Online radio audience becomes social

Just over 33 million users are logging on to radio websites; up from 29 million in 2007. The question is how to attract the users listening online. A study from Arbitron and Edison Media Research indicates that marketers may not need to look any further than social networks. That is because more than 60% of online radio listeners have social networking profiles.

Nearly 33% of those users log on to their social hub daily, with most using either MySpace or LinkedIn.

"We found that Online radio listeners are more than one and half times more likely to have a profile on a social networking site as compared to average Americans and that they tend to be power-users," said Diane Williams, senior analyst, custom research for Arbitron.

The correlation between online radio listeners and social networks is interested. This could be another way to advertise on a cross-platform basis. Using display ads on a radio station website to drive traffic to a branded micro-site in a social network or even sponsoring programming and pushing traffic in that manner could appeal to these social users.

Tags: advertising, online radio, social networks, streaming radio