As news broke of Osama bin Laden’s death, internet traffic spiked as did the buzz on social media; providing loads of examples of how social media can fit seamlessly into strong breaking news coverage. It’s a great opportunity to learn from the triumphs and tribulations experienced by local newsrooms using Facebook during this epic breaking news moment…
1. Engaging Your Audience
Virtually every newsroom in the nation is using Facebook to pose thoughtful questions, interesting information and links to get discussions going about OBL’s death. But only a handful are using Facebook’s Questions Tool to get instant polls going. This tool is extremely successful when you want to get a broad perspective from your audience. It usually garners much higher interaction rates than simply posing a question in a typed post. Plus, the results are instant so you can share them on your broadcast immediately.
2. Focusing on the Local Angle
There’s a strong sense of community among Fans of local news pages. And just as you would ‘localize’ for your broadcast product, it’s important to localize your social media product as well. Talk about how the news impacts your city, your viewers. And remember that they’ll tune into your broadcast instead of the major networks if they feel they can relate better to your coverage. Here, WTVR does a great job of soliciting their Facebook Fans to tune into a great local angle. And by using an interesting “behind the scenes” photo, they’re likely to increase engagement with the post.
3. Transparent News-Gathering
News travels fast in social media. As has been widely reported, a man in Pakistan inadvertently live-tweeted the attack as it happened – before any news outlets had a whiff of the story. Your Fans and Followers expect to get information first and fast. And sometimes that means lifting up the curtain and showing them what really happens in news gathering. A great example is WESH2 in Orlando. The station made post after post as early word came in. And had to backtrack and correct information as details changed. Many stations are afraid to be this transparent, but WESH2 simply explained to their Fans that the situation was fluid. Perfect!
4. Promoting Your Website’s Live Coverage
Facebook has become the fastest growing source of referrals to media websites. And during major breaking news, Facebook offers an exceptional opportunity to drive clicks to your website. News12 Long Island and WITI (among others) took advantage by posting links to their live streaming coverage of the President’s speech.
Have you seen great things happening in social media coverage of OBL’s death? Comment with a link!
