Mobile Home: This year's Edison-led CRS Research Presentation "The Mobilization of Country Radio" argued for a more comprehensive mobile strategy given the continued proliferation of smartphones and the activities they allow. Among the most notable were music delivery and social media usage. Presenters Megan Lazovick, Tom Webster and Tim Hayden argued that programmers should think of mobile strategy less in terms of carving out an exclusive presence on mobile platforms (radio station apps, for example) and instead do more to cultivate a presence on apps already being used. The most-used social platform by far continues to be Facebook as 80% of Country smartphone users use it daily, followed by Instagram (42%) and Snapchat (34%).

Mobile expert Hayden suggested that radio define and use custom audiences built around email databases that can be uploaded to Facebook for targeted messaging. Special attention should be paid to Facebook Live, which Country listeners watch daily at a rate of 30%. "Game-ifying" the feature could be particularly useful through scavenger hunts and participatory contesting, he explained. See the entire presentation here and read more in tomorrow morning's CRS Daily Buzz.