Song Alerts
Best Practices
Promote song alerts at least once in every daypart (pre-produced imaging and live mentions)
Hoping that website users accidentally discover this ratings-driving feature is not an effective strategy
Review and update your alert templates, to keep them fresh for your audience
Make sure you’re taking advantage of the rotating templates for SMS and Twitter templates
Copy Examples
Never miss your favorite songs! WXXX song alerts notify you just minutes before it plays next - get all the details STATIONWEBSITE.COM
That was the new one from ARTIST. Don't forget you can sign up to get a text when that one plays next...just go to STATIONWEBSITE.COM to sign up!
Related Links
Social Triggers
Best Practices
Choose 3-5 songs from your on-air rotation and create a Twitter campaign with Social Triggers - change them out on a weekly basis for the most effective strategy
Example Twitter copy: “We’re playing TITLE by ARTIST right now thanks to YOU! Vote for your favorite songs at LINK!”
Rotate your templates so the audience will see a different message each time the social trigger will be posted
For example, if you’ve set it to repeat 5 times, add 5 variations of the template so that they feel more “authentic” each time
Use Social Triggers to drive traffic to related content on your website
For example, if you have a morning show interview with Taylor Swift or a blog post about Jon Bon Jovi, link to them through a Social Trigger whenever Taylor Swift or Bon Jovi plays for the rest of the day.
Copy Examples
We're jammin' to SUGAR by @maroon5. We've still got that chance for you to meet them! More details: LINK
Related Links
Standard & Stylized Voting Sessions
Best Practices
Wrap voting sessions around stopsets to drive listeners into the next quarter-hour
This is a Nielsen-proven strategy for growing ratings. It also builds a listener expectation that after commercials, the next song will be a voting session winner.
Keep your UPick voting sessions short (15-20 minutes) so that the call-to-action has some urgency to it
Most of your votes will happen within the first few minutes after promoting of the session on the air
Take advantage of Futuri’s social media integration to post to Facebook and/or Twitter when your UPickStart plays
You can either post all of your voting sessions to your social channels, or just daypart them to key strategic times
Current-based stations: you should stay away from including Power songs in UPick voting sessions
Instead, highlight different categories, such as throwbacks, power recurrents, or new music
Copy Examples
The next song you hear on STATION will be a winner picked by you! Pick the next song we play at STATIONWEBSITE.COM
Related Links
"UPick" Voting Session Overview
Top Song Voting Sessions
Best Practices
Top Song works best either at the top of the hour or at the beginning of a music sweep
Current-based stations: Artist and song separation goals should be looser with Top Song than your regular rotations (45-65 minutes)
If categories are too “tight”, they will be “separated out” and will not be able to win a voting session
Suggestion: Current-based stations: use Top Song for a “Throwback Thursday” feature, so as not to cause rotation issues with your Power Current categories
Suggestion: Gold-based stations: Top Song can be most effective when paired with a theme
I.E. “12:00 Hair Cuts” (with 80’s hair bands) or an “Artist of the Day Spotlight” feature
Copy Examples
Vote up the songs you like, and vote down the songs you don't. Pick the hottest song this hour at STATIONWEBSITE.COM!
You choose the throwbacks we play on STATION! Pick your favorites at STATIONWEBSITE.COM and we'll play the most voted song right at the top of the hour!
Related Links
Takeover Voting Sessions
Best Practices
Most popular Takeover strategies
Nightly 7p-12a feature (more popular with current-based/younger-targeted audiences)
Daily 12pm-1pm/lunchtime feature (more popular with gold-based stations)
Be careful not to turn on Takeover TOO early
Casual visitors to your site may expect you to be playing Takeover winners all the time (and if they find that you’re not currently playing the winners, they might assume you never really do)
Takeover is a great opportunity to bring a sponsor along for a “website takeover” too
Schedule different layouts at different times, so you could make your Tether window (and your Takeover sponsor) more prominent during your Takeover hour/daypart
With separation goals, keep it loose. Takeover hour(s) shouldn’t sound exactly like all of your other programming
Consider including a special “Oh Wow” category of songs to call attention that this is something different.
Copy Examples
Today on The Lunchtime Takeover - you decide what's on the menu. Choose every song we play between Noon and one...just go to STATIONWEBSITE.COM and pick the music you want to hear.
Related Links
Countdown Voting Sessions
Best Practices
Takeover Countdown is designed for up to 12 songs and is perfect for a daily “Top # at #” feature
You'll want to provide a Takeover Countdown playlist that is at least a few songs larger than your regular countdown
For example, if you're playing a Top 6 countdown, we would recommend a playlist of at least 10 songs (so that there's still some suspense when they're battling it out for #1)
Keep a very loose artist separation during countdown (I.E. 3-5 minutes) to prevent multiple songs from the same artist “clumping together” toward the end of the countdown
Remember, unless you've requested differently from Futuri VIP Support, our more complex separation goals (like category and sound code goals) are automatically ignored during Takeover Countdown, in order to maintain some integrity for the vote
Copy Examples
Today at 5...It's Futuriville's Most Wanted Countdown - which song will e #1, that's up to you! Get to STATIONWEBSITE.COM and let your vote be heard!
Related Links
FaceOff Voting Sessions
Best Practices
FaceOff works best as an entire hour/entire show feature
FaceOff can also be used as a “One Winner an Hour” and works best with featured/special music (I.E. throwbacks or “Oh Wow” songs)
Make sure that none of your FaceOff options are scheduled in between winners
IMPORTANT: The two lists of songs are each a separate playlist. You should avoid having any duplicate songs in the two lists, otherwise, your audience may see that same song next to itself in the middle of the queue
As a back up, we do have protections in place to make sure that the same song cannot “FaceOff” against itself in the #1 spots (in the event that a song is accidentally on both playlists)
Copy Examples
We've pust HOST's and COHOST's favorite songs against each other at STATIONWEBSITE.COM. Are you team HOST or team COHOST? Vote up your favorites and pick the next winner at STATIONWEBSITE.COM
It's the age old question - Beatles or Rolling Stones? We've put up playlists of both iconic artists at STATIONWEBSITE.COM. Vote up your favorites, then choose whether we should play The Beatles or The Stones this hour!