KOAA, the NBC affiliate in Colorado Springs owned by Cordillera Communications, leads the market by a nose — less than 40,000 social media actions as its nearest competitor — in the past six months according to data from audience insight firm Shareablee. KOAA posted 1.2 million total social actions in that period, accounting for […]
KOAA, the NBC affiliate in Colorado Springs owned by Cordillera Communications, leads the market by a nose — less than 40,000 social media actions as its nearest competitor — in the past six months according to data from audience insight firm Shareablee.
KOAA posted 1.2 million total social actions in that period, accounting for 25% of the total engagement generated by the DMA with more than 4.8 million social actions overall.
KOAA also led the market in actions per post with 181.
KKTV, Gray’s CBS affiliate in Colorado Springs, came in second with 1,163,814 social media actions in the same time period.
KKTV led the market on Twitter with just over 24,000 actions.
The Colorado Springs Independent, a weekly newspaper and the largest locally-owned media company in Colorado Springs, led the market on Instagram with just over 8,500 actions.
Ben Lloyd, KOAA’s newly-minted digital executive producer, attributes the station’s winning Facebook performance to a change in focus and staffing.
“Today, literally everyone’s involved in creating content for Facebook,” he says. “That’s where a lot of our viewers are, plus people who are not our viewers. The challenge for any broadcaster is reaching the audience you want to reach, no matter what the platform.”
And by everyone, he means all of the station’s anchors, reporters, producers and meteorologists, along with dozens of other newsroom staffers, a big jump from just the two or three people on the web team who focused on it previously.
That’s been an adjustment for the newsroom that is communicated and reinforced daily.
Lloyd says weather and traffic are the main content drivers for KOAA on Facebook, and at times, the two are linked together.
Colorado Springs is over a mile above sea level though some areas are significantly lower and higher, like Pikes Peak, which rises above 14,000 feet. So weather conditions can vary significantly over the area, which often has a direct effect on road conditions and traffic.
“It makes a big difference, so we focus on Facebook Live whenever there’s bad weather and traffic,” Lloyd says.
https://www.facebook.com/KOAA/videos/10154993119028939/
Like many stations, KOAA shares Facebook comments by users as a regular feature in its newscasts.
Lloyd says this happens mostly during the morning news, but it’s in the process of incorporating AccuWeather’s Storyteller system into newscasts, which will let staffers interact more with viewers on-air and online.
Lloyd credits KOAA’s marketing department with actively engaging in social media, especially in primetime when people may be watching television but have their Facebook feed open.
“They’re actually looking for and creating content to put on our Facebook page that pushes back to the website to push people to our broadcast,” he says.
https://www.facebook.com/KOAA/videos/10155096873978939/
But even with its success on the platform, Lloyd says the station is still navigating its best use and how it can strengthen its broadcasts.
“We’re still trying to figure out not only what the audience wants, but how all this relates to our product on-air.”
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