Belo’s KTVK and AZFamily.com in Phoenix have launched a Facebook initiative to donate bottles of water to the Salvation Army as the summer months heat up. It’s a different twist on increasingly-popular Facebook contests designed to drum up more fans.
Here’s how it works. By “liking” the KTVK Facebook page, you donate a bottle of water to The Salvation Army’s “Extreme Heat and Hydration” relief efforts, which focuses on keeping the elderly and homeless hydrated during the triple-digit summer months in Phoenix. A local air conditioning company, which is sponsoring the effort, is donating the bottles of water.
The effort kicked off on May 30th, and KTVK is aiming to donate 20,000 bottles of water by June 16th — the day of the station’s annual one-day bottled water drive. The station is promoting the effort on-air, online and across the station’s official and staff Twitter accounts using the hashtag #3TVwater.
KTVK began with 7,231 fans on May 30th, and as of this writing, has jumped a bit to 7,722. For context, competitor KNXV has 23,736 fans, and it’s running a Facebook contest for free iPads. The Phoenix newspaper AZCentral.com has just short of 30,000 fans.
“We’re excited to be using our social media resources to support the community,” said Jim Carr, Director of Digital Media for KTVK and AZFamily.com. “Our commitment to the community is not just what we do on-air but what we do online as well.”
For more case studies on how local TV stations are driving Facebook fans, see our earlier stories on WJW Cleveland, KUTV in Salt Lake and KBAK in Bakersfield, CA.