Every month, 417,513 adults in the Wilmington, Delaware area use social media, according to Nielsen. Seventy-two percent of these consumers use Facebook, far more than other sites like Instagram (also owned by Facebook), Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

As a stand-alone medium, Facebook is used by more people in Wilmington than watch local TV stations. Only Wilmington area radio and local cable reach more consumers.

The large audience commanded by social media has attracted a significant amount of advertising dollars from local advertisers. According to Borrell Associates, a company that measures advertising expenditures across the county, Wilmington area businesses are expected to spend $68 million on social media advertising, a 29.8% increase over 2022. The overwhelming majority of these dollars are being spent with Facebook.

Yesterday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the company was changing its name to "Meta".  This change, though, only affects the name of the parent company. There will be no change to the company's brands like Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp.

How will this name change affect Wilmington businesses that advertise on Facebook?

Every week, according to Nielsen, 89% of adult consumers tune in to a Wilmington, Delaware radio station. This is significantly more people than watch broadcast TV, local cable, or video streaming services. It's more than use social media sites like Facebook or Instagram.  And, it's more than read local newspapers.

Wilmington radio is also the medium with the greatest reach among millennials, a generation that not only has embraced an abundance of online media options but also accounts for nearly a third of all local consumer spending.

This reach advantage is a crucial reason why Tri-state area small business owners depend on Wilmington radio to market their goods and services.

A study released this week by Edison Research and NPR discovered that their six distinct types of radio listeners. The study also examines how each group of listeners engages with both programming and advertising.  These distinctions are important for Wilmington small business owners to understand.

The six listener categories as described in the study are:

Wilmington consumers are expected to spend nearly 7% more at retail in 2021 than in 2020. This forecast is based on recently released data from the National Retail Federation.

To lay claim to a significant share of growing consumer spending, Delaware retailers will need to advertise.

“Think you have a great product?” asks the US Small Administration. “Unfortunately, no one’s going to know about it unless you advertise.”   

“Advertising, if done correctly, can do wonders for your product sales, and you know what that means: more revenue and more success for your business."

Scientifically speaking, the fastest way a marketing message can reach the areas of a Wilmington consumer's brain responsible for purchase decisions is through the ear.  That's why audio advertising can be far more potent than visual messaging.

Every week, 500,115 Wilmington, Delaware consumers tune-in to their favorite local radio stations. That is way more than are reached by other media, including local television, newspaper, social media, or streaming audio sites like Pandora and Spotify.

A more significant number for thousands of Tri-state small business owners who advertise on Wilmington radio is how many of these listeners stick around when their commercials come on.

A 2011 Nielsen study discovered that, on average, 93% of listeners stayed with the radio station they are tuned-to when the commercials come on. That number amazed many advertisers at the time who believed that audiences were far more likely to defect when the music stopped.

A lot has changed since 2011. Wilmington area consumers have many more media options and can instantly connect to each  with a button-push, mouse-click, screen-tap, or voice command. With all of these choices, do radio audiences still stay tuned during commercial breaks?

Each week, according to Nielsen, more than 505,492 adult consumers tune-in to a Wilmington radio station. This is significantly more than watch local TV or cable. More than stream video channels like Netflix or Hulu. More than read local newspapers. More than use Facebook or Instagram. More than listen to online audio services like Pandora and Spotify.

But almost everyone knows (including many who advertise on Wilmington radio) that consumers only listen to local radio stations during the day. Right? Wrong!

According to Nielsen, 42% of local consumers listen to Wilmington radio stations each week between 7:00pm and 12:00am. This is a larger audience than Pandora, Spotify, and Instagram combined reach during an entire week.

For Tri-State area small business owners, radio's immense nighttime audience offers a unique value proposition.

Since 1922, advertising on Wilmington, DE radio has helped small business owners survive and thrive during times of peril. This includes world wars, natural disasters, depressions, and recessions.

Even during a pandemic, by almost every key marketing metric, radio advertising remains the best way for a Tri-state business to market its goods and services.

To prove the point, here are five statistics that vividly demonstrate the value of advertising on Wilmington radio.

Wilmington's first radio station, WDEL-AM, began broadcasting on July 22, 1922.  The process of getting the station's programming from the studio into the home of local listeners required tall-transmitting towers with miles of underground copper wire in the middle of massive fields.

For the next 71 years, this massive investment in real estate, steel, and cooper was the only method of delivering a radio advertiser's message into the ears of Wilmington consumers.

In 1993, however, new technology permitted Wilmington radio stations to augment the reach of their tall towers by simultaneously streaming its over-the-air programming via the internet. This provided local consumers with the choice of listening to their favorite stations on their car radios, clock radios, and boom boxes or on an internet connected devices like computers, smartphones, or tablets.

Today, based on estimates from Edison Research, 11% of listening to local radio stations occurs on a streaming media device.  The ability for AM/FM to migrate from their tall towers to internet streaming allows Wilmington radio to reach more local consumers every week than all other media.

Radio came to Delaware on July 22, 1922 when WDEL signed-on. The station was put on the air by Willard S. Wilson. The station operated from Mr. Wilson's home until it moved to the Industrial Trust Building on Orange Street.

From that day, many predicted radio's success would succumb to advances from new technologies. In 1927, the challenge came from talking movies. In the 1940s, the predators were 13-inch TV sets. In the 1970s, it was 8-track and cassette tapes. In the past 20 years, there was a multi-flank attack from iPods, Zunes, YouTube, Sirius, XM, Pandora, Spotify,

So far, all of these challengers have failed. Not even a pandemic has been able to remove radio as a vital force in the life of Wilmington consumers.

Every week, according to Nielsen, more adults tune-in to Wilmington radio than watch TV or cable. Use social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram. Read newspapers. Or, stream music from Pandora or Spotify.

How important is Twitter to Delaware consumers? Yesterday, for instance, the social media platform was mentioned in at least ten articles published by the Wilmington News Journal yesterday.  Almost every local TV newscast included references to the site as well.

Twitter's outsized presence in the news, however, is enormously disproportional to the importance of the micro-blogging app in the life of Wilmington's consumers.

According to Nielsen, only about 17% of adults in Wilmington use Twitter during the course of a month. This is minuscule compared to other social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

Twitter offers 20 different options that Wilmington small business owners can utilize to market their goods and services to local consumers.  The platform's minimal reach, however, can hamper the success of any advertising campaign.

On July 22, 1922, WDEL signed-on as the first radio station serving Wilmington, Delaware

For almost 100 years, small business owners have depended on local radio stations to successfully market their goods and services through depressions, recessions, wars, and natural disasters. Even now, during a pandemic, advertising on Wilmington radio remains a dependable way to make cash registers ring.

Here are five facts every Tri-State area small business owner needs to know about local radio in 2020.