By Deb Wenger & Jackie Anderson

When it comes to building a Facebook audience, Fox 8 in Cleveland is a rock star.  With just under 275,000 fans, the station was number one among its peers in May 2011, according to a website which tracks the top newspapers and TV stations on Facebook. 

How has the station done it?  They’ve figured out how to engage the community.  For example, Fox 8 created a “Facebook Friend of the Day” feature in which they showcase a station “fan” daily.

This type of contesting has been successful beyond Cleveland as well.  In Memphis, WMC-TV’s Internet Content Director Jason Plank said they watched contests help their biggest competitor’s Facebook numbers skyrocket.

 “Channel 3 (WREG) started contesting, and they starting blowing us away,” Plank said.  “We had to respond.”

And Memphis is typical of many TV markets.  Cory Bergman, co-founder of LostRemote.com, says that most stations have about 15,000 – 30,000 Facebook fans.  That’s where the Memphis stations were before two of the stations started using contests.  Where are they now?

For one week in early June, researchers tracked every Facebook post and ever tweet for the four primary news stations.  As you can see from the graphic below, WREG (CBS) leads the way on Facebook and WMC (NBC) is ahead in Twitter followers.  The two stations lead the market in Nielsen ratings as well, with WHBQ (FOX) and WPTY (ABC) coming in third and fourth respectively. 



Though WREG has more Facebook fans overall, the week the researchers spent tracking (June 12-19), it was WMC that posted more news and information and engaged the audience more frequently.  That may be one reason why they had nearly double the number of new “likes” or fans that week.

“Short of contesting, you have to be social. Ask good questions and get people to respond,” said Chip Mahaney, director of digital content at E.W. Scripps and RTDNA director-at-large. “The best way to grow organically is to get people to want to share your posts in their own networks. Increasing engagement outside the circle you already have, that’s gold.”

According to Plank, what the station is doing with social media is a natural progression from what they used to do with email and message boards.

“We’re looking for the best way to reach our audience on a one-on-one basis, so they feel like we are doing something just for them vs. just broadcasting to everybody,” Plank said. “If someone leaves a message on a Facebook wall, even something silly, we respond to them.”

At a time when newsrooms resources are scarce, this commitment to engage audience at the individual level may seem daunting.

“What our assistant news director  did was inventory who in the newsroom was already on Facebook,” said Plank.  “She said, ‘Let’s take those people and use those people as our Facebook czars.’ Those are now the people who are the voice of the station.”



When it comes to Twitter, WMC has the most Twitter followers (9,276) of the TV stations in the Memphis market, and for the week studied, it also had the most tweets – 249 compared to 121 for WREG.  The other thing you’ll notice about WMC – the station is also following the most people. 



“Twitter is good for getting your ideas and your brand outside your network to new audiences,” Mahaney said.  “But, if you’re not following people in your community, you’re missing out on a chance to listen and to learn what they care about.”

Bergman says that, though Twitter reaches 13 percent of Americans, those it does reach tend to be “social influencers” and its strength is as a real-time newsgathering tool.

“It’s definitely who you follow,” Plank said.  “It’s like the scanner of the past, following the right people can provide leads and story generation opportunities.”

When it comes to best practices, Bergman recommends that TV stations avoid automated accounts and be sure to interact with followers, not just send out headlines.  Here are some of his examples:

•    In February, NBC Local Media stations started implementing what they call, “The 20.” They use Twitter “influencers” in each market to help “curate local news and issues.”

•    At WSB-TV in Atlanta, they’ve had success engaging audience for a new 4 p.m. newscast with their “#2at4” hash tag and they post questions related to the show’s content on Facebook.

•    During the Casey Anthony trial, WESH developed a following with the hash tag “#JudgePerrySays,” basically sharing courtroom quotes in this high profile case.

To be successful, Bergman recommends that news organizations find someone to be “an evangelist, leading the social media charge in the newsroom.”

“It’s good to have those people around,” said Plank. “The challenge is to get that enthusiasm to everybody.”

And Mahaney says with best practices emerging in the area of building audience, now news organizations must figure out social media 2.0.

“I think there are very few that have had the next conversation, which is, ‘What is our goal? ‘Why are we doing this? What do we want to build and how does our time and effort that we spend building these social media networks help build our entire business?’”

More from LostRemote.com and Cory Bergman on successful Facebook contests.

•    KUTV gave away an iPad2 to generate “likes.”

•    KBAK’s morning show launched a “Facebook Face-off” to see which on-air talent could garner the most Facebook friends.  The anchors and reporters seem to get quite competitive, creating videos and finding other ways to beat each other.

•    By “liking” KTVK’s Facebook page, you donate a bottle of water a local Salvation Army relief effort.