{"id":1370,"date":"2011-04-20T14:32:29","date_gmt":"2011-04-20T20:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chrissniderdesign.com\/blog\/?p=1370"},"modified":"2011-04-20T14:32:29","modified_gmt":"2011-04-20T20:32:29","slug":"how-one-tv-station-gained-16000-facebook-likes-in-20-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chrissniderdesign.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/20\/how-one-tv-station-gained-16000-facebook-likes-in-20-days\/","title":{"rendered":"How one TV station gained 16,000 Facebook likes in 20 days"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHO-HD in Des Moines<\/a> began the month of April with 13,182 likes on Facebook<\/a>. That’s a respectable number, but it wouldn’t even put the station in the top half of the list of top TV stations on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Twenty days later, the NBC affiliate is about to pass the 30,000 fan threshold (29,536 as I type this). The graph below shows the station leave the local newspaper in its dust and gain considerably on another local TV station, KCCI<\/a>, leading into the May sweeps.<\/p>\n

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How did WHO do it?<\/h2>\n

The station gave away a prize each of those 20 days, including four iPad 2s. And it promoted those prizes every half hour on air.<\/p>\n

“When we ran that (promo) during The Biggest Loser, they came flooding in,” said Tim Gardner, director of creative services for the station. “Definitely on-air drove this.”<\/p>\n

WHO has run 20-day contests before, requiring viewers to see a special code on a newscast and enter that code online for a chance to win. <\/p>\n

This was the first time the station ran a contest entirely through Facebook and didn’t require a special code (it’s part of a corporate initiative to grow Facebook fans across all stations, so expect to see this happening in many more markets).<\/p>\n

Facebook has some fairly strict rules for contests<\/a>, and WHO used Woobox<\/a> to make sure everything was within the rules. Woobox builds in incentives for users to share a link to the contest with friends, which allows the viral nature of Facebook to take over.<\/p>\n

A few takeaways I got talking to Gardner:<\/strong><\/p>\n