Twitter and Facebook: a gross mismatch for R3?

[Eudaimonia]

In the demographics thread, Eine Alpensinfonie wrote:

The texting to Breakfast should increase the percentage of under 25s, if only because more and more of the rest of the population will switch off. But will the BBC Trust realise what has happened?

I hate to admit it, but when I compared the demographics of R3 listeners to those of UK Twitter and Facebook users, the phrase "GROSS MISMATCH" sprang to mind.

For the life of me, I can't think of how to explain away the fact that the majority of R3 listeners are going to find Facebook and Twitter completely irrelevant. Does anyone want to give it a crack? I mean seriously--how does this even make sense? The reach is small, and the demographics are almost polar opposites. Less than 3% of those over 65 use Twitter and Facebook at all, and 75% are under 44! Given that, what are the odds R3 listeners tuning in are going to care? Slim to none...certainly not enough to bother. Even the old standby "It's not about the audience we have, it's about the audience we want to have" doesn't hold water...it's a mismatch, pure and simple.

The next time you people talk to Auntie and the Trust, you might want to ask them to explain why Twitter and Facebook are a good fit for R3 in light of the following:







Chart source: "UK Social Media Statistics"

http://www.creativebrandmarketing.co.uk/blog/2009/10/uk-social-networking-statistics/

But wait! It gets even worse when you read Nielsen statistics about how Twitter is actually used in the UK:

"Twitter users come in two colours according to recent reports: over-sharing or silent. Last week, audience research company Nielsen released figures suggesting an enormous polarity between active and inactive members in the UK. The graph shows that 79% of time spent on the site comes from just 7% of its members:"



Moving on, the Times Technology Blog reports on some research published at the end of January by RJMetrics. Surveying 50,000 users, the report found that most members of Twitter simply do not tweet. Here, around 80% of users have published fewer than ten updates since opening their account.




Source: "Lies, Damned Lies and Twitter Usage Statistics"

http://twopointouch.com/2010/social-media/lies-damned-lies-and-twitter-usage-statistics/

I realise this is more or less what you've been saying already, but seeing actual figures in print was quite an eye-opener. You were right, I was wrong.

[Mark Sealey]

I'm waiting to be proved entirely wrong, but…

…has there ever been another era when those charged with making culture (music, reading, plays etc) available have distorted the complexion of that culture so hugely in the interests of attracting numbers in a particular segment of society at all costs…

… and, wait for it …

their enterprise has also been true to that culture, has enhanced it, has honestly added something?

[Frances_iom]

Eudaimonia - I suspect that when you reach the age of the R3 majority like me, you will be utterly sceptical of anything that the current R3 management say or do - often they would seem totally disconnected from their known listeners - I suspect the twitter came from some 'bright idea' dreamt up over breakfast whilst they had their grandchildren around and given no research whatsover before RW spotted that he could now offer an 'alternative' to those d*mn'd message boards in which too many knowledgeable people were criticising the direction the station has taken under his 'management'

[mercia]

if that first graph is telling me that only 7.9% of the population listens to Radio 3, that's not very impressive - they obviously need to attract more listeners

[DracoM]

The major thrust ounderpinning the OP's fascinating material is one that all manner of contributors to the Trust review made in no uncertain terms. To many, it was a no-brainer that to axe messageboards and rely on 'interaction' via Twitter and Facebook was a risible mismatch, but the impression one had was that the people one was addressing were simply unable to comprehend what waqs being said to them and nor did they realise how far adrift of ther potential audience/demographic's life-styles they had shown themselves. It was actually quite scary.

It certainly helps to explain one tiny part of the mismatch between provider and cusotmer: the BBC managers apparently simply cannot see that starting Perf on 3 at 7 p.m. is a piece of headless self-destruction in terms of ratings chasing, and why Classic FM's move of their main 'complete works' evening slot from 9 p.m. to 8 p.m. to catch precisely that life rhythm is a shrewd piece of competitve wisdom. The BBC Trust was challenged to explain why it was that almnost 100% of public classical music concerts began at 7.30 or 8 p.m., and how the BBC's planning decision to start Perf on 3 at 7 p.m. was seen as so bizarre, running clean against the long-entrenched grain of their own perceived audience demographic. The result was a scary non-meeting of minds. You got the impression that BBC Trust / Management really do live in some kind of self-sealed bubble or Tardis and only what happens inside that bubble is verifiably true. What is outside is negotiable and that their audience is part of some truck they can drive and park where they like.

Just a few idle thoughts.

[mercia]

Perf on 3 at 7pm is absolutely ideal for me

[Russ]

Eudomonia's analysis of a 'gross mismatch' is correct.

I am on Twitter, and it is truly a bizarre place.

The BBC employs Twitter extensively as a means of broadcasting news about its programmes. Remember that there is now a clear divide between the BBC and the Radio Times, the latter showing less and less 'allegiance' to its former master*. The BBC's twitter objective is solely to attract new punters to its output. Its current primary target is the rapidly-expanding mobile sector, for which twitter is a good vehicle. BBC twitterers do not engage in any dialogue (minimal at the most) with punters, and focus solely on pumping out reminders about its schedule - bbcradio4's tweets in particular are singularly 'non-value-added'. (It does however depend on who is on twitter 'duty'.) It is important to note the tweets pumped out strongly reflect the personal interest areas of the twitterer in question. There are very few official Radio 4 output tweets on its drama content for example. (Hence my motivation, as a punter, for joining Twitter.)

The above does not apply to Radio 3. It does not yet employ anyone to tweet, and bbcradio3 tweets from punters are relatively few and far between - there were five in the last day for example. See below for their content. Two of the five are corporate tweets. (Generalising, the majority of tweets are corporate in nature, and hence the 79% of UK tweets coming from 7% of users.)

It is a moot point as to whether the predominance of corporate tweets makes Twitter a truly 'social' network, and my feeling is that this predominance will lead to Twitter's eventual falling out of favour (as uncool) and demise. Twitter is a broadcast medium.

The bbcradio3 tag currently has 248 followers, whereas Radio 4 has 21k.

In the context of the Trust's report on Radio 3 and its service requirement of "facilitating the creation of communities of interest", the BBC Management response in to the 2010 closure of its messageboards was to "set out a number of interactive aspects through which Radio 3 does this, including blogs, online content and social media." Specifically, the detail of the report contains BBC Management's proposal of:

"....a range of activities in which Radio 3 contributes to this requirement, including:
• providing access to on-demand programmes and music
• publishing a regular blog around station themes which can be re-quoted and linked to from elsewhere
• providing specialist content online that allows audience groups to explore their passion and develop their practical skills
• establishing a Radio 3 presence on both Facebook and Twitter
• providing online coverage of a variety of events to help bring audiences together
• providing podcasts such as the specialist classical chart podcast"

Noting the word 'including', this is a substantial manifesto. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Russ

* BBC gives Radio Times no air time, nor publicity. Radio Times' tweets are geared distinctly toward non-BBC output, but this is probably a reflection of the personal interests of RT's tweeter (which is way down market!)

______________________

Recent bbcradio3 tweets:

CoLFestival CityofLondonFestival
Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Australian composer Grainger. Listen to his story here http://bbc.in/hBmNKr @bbcradio3
32 minutes ago chrismoisan Christopher Moisan

Listening to Nick Luscombe's new Late Junction show @BBCRadio3 - UK folk tune in/ check out on iPLayer - it's great
10 hours ago adamjtaylor Adam J Taylor

The CBSO are absolutely nailing Dvorák 7 fon #bbcradio3 at the moment.
13 hours ago david210467 David Windridge

Listening to #PrivatePassions Joanna van Kampen from Sunday on #BBCRadio3. God bless the iPlayer.
16 hours ago aldeburghmusic Aldeburgh Music

Open Session this Thursday with Mira Calix and Larry Goves and Tansy Davies.Hear it prior to a recording for BBCRadio3-http://bit.ly/f6Coku
19 hours ago makingtracks_uk Making Tracks

Tonight LOCORDELAPLANA record a radio session @BBCradio3. Catch them live tomorrow @southstreet Reading
14 Feb AlexFriel Alex Friel

[french frank]

Thanks, Russ. It confirms suspicions that the messageboards - which were for the use of listeners - have been replaced by promotional facilities for the BBC.

On a very minor point: "BBC gives Radio Times no air time, nor publicity." It isn't allowed to publicise its own products. Similarly it can push Gramophone but not BBC Music Magazine.

[Russ]

It confirms suspicions that the messageboards - which were for the use of listeners - have been replaced by promotional facilities for the BBC.

In the competition for 'audience' and content discussion (and yes, a significant and perhaps dominant facet of the Twitter game is undoubtedly about promotion and attention), we should not dismiss using it as a means of drawing interest to this place. What's sauce for the goose...

Russ

[french frank]

we should not dismiss using it as a means of drawing interest to this place. What's sauce for the goose...

It isn't the fact that they're using them, for whatever purposes they wish - they were using them before the messageboards were closed. It was the suggestion that messageboarders could use them instead that was a con. A regal stroke of the pen removed all mention of messageboards from the service licence but left the reference to 'communities of interest'. Not much left in the way of communities ...

[Quarky]

Just a quckie response - I will have to study those interesting graphs when I have a "mo".

It seeems to me an underlying problem is the gross mismatch between classical music, and any other type of music that requires significant mental application, and the society we live in.

It seems to me that the society we live in is predominantly speech and most importanty text based, now that we are moving from everyone haing access to a PC, to everyone owning a smart phone, which is usually a more powerful computer than the PC siitting on your desk.

Furthermore it is the young and very young that embrace these developments far more quickly than us old-timers.

The young and very young may be quite happy to listen to debased forms of rock and pop music, which is probably computer generated. I recently closed a subscription to a gym, where the music played on the TV screens, in tune with the robotic characters on the screen, seemed to be also generated by computer.

No idea what the solution is, but the first step is to be absolutely clear what the problem is.

P.S. I do not think Twitter will fall out of favour. More likely it will be replaced in due course by a stronger and more virile form of social communication.

[Daring Tripod]

This thread may be the wrong place to raise once again the subject where to find more professional or retired musicians and people in the music profession who are willing to contribute to our Board.

At the time when I raised the subject the answer was that Facebook might be a source. I suggested other sources more connected with classical music and CD review publications. Euda’s fascinating charts seem to bear out what I thought and I think that Facebook and the like are the wrong places.

For R3 to take more notice of the opinions expressed on this site, we have to make up the loss of some very valued expert ’Posters’ who we lost when the R3 Messageboard closed down.

[salymap]

Good point DT and you made a brave try to start up some discussions of live concerts. We still have Peter Katin and Waldhorn, but smittims and Hornspieler have not joined us yet, probably for health reasons. Who else is missing or perhaps would consider joining us. Ask your professional friends to try it out. Are there any pros among the many 'guests'?

[Zucchini]

If I'd booked the RAH for most of the summer and had about 500,000 tickets to flog, I would know full well that the over 65s and Torygraph would't be much help and that I absolutely must get the interest of young and middle aged people. And I wouldn't be too proud to exploit social media like Twitter and Facebook. At very least, no harm's done.

(Eudamonia: you could address your queries to Andrew Downs, R3 Interactive Producer, whose was responsible for last year's Proms experiment and subsequent assessment of same. You might get a reply.)

[MrGongGong]

The young and very young may be quite happy to listen to debased forms of rock and pop music, which is probably computer generated. I recently closed a subscription to a gym, where the music played on the TV screens, in tune with the robotic characters on the screen, seemed to be also generated by computer.

.

point of information
ALL CDs are computer music
as is ALL radio

and do you refuse to listen to Mozarts "Musical Dice" composition as it's "Generated by a computer" ????

So we wont be meeting at the Xenakis weekend at the RFH then ?
FWIW

Stalkerbook ..........OOPS sorry, Facebook and Twi*tter are fine if you want to noodle about and great ways of wasting time, can't be bothered with them myself BUT you will probably find that most Orchestral musicians DO use Facebook