It’s no secret that Facebook is a major driver of traffic to local TV news websites, but there is less certainty that social media has an impact on newscast ratings.
Marketshare’s Paul Greeley explored the issue recently since it’s the November ratings period and “many stations are using Facebook to promote special reports for their TV newscasts.”
In some cases, the Facebook promo is the same as the TV promo. But in many cases, the Facebook promo is different since it needs to be effective without any audio, as it’s been reported that 85% of Facebook users watch videos with the sound turned off.
I looked for posts that had a clear “call to action” to watch in either the post or the promo.
One of the most effective, with more than 100,000 views and dozens of shares, comes from Stephen Stock at KNTV, the NBC O&O in San Francisco. Note the call for the Facebook audience to interact with Stock via the comments function.
As Greeley notes, most Facebook users watch video with the sound off, so think about how much more effective this video might have been with text to help the audience get the gist of the story without the narration. It’s a good effort, though, and clearly engaged people on social.
Check out the rest of Paul’s examples to see what other stations are up to.
