Social media marketing for a brand is one thing, but social media marketing for a news organization is another.

So it was quite the undertaking for me to do my first ever social media campaign for a small news station in Pennsylvania, WFMZ-TV.

But, it’s a station I care greatly about. For one, it’s the station I grew up watching my whole childhood, and have now had an internship at for the past three years. Plus, it’s one of very few independently owned stations these days… which means they have no network affiliation.

Social media marketing for a news organization is tough. News consumers don’t typically interact with news content on social media. A Reuters and Oxford study found that 47% of news consumers don’t comment, like, share or, for some, even read news on social media.

That makes it really hard for news organizations to get any kind of engagement.

So candidly, I was absolutely shocked by WFMZ’s engagement rate on Instagram. Especially when compared to other news outlets.

WFMZ: .67116%

6abc: .2472% 

CNN: .04322%

Instagram in general has an average engagement rate of .48%. So by all means, WFMZ is doing very well for themselves on socials. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement though.

That’s what this campaign is for.

Beyond the Camera is the kind of campaign that is going to make WFMZ stick out even more ahead of their competitors, using what we already have. Pennsylvania is made up of small, tight-knit communities– and the anchors and reporters are parts of those communities. 

So by centering on-air talent in this campaign, we’re putting a friendly, familiar face to the stories we’re sharing. One that viewers can attach onto. Whose content they can look forward to. 

We’ll build the anchors and reporter’s accounts alongside WFMZ’s, using tags and collaborations, growing the channel’s reach even more.

That’s ultimately the goal. We’re not just looking to do better on social media. We want this to be actionable change, meaning more newscast viewership and more website traffic. Because a social media campaign doesn’t mean WFMZ is becoming a social media newsroom. There’ll still be broadcast. But it’s a tool to push what we really want to its best.

You can see the PDF of my whole social media campaign document below