This week, Social Scorecard checks into the Rochester, N.Y., market to discover how WHAM is leading all media outlets in Facebook actions. WHAM, the ABC affiliate owned by Deerfield Media but operated by Sinclair under a shared services agreement, leads in social media actions in the market over the last six months according to data […]
This week, Social Scorecard checks into the Rochester, N.Y., market to discover how WHAM is leading all media outlets in Facebook actions.
WHAM, the ABC affiliate owned by Deerfield Media but operated by Sinclair under a shared services agreement, leads in social media actions in the market over the last six months according to data from audience insight firm Shareablee.
WHAM has almost 1.4 million actions on social, accounting for more than 28% of the total engagement generated by the DMA (No. 76), with more than 4.9 million social actions.
WHAM also led on actions per post with 77, and on Twitter with more than 81,000 actions.
The Democrat and Chronicle, a daily newspaper owned by Gannett, led on Instagram during the same period with more than 46,000 actions.
Seth Palmer, WHAM’s digital content director, says that generally, the overall experience of WHAM’s staff is what is driving its Facebook performance.
“People just like a familiar face to be able to look to for news and to let them know what’s going on.”
Specifically, Palmer says a regularly scheduled Facebook Live session called Live@13WHAM contributes to the station’s high engagement numbers on social.
https://www.facebook.com/13WHAM/videos/10156809442397502/
Live@13WHAM, featuring the station’s digital reporter, Matt Malloy, and meteorologist Scott Hetsko, goes live on Facebook after the noon news at about 12:45. Mostly, the show has a weather forecast and some fun kicker stories.
“We have been doing it for two years now,” says Palmer.
https://www.facebook.com/13WHAM/videos/10156853142732502/
“A lot of the show is based around the interaction with the people on Facebook who jump on. We have a really good base audience and they will just chat with people, and obviously we use that interaction to build through Facebook’s algorithm to push out to more people, and when we bring more people in it’s really great.”
Facebook Live from the scene of breaking news also generates engagement for WHAM. Like the recent story from a rural town outside Rochester where a mother and her 14 month-old son were missing.
“We sent a reporter out to the scene and so the reporter plugged on Facebook Live and was on her own page. We shared it from our page and a lot of people came in, watched that, shared it from the reporter’s feed, shared it from our page and tried to get the word out as much as possible.”
https://www.facebook.com/SamanthaMilesTV/videos/1677717038964423/
And then when the sheriff’s office held a press conference, the station put that on Facebook Live as well, says Palmer, “just trying to get the word out for people to be looking for this boy and his mother.”
Weather is another area that everybody talks about in Rochester, says Palmer.
So the station leverages that interest by going on Facebook Live with its weather truck, an exclusive in the market.
https://www.facebook.com/13WHAM/videos/10156417758387502/
When there’s stormy weather, the truck will head to where the worst of the weather is, with a photographer and either a meteorologist or reporter on board switching between cameras set up in and out of the truck.
“So when people are waking up in the morning and they are wondering how bad it’s going to be,
we are constantly telling people wherever they are so they have a good idea of what to expect.”
https://www.facebook.com/13WHAM/videos/10156330247857502/
WHAM also its own drone camera, another exclusive in the market, says Palmer. “We try to leverage that whenever we can.”
Palmer says that in addition to the revenue that WHAM gets from Facebook driving traffic to its website, Facebook has started to realize the potential that Facebook Live has and is selling sponsorships for certain videos.
“If you have videos that are longer than 90 seconds, you can insert ads in there and get some mid-roll videos.”
Palmer says the station’s Live@13WHAM is sponsored by Dunkin Doughnuts.
“That’s really helpful to create extra revenue for us. It’s not as much about keeping the content solely on one platform that’s owned by you as it is diversifying your revenue sources. I think that Facebook is starting to see that.”
https://www.facebook.com/13WHAM/videos/10156094332812502/
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