In addition to providing local news, weather, traffic and stories of regional interest every day of the year, America’s broadcasters support their communities in a variety of ways: fundraising for local and national charities; clothing and food drives; local clean-up campaigns; and public safety initiatives.
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the National Association of Broadcasters’ (my employer) public service department works to highlight those stories of broadcasters doing good.
Being able to represent my hometown and recognize their efforts and accomplishments is an honor and a privilege. #BroadcastGood pic.twitter.com/XGcY5Vntyy
— Carly Willis (@CarlyWillisTV) June 13, 2018
This year, we created a cross-organizational multi-platform campaign to shine the light even brighter on local broadcasters doing good. The campaign coincided with the NAB Education Foundation’s annual Service to America Awards, held every June in Washington, D.C., and attended by members of congress, policymakers, NAB staff and community service luminaries.
The Service to America Week campaign began on Monday, June 11, and hit a high note on Tuesday, June 12, when broadcasters across the nation used the #broadcastgood hashtag on social media to tout their public service efforts. #Broadcastgood trended on Twitter for much of the day, and carried through the rest of the week as well and helped inform members of congress and Americans about the valuable work broadcasters do day in and day out. It wasn’t easy, however, as it required coordination and design across many departments at NAB. Here’s a quick peek at what went into the #broadcastgood campaign.
The Concept:
Using social media – primarily Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – to highlight broadcasters’ community and public service efforts with the hashtag #broadcastgood.
Key Participants:
America’s local radio and television broadcasters; NAB’s marketing, media relations, government relations and public service teams and NAB consultants.
The Vehicles:
Website Instruction Page: Several weeks prior to the campaign, we created a special landing page on the Service to America website with clear instructions and examples of stories we wanted broadcasters to post on social. Once the campaign was over, we turned this page into a “congratulations” page with highlights of some stories.
Website Landing Page: We created a special landing page on the BroadcastPublicService.org website to illustrate the 50+ stories of stations supporting their communities. These stories were curated from entries submitted to the NAB Education Foundation’s Service to America Awards. The page features a Tumblr-like interface and tags station call signs and ownership. This was the web hub of the campaign.
Calls to Action: We designed and promoted the online event with a simple yet elegant social tile inviting broadcasters to post examples of how they #broadcastgood. The instructions were simple and the message was clear with literally one step for them to take.
Additionally, we sent out several emails beginning back in January (also in May, and several reminders leading up to the event) to our member stations inviting them to participate in the effort.
Social Media: NAB’s many social media channels – @nabtweets, @broadlyserving, @nabnewsroom, @nabef and various staffers’ personal accounts – retweeted and promoted all the social content posted by broadcasters using the #broadcastgood hashtag. The amplification of the stories resulted in the hashtag trending on Twitter for much of the day and into the night and some good Snapchat and Instagram traffic. The piggyback effect helped with chatter on social media that evening during the Service to America awards gala.
The Effect: The nationwide effort resulted in a slew of positive news stories, including trade press coverage and shoutouts from policymakers and influencers. Ultimately, the hashtag count hit upwards of 8,000 on June 12 and continues to show up in local broadcasters’ stories. This campaign was a great example of an initially abstract idea that came together with different departments on multiple digital platforms.
