You may have asked yourself why does your Internet Radio Station have small number of listeners. But the question you should be asking yourself is if you promote it properly. Primarily the listener is not looking for exactly your station. They look for something to listen to, that will match their interest. How to make it so your station comes up in their searches?
Making Your Online Radio Station Listener-Friendly
I. Naming your stream.
You have your own Internet Radio Station, based on SHOUTcast or ICEcast server. First thing you should do is to think of your Stream Name. Make sure that it indicates what content you stream and creates a brand for your station. Check if the name you want to use is not taken and if it is easy to remember, because that is what will show up when the listeners check the SHOUTcast or ICEcast directory.
II. Content
When creating your own Internet Radio Station, define your target audience. This will help you with setting up proper content for your stream and finding listeners.
Make sure that your station has a stable broadcasting schedule, that a listener can easily follow. And that the content of that schedule is evenly placed throughout the day, so that it keeps the listeners tuned in to your Online Radio. Keep it interesting and up to date, otherwise the listeners will get bored and switch to a different stream.
III. Website
It’s good for your station to have a website. Such Online Radio Website will work like a business card for your Station, it is good to make it as user friendly as possible and make sure to place a nice WebPlayer there as well. You need to keep in mind that the option to listen to your stream should be obvious, and easy to find. It is also good for your listeners if you place the schedule on your website, this way they will be able to see when to tune in to find content that is the most interesting for them.
IV. Social Media
Social Media are now a big part of the internet, and usually what is top and what is not, is defined there. Having a Facebook fan page and/or a Twitter account for your Internet Radia Station will make it more listener-friendly and will help you maintain a steady and growing community. The WebPlayer that we provide, can be embedded within your Facebook fan page as well.
V. Mobile App
Last thing to mention in this part of our article is the Mobile App. In modern times people want to listen to their favourite music and Radio Stations wherever they are. A well developed Mobile App will surely help them do that, as it provides you the possibility to contact your listeners via Push Notifications and provide them their favourite shows as podcasts. So it’s a good thing to get as well.
Internet Radio Directories
What is an Online Radio Directory? A Radio Directory is a list of categorised Internet Radio Stations basing on genres so a listener can search for and tune into the content they want with ease. It’s a great place to be found as such directories are a perfect source for music enthusiasts to find new and old tracks, religious stations to spread their message, or live talk shows about current events and affairs. To be visible in the web, you will need to register your station in stream directories. The more, the better. Here are five of the most popular ones.
1. TuneIn
The most popular one, available in the web, right after the iTunes. TuneIn provides a great amount of stations that are easy to find. They provide a mobile app as well. Registering there, and providing info on content of your Internet Radio Station will definitely put you into the spotlight. Make sure to mark it under proper genres and categories, so that your listeners-to-be find it easily.
2. iTunes Radio
iTunes Radio is a very popular Radio Directory that will surely help you expand your listeners amount, however at the same time, it is a bit difficult to get listed there. Not because you will need a specialistic knowledge on some particular topic, but because they are very selective on what they list.
3. Windows Media Radio
Another very popular Internet Radio Directory. It’s much easier to get listed there than in iTunes, but you still need to get through acceptation process.
4. StreamingThe.Net
A good place to register your Online Radio Station as it supports both Internet Radio Streams and Video Streaming. It’s also easy to get listed there, as all you need to do, is to fill out the form.
5.RadioTower.com
This Internet Radio Directory is recommended as it has a simple form to get listed there and is easy to navigate through. So it can be a good source of listeners for your Online Radio.
Advertising Your Online Radio Station
The last important thing to mention here is advertising. In order to get good amounts of listeners you can start obtaining advertisements and sharing your station. How and where, you may ask. Firstly, you can get the ads posted on social media, like Facebook, which lets you select the designated audience for your ads. With small amount of money you can easily reach out to your target audience. When it comes to advertising on social media, you can also join groups which are related to the type of you station and gather people that would possibly be interested in your stream, as well as contacting fan pages that share the same interest as your station, to be promoted by them, by simple sharing your station or supporting you by providing interesting content.
If you have a bit more money saved up, you can also invest in advertising provided by Google. This will provide bigger audience as well as help you better target your advertisements, by either key words or simple remarketing (showing ads to people that have visited your site at least once).