A social media footprint of the user generated content streaming radio station, vocalo.org.

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Vocalo’s Social Media Footprint
Vocalo’s 3 major conversation hubs are on its blog, Twitter, and Facebook Fan Page.
Blog (http://blogs.vocalo.org)
The Vocalo homepage is built on a Drupal Content Managmenet System, while the Vocalo blog
is built on an embedded WordPress CMS. The original mission of the homepage was to make it
as easy as possible for content creators to upload new content. Now that the homepage has
gained a substantial listener base, it needs to focus on user-friendliness, as well as search
engine optimization.
However, both the blog and homepage have an impressive number of social and digital media
opportunities (listed in Appendix I), and unique visitors have tripled in the past 3 months with the
addition of blogger Robert Feder. Significant features include1:
• Integration with the broadcast system at the radio station for syncing on-air playlists and
schedules with the website and allowing hosts to easily broadcast user-generated audio
on the air.
• A cross-browser, AJAX-enabled media library allowing users to seamlessly upload
images, audio clips, video files, and media from 3rd party sites like YouTube into an
online WYSIWYG editor with a drag-and-drop interface.
• Telephone podcasting which allows users to call a hotline and record audio content
directly onto the site using only their telephone.
• A full palette of online community features including social networking, private and
instant messaging, and folksonomy.
Twitter (@vocalo)
Vocalo’s Twitter presence is smaller than on Facebook, but more active (detailed in Appendix
II). Vocalo was an early adopter of Twitter (joining in November of 2007), and tweeted on
average twice per day in the past month. In the last 9 days, their 16 tweets generated 193
mentions by other twitter users (a 12 times conversion rate). Vocalo’s follower count velocity
continues to pick up, increasing number of followers by 10% in January 2010. Vocalo’s followers
are primarily men in Chicago, 85% were active on Twitter in the last 10 days, nearly 50%
consider themselves professional artists, and have on average approximately 200 followers
themselves. Assuming no overlapping networks, Vocalo has potential second order reach of
over 14,000.
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/vocalo)
Vocalo’s Facebook Page has over 1,100 fans, 2% of whom engaged with Vocalo in the past
month (detailed in Appendix III). Vocalo primarily posts links and responds to fan’s comments,
and fans engage via wall comments and likes. In the past 31 days, Vocalo posted 45 pieces of
content on Facebook, and 28 fan engagements are captured on their wall, for a paltry
conversion rate of less than 1. Vocalo’s fans demonstrate interest and affinity towards public
radio in general by subscribing to other pubmedia fan pages. Engaged fans tended to be White,
Male, Chicagoans, in their 20s, but several Hispanic enclaves around the US also appear on the
follower density map. Vocalo’s second order reach from engaged fans in the past 31 days is just
over 8,000 Facebook users.
Lesser used Vocalo conversation hubs include, in descending order, its:
1. YouTube Channel (vocalo and VocaloDotOrg)
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Drupal.org case study on Vocalo’s creation (http://drupal.org/node/288658)
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2. MySpace Profile (VocaloDotOrg)
3. StumbleUpon (Stumbler: Vocalo)
4. UStream (Vocalo.org)
5. Delicious Bookmarks (created by others)
6. LinkedIn References (created by others)
7. Google Search (created by others)
8. Vimeo Videos (created by others)
9. FriendFeed Mentions (created by others)
10. iTunes Podcasts (vocalo.org)
11. Flickr Photostream (vocalo and VocaloDotOrg)
12. Wikipedia (Vocalo.org)
13. Yelp Reviews (Vocalo.org)
14. Foursquare Location (WBEZ)
Further details on activity levels of each platform can be found in Appendix IV.
Vocalo’s communication strategy up to date does not seem strategic nor very intense. Their
Twitter account is updated via Facebook status updates. Facebook is only checked every few
days. Most news articles referring to Vocalo are actually negative. Their webpage is incredibly
challenging to navigate. Due to concern about tarnishing the brand reputation of Chicago Public
Radio (Vocalo’s founder and parent organization), the two brands are never linked in advertising
campaigns. Vocalo’s blogs’ popularity stems mainly from a celebrity blogger, and not the
average user. While a lot of buzz is generated around Vocalo, they’re not actually engaging with
users.
And yet, Vocalo continues to be awarded multi million-dollar foundation grants year after year
because the model is so different from other radio stations, and everyone in the public media
system wants so bad for them to be successful.
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Appendix I: Vocalo.org Metrics
Homepage Total
Registered Users 1,900
Pieces of content 24,000
Monthly Unique Visitors 30,303
Site Visits 56,323
Search Engine Optimization
Top Search Terms Robert Feder Blog, Teen Living, Vocalo, Chicagoans
Top Referral Sites Facebook, Google, Boardhost, About.com, Convio.net
Top Destination Sites Facebook, WindyCitizen.com, Google, Boardhost, About
Homepage features Facebook Connect
Drupal CMS
Streaming Content
UGC Upload Ability
Most Recently Uploaded List
Merchandise eCart
Shout Box
Share This
UGC Tags
User Profiles
Filtered Search
Discussion Groups (55)
Wordpress Blog (embedded)
Podcast RSS
Blog Features Recent Comments
Subscribe by Email
Twitter badge
Facebook badge (CPR)
Flickr badge (CPR)
Homepage badge
RSS Events Feed (CPR)
Blogroll (1)
Blog Metrics Total
Blog RSS Subscribers 94
Average blog posts per week 56.7
RSS Feeds 10
Podcast RSS Subscribers 2
Podcasts posts per month 1
Blog began Apr-08
Blog Authors 71
Blog Categories 71
Posted Today 12
Comments Today 157
*65% of comments from 1 post
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Compete.com:
Wholinkstome.com:
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Appendix II: Twitter Metrics
Twitter Metrics Total
Followers 725
Following 711
Founded 15-Nov-07
Lifetime Tweets 1,514
Tweets in Last 31 Days 64
Listed 44
Lists 1
Favorites 3
Platform Facebook
Engagements 9 DAYS END 2/10
@vocalo 1
#vocalo 39
Link: vocalo.org 95
Vocalo’s tweets 16
RT @vocalo 4
RT #vocalo 29
Foreign 25
TweetMeme 7 Days
Stories via blogs.vocalo.org 10
Retweets 206
Tweet Stats.com:
Frequency:
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Tweet Density:
Foller.me:
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Foller.me: Follower’s Locations:
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Twitter Counter: Follower Count Velocity:
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Twiter Analyzer.com
Percent of Active Followers:
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Follower Professions:
Followers Influence (Number who follow them):
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Follower Gender:
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Facebook Fan Page Metrics
Page Content Total
Total Fans 1,126
Favorite Pages 3
U-Stream App 1
Notes 10
Events 17
Photos 28
Photo Albums 3
Photo Comments 12
Fan Photos 1
Links 100
Discussions 2
Discussion Posts 3
Content Type Last 31 Days
Link 17
Response 17
Phote 4
Event 2
Song 2
Vocalo
Comment 2
Video 1
Response 14
Like 9
Comment 3
Fans
Video 2
Vocalo 45
Total Fans 28
ROI =F/V 0.62
Content Intent Vocalo Fans
Request/Question 15 0
Promotional 12 9
Informational 11 5
Affirmative 3 3
Give Away 3 0
Spam 2 0
Creative Content 1 0
Total 47 17
*"Likes" are exlucded from this analysis
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Engagement Drivers Like Comments
Request-Photo 1
Request-Photo 4
Request-Photo 7
Informational-Link 1
Informational-Link 1
Promotional-Link 1 2
Promotional-Link 3
Promotional-Link 1
Creative Content-video 1
Creative Content-video 1
FB Demographics Last 31 Days
Total Fans Engaged 20
Gender
Male 13
Female 6
Page 1
Age
20s 11
40s 3
30s 2
Unknown 3
Ethnicity
White 9
Hispanic 6
Black 2
Unknown 2
Location
Chicago 15
Indiana 3
Unknown 1
Total Fans' Friends 8152
Average Fans' Friends 543
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FanPageAnalytics.com:
Facebook Fan Location Density:
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Appendix IV: Other Social Media Platforms
YouTube Vocalo VocaloDotOrg
Channel Views 1552 51
Total Upload Views 6623 791
Joined 22-Mar-07 17-Mar-09
Last signed in 2 hours ago 4 months ago
Subscribers 16 4
Channel Comments 1 1
Uploads 28 10
Most viewed video 3085 323
Most viewed video's comments 9 1
Subscriptions 37 0
Friends 22 0
Favorites 4 0
MySpace Total
Profile Views 6,657
Last Login today
Member since 5/8/07
Friends 487
Comments 95
Last comment made 8-Feb-10
Contents: Blog, upcoming events, embedded music player, photo stream
StumbleUpon Total
Views of Vocalo.org 123
Favorites 38
Subscribers 3
Reviews 2
Tags 28
Subscriptions 0
Last Seen Today
U Stream Total
Followers 4
Total Views 1825
Joined 6/26/09
Last Broadcast Nov-09
Contents: Twitter stream embedded
Delicious Total
Others Bookmarking vocalo.org 146
Tags for vocalo.org 30
Bookmarks tagged vocalo 87
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LinkedIn Total
Work(ed) at vocalo.org 41
Groups 0
Companies 0
Google Search Total
Google Page Rank 5
Google Indexed Pages 12,300
Search results for vocalo.org 583,000
Links to vocalo.org 563
links to blogs.vocalo.org 882
First relevant mention 1998
Most recent relevant mention Today
Vimeo Total
Videos (created by others) 3
FriendFeed Total
Mentions Today 85
iTunes Total
Podcast episodes 15
Reviews 0
Ratings 0
iPhone Apps 0
Flickr VocaloDotOrg Vocalo
Uploaded 1 1
Wikipedia Vocalo.org
Discussions 1
Categories 6
Contents: History, References, External Links
Yelp
Reviews 1
Stars 4
Foursquare Vocalo WBEZ
Check-ins 0 4
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