Africa.
*Image courtesy of Vecteezy