How to Make a Twitter Bot for Your Radio Station
Improve engagement on Twitter by automatically showing now playing info and mentions with Radio.co.
Improve engagement on Twitter by automatically showing now playing info and mentions with Radio.co. Popular stations, like BBC 6 Music, are already doing this to increase listener engagement.
Please note that sadly, the Twitter integration was discontinued by the platform in 2022.
BBC 6 Music Twitter Bot
Funny enough, listeners actually want to keep up-to-date with shows they love when not tuned into their favourite station. Big radio stations, like BBC 6 Music, have found a way to keep listeners informed of whatâs playing by using a Twitter bot.
BBC 6 Musicâs Twitter account already has thousands of followers, with plenty of people retweeting and liking posts, so it definitely pays off! So much so that they now have a few more now playing Twitter nots for their other stations, such as:
- @BBCR1MusicBot - BBC Radio 1
- @BBC1XMusicBot - BBC 1xtra
- @BBCR2MusicBot - BBC Radio 2
- @BBCR3MusicBot - BBC Radio 3
- @BBCANMusicBot - BBC Asian Network
- @BCMcrMusicBot - BBC Radio Manchester
Each of those Twitter accounts has a few thousand followers each, with BBC Radio 1âs Twitter bot at 15k and counting, so thereâs a lot of opportunity here for you to grow your audience with your own Twitter bot.
Setting up Your Own Twitter Bot
Twitter âNow Playingâ is a way for you to automate your tweets just like BBC 6 Music. It saves you from fiddling about writing messages to keep listeners updated on whatâs going in in your shows.
To get started, authorise Twitter to connect with your radio station. In your Radio.co Dashboard > Settings > Integrations tab, click on the connect button and authorise Radio.co to use your Twitter account. Once finished, the page automatically redirects you back to your dashboard.
Now that your account is connected, it shows a few settings you can adjust to customise your messages. â{song_title}â displays whatever your station is currently playing, so you can include that within your 280 character custom message.
Set the interval to adjust the time between tweets. By default, the interval is set to 5 minutes, but you can change this to whatever you like. However, if you tweet to often (like every 2 mins), then Twitter will consider your messages spam and you may get your account suspended, so be careful! With the status turned on, save for your custom Twitter messages to start tweeting.
Increasing Engagement Using Twitter
Listeners wonât be engaged with your messages if they arenât fun or interesting, so spice up your tweets hashtags, emojis, surveys, and more.
Using #Hashtags to Reach Beyond Your Tweets
Hashtags are searchable, meaning you can reach beyond your followers to a whole new audience - potentially, thatâs 330 million users that are active on Twitter!
The more popular a hashtag is, the more reach it is. For example, trends like #throwbackthursday are popular, so including it along with a few other relevant tweets will help boost your chances of being seen by more people. If youâre unsure on whatâs trending, check out the âTrend for youâ which shows popular and relevant tweets for your audience.
Just like over tweeting, overuse of hashtags can have a negative effect. Spamming people will just result in getting blocked or flagged on Twitter, so itâs recommend that you put related hashtags to your content and try to keep things fresh.
Adding Flair with Emojis 😎
Emojis are one of the most used symbols in the world, it's an easy way to explain something without words.
Use emojis in an imaginative way: try to write some words in the form of emojis, this will allow you to include them in your tweet and make the message more fluid. Use emojis that are more popular or create phrases with them.
Make sure your tweet stands out and is more expressive than the rest, without being too repetitive, as this can have a negative effect. Adding some emojis in your tweets will help convey expression and make it stand out to the people who read it while scrolling through their timeline.
Linking Followers to Your Shows, Surveys, or Competitions
Adding a link to your shows on Twitter can increase discoverability of your station. This allows people to follow your music even if they do not use your streaming apps.
Services like Soundcloud or Mixcloud let you share previously recorded shows directly to Twitter using their in-line player.
Keeping your listeners engaged is important, use surveys to know what people want to hear. Ask people about various genres or artists to know what their musical preferences are.
Running competitions allows your listeners to interact with your station. The use of an external service such as Gleam.io to organize gifts can help you. These services can be set up to provide further viral sharing of your station on social media.
Give listeners reasons to follow you with varied music choices, competitions, or providing access to your previous shows directly on Twitter. Taking this approach is a less aggressive way to promote yourself while also building trust in your listenership.
Telling a Visual Story with Pictures
Artists promote their events by producing flyers. These include the location, time and details about the event. You can do the same on Twitter with pictures, for example:
Using photos can help to catch the attention of people on Twitter as they stand out more than text-based tweets. A good image should be colourful and contain details about the event in as few words as possible. Sometimes less is more!
People are more likely to retweet or like a tweet containing an image with these characteristics. This will help share details about your event organically.
Make a Twitter Bot for Your Radio Station
Honestly, Twitter is a fantastic tool to grow your radio station. Instead of bending over backwards to keep listeners informed, automate your radio shows using a Twitter bot. If you arenât using the Now Playing feature in Radio.co, then hereâs how to get it setup. If you arenât part of the Radio.co family yet, then you get started with a 7 day free trial today!
