WRAL Using Social TV to Inspire Community

by Shelly Leslie, WRAL-TV

It all started with the Executive Director of the Komen NC Triangle to the Coast affiliate asking if we could make her dream come true. Well, we do love a challenge at WRAL! We're a station with community focused DNA, partnering with local agencies to bring real and sustained change to important issues. Komen wanted the Triangle Race for the Cure to be the most social race in the country. They had a hashtag in mind but needed us to figure out how to show all the people using it on social media on site during the Raleigh Race for the Cure.

2014 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure: 10,500 Strong

Immediately, I thought of Jenni Hogan and tagboard. Jenni and I share a passion for Social TV and have collaborated several times, first with WRAL as a beta station for her TV Interact product and later on WRAL's first ever Social TV documentary #missionormoney.Tagboard is a live hashtag hub that aggregates content from twitter, facebook, instagram, vine, google+ and app.net. The tagboard dashboard is tabbed to toggle between LATEST posts (all posts coming in using the hashtag), and FEATURED posts (posts you choose to be seen on the public board). This gives you ultimate control of what content goes live' on your board. We practiced with it for about two weeks and it worked beautifully onsite at the event.

We set up two Samsung 70 inch touchscreen monitors. Next time, I'd like an 80-100+ inch video wall meant to be viewed outside! Can I get a sponsor for that?

WRAL Reporter Tara Lynn and photographer Andrew Cumbee

Komen announced on stage for people to take a selfie and post it using #KomenTri

People were fascinated by the technology and wanted to be part of it!

Komen announced on stage for people to take a selfie and post it using #KomenTri

WRAL-TVs Social Inspiration Board

WRAL reporter Tara Lynn uses touchscreen to show how Social Inspiration Board works.

Anchor Debra Morgan debuts live tagboard for the first time on local TV.

Building it for Live TV

Because the full suite of products had not been used on TV before, we had a learning curve. The tagboard engineers and designers collaborated with the WRAL graphics team for a good result.We debuted the live touchscreen mode, fullscreen automated and became the first station to use the live, automated lower third super.

First test of the live lower third that auto scrolls through posts from facebook, twitter, instagram, G+, Vine

WRAL Graphic Designer Steve Loyd (r) teaching producer Larry McGill (l) the tagboard live TV technology

WRAL Creative Director Shelly Leslie's first tests of functionality on touchboard with Jenni Hogan via cell phone

Isolation mode shows one post at a time. Can be set to automate or manual advance with an anchor at the wall

Fullscreen mode auto populates posts from multiple social media platforms

WRAL Graphics Producer/Director John Renigar and Lead Designer Steve Loyd working with the functionality of the live lower third

Shelly Leslie with Jenni Hogan via cell phone

Marketing It

We named our baby the Social Inspiration Board. Our partners at the Komen NC Triangle to the Coast affiliate started promoting usage of the hashtag about two weeks before the event in email blasts, on their web site and social media. WRAL created social share graphics that both the station and Komen posted to our social networks:

Created and posted on twitter, facebook and instagram

Komen posted how to photos to twitter, facebook and instagram:

Helping teach people how to participate!

We ran static, as well as Jivox interactive, web ads on WRAL.com:

A variety of web ad sizes gives us maximum exposure onwral.com and WRAL mobile.

Jivox interactive web ad includes live twitter widget.

We promoted on air during newscasts in the week leading up to the race, and the Social Inspiration Board was a key part of our live coverage on race day.

Results

#KomenTri trended on twitter in Raleigh for 11 hours. It was the top hashtag for the day on #tagboard in Seattle. KomenNCTC's facebook page saw a 453% increase in fans, and a 328% increase in reach. Tagboard reports 660 unique posts, not including shared posts. Twitter made up half of these posts, with Instagram and Facebook making up the other half. It's important to not ignore those platforms in live events, as the combination can exponentially increase exposure. We could clearly see a spike in posts during live television coverage that used the live lower third serving as a call to action for people not at the event to get involved by sending messages of inspiration to those participating. Considering, we debuted the Saturday of the Men's US Open (being played in North Carolina!), the NBA Finals and USA World Cup Soccer we're more than pleased with the social results. Oh and the end game for our partners at Komen:

Social TV is changing the game. You can drive viewers to your content on all your platforms using social media. You can dominate the social chatter in your market with a coordinated effort that includes on air, social and web promotion. Cable channels are doing it and getting big results, so can the locals. We have the opportunity right now to create self-sustaining audiences using content that engages their values. If you're not experimenting, get started!

Complete web/tv coverage of the this event: http://www.wral.com/thousands-put-on-pink-to-race-for-the-cure/13733742/

Thanks to WRAL-TV's Shelly Leslie for this capcom story & for these capcom photos & graphics.

LINK:	http://www.capitolbroadcasting.com/2014/06/27/wral-using-social-tv-to-...
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