Repurposing Audio for Social Media

Plan in advance:

• Talk it through in advance: Consider not only what is needed for the broadcast or digital story, but how you'll use the information on social platforms
• Collect visuals to accompany your audio: Gather b-roll footage and vertical videos in the field
• If it's an important issue - consider sending someone with a reporter: If you can manage to send a second person out to just focus on social media, you will have better success
• Use templates: Consider designing a few templates (Canva was suggested by participants) that will make it easy to drop audio and visuals on various social platforms
• Consider reporter strength: Think about what the reporter is good at and and play to those strengths in the planning phase

Use what's available:

• Consider using audio that doesn't make it into the broadcast story:  Reporters almost always have audio that wasn't used in the final cut - use it to engage on social media
• Stock footage can be your friend: If a reporter didn't manage to get photos or video, sometimes its possible to find stock footage that works with your audio
• On social, polish isn't everything: Audiences often prefer unpolished, authentic content over highly produced material
• Talk to the audience: Conversational language and hooks in the first few seconds can be beneficial

Low effort doesn't always mean low engagement:

• Quick stand-ups can engage social audiences: Having a reporter talk directly to the audience has shown success in some places
• When it's timely, it's likely to increase engagement: Timely issues and impactful stories are likely to get the best reach on social media
• Audiences want to see reporters faces: Often, having the reporters faces on social garners positive reactions from audience

Try something more than once:

• Even if you're a small shop, try something: Choose one thing and give it a try
• Don't give up if it's not successful the first time out: Set a timeline for each new experiment before deciding it doesn't work
• Set goals and metrics for measuring success: Once you've determined the timeline, set some measurement metrics for success

The challenge of measuring social media success:

• Social audiences are not traditional broadcast audiences: Recognize that how you measure success on social is likely different
• Meet people where they are: If you don't experiment on social media, you're likely missing out on potential new audiences
• Converting digital audiences to radio listeners and donors is challenging: Membership may not always be the goal with social audiences