The day after Oprah bid farewell from local TV stations across America, WSB-TV in Atlanta launched a 4 p.m. newscast to replace her. With the launch of the new show, Channel 2 at 4 p.m., WSB tapped Twitter and Facebook to invite people to participate.
WSB staff started the day before Thursday’s launch by posing a Facebook Question asking viewers to pick between two consumer stories. “The winning story would run during the first 4 p.m. newscast, the first time in recent history that WSB-TV viewers have been able to select a story in a newscast,” explains Bryan Leavoy, web manager at WSB. “We received more than 100 votes just 15 minutes after it was posted.” Consumer reporter Clark Howard also posted a YouTube clip posing the same question. By noon Thursday, they closed the question with a clear winner: how to use social media to find travel deals.
Then on launch day, WSB staff began to crank it up on Twitter, coordinating their efforts across multiple accounts. “Talent and staff tweeted with the #2at4 hashtag, using it to denote any discussion about the new show and any news stories or weather that would be at 4 p.m.,” Leavoy told Lost Remote. The hashtag continued into the show. “It’s an idea that was born while one of our anchors (Jovita Moore) was home on vacation and started a running commentary on a newscast she normally anchors. It was a hit with viewers on Twitter,” he said.
The hashtag became the second-highest trending topic in Atlanta, “beating out #Oprah and the breaking news about a Bishop involved in a sex abuse scandal,” Leavoy said. The newscast also streamed live on WSBtv.com. “We received lots of great feedback and great interaction, especially from some who had a chance to watch a 4pm newscast while still at work.”
The question now is, was it just a promotional launch or will social media become an interactive mainstay of the newscast? “We don’t have any future plans nailed down,” Leavoy says, “but we’ll likely see Facebook voting and WSB-TV tweet ups again.”