Norman Jester, center, shown with Program Director Billie Knight, left, and ‘WB,’ aka Word Bond, says his JellyRadio Internet station has benefited from an online social media campaign. | Photo by Stephen Whalen

Norman Jester is relying heavily on an online social media campaign ?tapping Web sites users access to share opinions and personal information ?to add listeners for his JellyRadio Internet station.

? lot of people refer to those sites as social media,?said Jester, who co-owns (with wife Monique) the Otay Mesa-based station that plays mostly hip-hop. ?o me it? just viral marketing. Right now Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter are the main ones.

For marketers, the upside is that blogs multiply through a network of member groups that opt in. But the downside is that users tend to be fickle and hop from one site to another, which requires staying on top of the trends, he adds.

Jester says he? hired Bolt Public Relations to manage postings. He notes he? supported the three-year-old radio station out of pocket since it launched, and can? quantify the monetary effect social media has had.

Instant Gratification

? do know when we send out a message on Twitter that this show is coming on at this time, we notice almost instantaneously our audience increases by about 1,000 listeners,?said Jester, known as DJ Dizzo at jellyradio.com.

The audience count peaks at noon, when 2 million listeners tune in, or rather click in, and drops to a low of 1.2 million at 4 a.m., he claims.

But the station could soon be a moneymaker if Jester manages to roll in some big name advertisers he? been talking to. He declined to give names, but said he met with one in Atlanta recently.

?hat could mean $3 million in revenue,?said Jester, who also co-owns Otay Mesa Data Center, which houses businesses?Web servers.

JellyRadio is just one local operation benefiting from the use of social media.

When the Minneapolis-based parent company of The Oceanaire Seafood Room in San Diego cut its public relations budget, the restaurant? general manager, Philip Shayne, turned to social media as a no-cost alternative.

He called it ?lugging into four walls marketing.?

?e needed to figure out how to get people involved and get our name out there, and we realized Facebook and Twitter are hugely successful blogging devices,?he said.