Getting Social Media To Spike Audience

How  a small TV station drives audience

KAIT-TV in Jonesboro, Ark., is a small station with a large social media presence.

According to Regina McCombs at poynter.org, the station, which is in the 180th television market (out of 210) in a metro area with a population somewhere around 150,000, has found ways to gain about the same number of fans and followers as some of the country’s top newspapers.

The station had 19,447 Facebook fans and 2,828 Twitter followers the last I checked. By comparison, a new Bivings Group study found that the top 100 newspapers (by circulation) have an average of 21,214 Facebook fans.

KAIT News Director Hatton Weeks told me by phone what the station has done to attract such a large audience on Facebook and Twitter.

In the spring of 2009, Weeks went to a fellow Raycom station in Memphis and met with the station’s “Internet guru,” who introduced him to social media. He came home, began his own blog, set up station Facebook and Twitter accounts,  and introduced them to the newsroom.

“Early on, it was mostly RSS driven, and we realized we had to be a lot more interactive,” Weeks said. “You’ve got to be conversational, and it’s got to be participatory, or it won’t work.”

It took some trial and error. But now the morning show, which airs from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., is the most regular user of Facebook. Monday through Friday, a “Hot Topic” related to the news of the day is posted by one of the anchors at 4:30 a.m. for people to comment on. Weeks says it’s rare to have less than 50 comments by 7. During the show, the anchors talk on the air about the question and user responses.

Click here to read more and for examples of the morning show’s recent Facebook posts.