KOMO TV Anchor Kathi Goertzen just opened up her Facebook page on Tuesday. As of Wednesday night, she had amassed 35,694 fans, and as of this post, Thursday morning, she has 41,640.
For a nationally recognized politician or actor, that’s probably pretty respectable and expected growth, but for a local TV anchor in Seattle, it’s pretty surprising and incredible.
Goertzen debuted her Facebook page at about 5 p.m. Tuesday, and about 10 minutes later, she posted on the KOMO website that she was headed back for another round of surgery to treat a benign brain tumor that she’s been dealing with for the last decade or so.
The outpouring of support was immediate and, in her own words, overwhelming.
We talked with Jen Kuglin, one of KOMO’s web staffers, about the page, the reasoning behind it and the massive response that it generated.
(Full disclosure: I work for KIRO TV, a direct competitor to KOMO, and posted about Kathi’s surgery and her Facebook page from a couple of KIRO’s social accounts.)
LR: Whose idea is it to create the page and what was the reasoning behind it?
Jen: Every day, KOMO receives e-mails, phone calls and Twitter and Facebook posts asking about Kathi’s condition. It was Kathi’s idea to do a story and let people see the toll the tumors have taken. A lot of KOMO anchors and reporters are getting more involved in social media, and Kathi also wanted to start a page. She felt Facebook was a great way to put the pictures out there and to interact with supporters. Facebook is a wonderful way for her to have meaningful conversations with viewers about the reality of her condition. Of course, we also posted Kathi’s statement to viewers on our main website and featured her story on television. We wanted to make sure we were getting Kathi’s story out on all of our available mediums because of the intense community interest.
LR: Did we expect such a huge outpouring of support in such a short amount of time?
Jen: No, not at all! We knew there would be a lot of support, but we certainly never guessed more than 20,000 likes in less than 24 hours. It has been truly amazing and shows the power of social media. Kathi’s family told us they are reading the posts on her page while they are waiting for her to get out of surgery. They said they are simply amazed at the outpouring of love and support.
LR: Are you tying the Facebook page in with your on-air product?
Jen: Yes. We have mentioned Kathi’s page on-air. We also included a link to Kathi’s Facebook page in our article on komonews.com.
The number of likes and fans Kathi and KOMO have received are obviously trivial in comparison to what Kathi is going through, but the takeaway from a purely social media perspective seems simple: The more personal you get with your fans, the more support you’ll receive in return.
I say “seems” simple because (a) it’s not easy to get so deeply personal as Kathi has and (b) journalists in particular have largely instituted an arms-length distance between themselves and the public. For those willing to take a risk and bridge that gap, there’s a genuine connection to be had that can change someone from that person on TV to that person who I know.