2012-08-28
new level of online interactivity is coming to Canadian radio, with the release of new social networking and content sharing tools.
SoCast SRM Community 2.0 lets listeners interact with station personalities, as well as each other, with a chat stream that flows in and out of Facebook’s social network and related fan pages.
SoCast is a Toronto-based company that’s into the research and development of social relationship management tools for the broadcast industry.
Top radio operators such as Corus Entertainment and Astral Media make use of the company’s online marketing and engagement tools, including a proprietary social network, a contest engine, and analytics with pre-built key performance indicators.
SoCast’s patent-pending universal media player supports viral content sharing by fans, developers describe, while also creating new digital inventory for advertisers and sponsors.
The streaming media player can display an image slideshow of the artist currently playing on air, as well as a targeted list of recommended music (ranked by popularity among a user’s friends and radio community) that can be viewed on-demand.
SoCast CEO Elliott Hurst described the new interface in a release, saying “While radio companies are interested in listener data, listeners are just interested in the music. By creating the engaging music experience listeners crave, their interaction with that music accumulates data and radio gets exactly what it wants. By providing easy access to online streams, recommended and on-demand music, and smooth integration with Facebook for one-click registration and sharing, listeners get exactly what they want and are more engaged, leading not only to coveted data but to higher ratings as well. It’s a win-win for both sides.”
Elliott and his brother Sandy launched their radio and social media engagement services in 1992 as Supernova, with a proprietary network for engaging radio listeners.
That concept has since evolved into SoCast, a Toronto-based SRM company providing publishing, analytics and related technical services for the broadcast and media industries.
For more Mediacaster Magazine coverage related to this topic, please see:
Radio Partners Add Social Monitoring to Online Radio Platform
http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/news/radio-partners-add-social-monitoring-to-online-radio-platform/1001566286/
Social Web Company Launches Live Streaming and E-Commerce Services
http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/news/social-web-company-launches-live-streaming-and-e-commerce-services/1000913510/
Digital Platforms and Online Interactivity Boost Radio’s Signal
http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/news/digital-platforms-and-online-interactivity-boost-radio-s-signal/1000394209/
