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Instant Messaging equals Instant Feedback
Labels: Jointblog
Instant Messaging equals instant feedback, whether between person-to-person to person-to-community.
For decades, broadcast radio was a leading place for a community to give and get instant feedback. Live feedback. Call in a request. Ask the DJ about some gossip. Respond to a talk show issue. Find out about the weather, traffic or when your favorite band's new album goes on sale.
Instant text messaging is another form of feedback. An information exchange.
Last month the Jointblog pointed out that teens prefer IM over email. Increasingly, there is a generation gap between teens and adults using IM -- the cool kids who do and the don't-get-it grownups.
A new AOL-AP poll says almost half of teens, 48% of those ages 13-18, use instant messaging. That's more than twice the percentage of adults who use it.* Almost three-fourths of adults who do use instant messages still communicate with e-mail more often. Almost three-fourths of teens send instant messages more than e-mail.
The way teens and adults use "instant feedback" in this digital era is very different. If you email, you're probably a grown-up. If you text, you're probably a teen...it's that clear-cut.
* More than half of the teens who use instant messages send more than 25 a day, and one in five send more than 100. Three-fourths of adult users send fewer than 25 instant messages a day.
* Teen users (30 percent) are almost twice as likely as adults (17 percent) to say they can't imagine life without instant messaging.
* When keeping up with a friend who is far away, teens are most likely to use instant messaging, while adults turn first to e-mail.
* About a fifth of teen IM users have used IM to ask for or accept a date. Almost that many, 16%, have used it to break up with someone.
This mirrors radio's disconnect with teens. Not only does radio intentionally avoid providing teen-targeted radio stations (despite the massive impact teens have on consumer product spending and overall trend setting for the masses), radio has also been slow to tap into the power of IM text messaging.
Yes, some stations provide online opportunities for "instant feedback" through email and even open AOL, MSN or Yahoo IM accounts so jocks or hosts can "talk" with listeners live during a show. Very few stations really tap into IM's potential, though.
IMing is immediate customer feedback. It's data. It's information from radio's most active users. That means it is part of a radio station's market research on its biggest fans.
Most stations know nothing of their existing "instant feedback" customer details. Nor do they explore further to build that direct relationship. There are quality services available.
Why do radio listeners contact a radio station to ask a question or express an opinion? Because they want to be heard.
Are radio station hearing their own listeners? Are they even listening to the right listeners?
posted by Unknown @ Sunday, December 10, 2006,
