Remember when radio could get a group of people to gather in one place just by saying, hey, we’re gonna be there!?!?!?! Remember the golden age? Well, times have changed, but people, generally haven’t.
People still want to be a part of a large gathering that goes out and has fun. This is evidenced by the most recent phenomenon sweeping England, called the Silent Dance Party.
Inspired by a T-Mobile commercial, Crazzy Eve, a facebook user, decided it would be fun to start a group called “Liverpool Street Station Silent Dance” on Facebook. He encouraged people to head to the Liverpool Street Station at 7p one night and get together and dance.
How many people would you think showed up?
100?
1,000?
10,000?
Try 14,000 people. 14,000 people showed up for a guy who doesn’t have a radio show. He doesn’t have a tv show. He just had an idea.
This group on Facebook grew virally with one friend telling another friend and another friend and so on until 14,000 people were on board to head to Liverpool Street Station to do a “silent dance.”
This is what radio used to do. We used to organize these events. We used to bring people together to have fun!!
Guess what, we still can, it just happens in a new way now. We now need to utilize our listeners and involve them in the process. Again, we need to be inclusive and not exclusive.
Why couldn’t your station do something like this. You already have a Facebook account right? Right…? Well get one, come up with a concept and let the idea spread like wildfire. Before you know it you’ll have something of great magnitude on your hands, like 14,000 people big.
So, the question is, HOW.
1.) Come up with a killer concept (steal this one…it has seemed to work)
2.) Start a Facebook group
3.) Invite all your friends
4.) Keep your station and it’s logo as far away from it as possible (there’ll be time to promote that your station was the one who made it happen when 14,000 people show up)
5.) Bring the video camera and still camera and get the whole thing on camera
Sure, I make it sound a lot easier than it actually is, but think about it for a moment, this is the type of thing radio used to do in our sleep, the medium has changed, but the concept remains.
Read more about the story here.
