The WFSB-TV Eyewitness News Team really wants to be liked. So much so that the Hartford, Connecticut television station is offering a generous reward for its newfound friends.
The CBS affiliate is running a contest this month on its Facebook page. Visitors who click the page’s “like” button can enter a drawing to win a new Nissan Maxima. So far, the station says about 20,000 people have responded, driving up the total number of likes on the WFSB Facebook page to more than 75,000.
“Facebook in general is a promotion tool to get people to watch us and go to our website,” said WFSB’s Executive Producer of Digital Content, Shannon Kane. “You want as many people to like you on Facebook, just like you want as many people to watch you on TV.”
While WFSB’s giveaway features an unusually extravagant prize, many TV stations are using contests and rewards to attract likes. This month (a “sweeps” month for Nielsen TV ratings), an Oklahoma City station is offering free DVDs to new Facebook likers, Baltimore’s ABC affiliate is handing out gasoline gift cards, while a Fort Myers, Florida station is giving away iPads each day through November 18.
There’s little doubt that the contests succeed in attracting likes. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the local NBC station doubled its Facebook likes with an iPad promotion this month. And a Cleveland station last year attracted 44,000 likes by providing a different kind of incentive: It offered to donate money to the Animal Protective League and give pets “a second chance at life” if 100,000 viewers friended the station on Facebook. (Though the station fell short of its Facebook goal, it donated $2,500 anyway.)
But less clear is whether the contests and incentives increase stations’ television ratings, website traffic, or level of engagement with their viewers.
“Just because you have a million likes, that doesn’t necessarily equal real results,” said Eric Kuhn, a social media agent for United Talent Agency and a former Audience Interaction Producer at CNN.
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