The Health Care Traffic Spike

PBS NewsHour
Social Media and Web Analysis
NewsHour Facebook posts from 3/18/3-28 =
5.3 million impressions and more than 2,200
“likes” and comments.

-Kevin Dando
Social Media - PBS
 The Health Care Live Blog
• Why?
– Suits our audience
– Politically-minded
– Wraps up Long-Term Coverage
 How?
Posts throughout the day to Twitter, FB
Lets audience know we intend to be there for
the whole event
Encourage interaction on our pages
Notify PBS, other media sites of intention
Send out regular push emails throughout the
day when page updated
 How?
• Find and re-share primary source content
regularly to illustrate behind the scenes
• Ask for and answer reader questions with links
whenever they’re asked – as much immediacy
as possible
• Emphasize new content
• Be aware of trending topics, headline and post
accordingly
PBS and our Facebook page drove unprecedented interaction to the PBS page (almost 800 ‘likes’ and more than 500 comments
on four PBS posts over the course of 48 hours).
And more than 229 interactions – including FB comments and ‘likes’ were seen on our fan page – an unprecedented high.
Overall Google Traffic 3/21-28
Healthcare Specific Pages
Google
Started early,
stayed late
 Active, Engaged
Audience on Twitter
Youtube Traffic
Why was YouTube traffic up so dramatically?

• Audience was engaged in the topic via us

• Strong interview choice, ample prep time to
push content
• Published news of Pelosi’s appearance as soon
as we had it confirmed
• NewsMaker Interview traffic was driven by
outside links, frequent RTs over several days.
 What Could We Do to Repeat?
Content
Quick, accurate information as early in a news
event as possible
Frequent communication with our audience on the
subject – asking for opinions, feedback as soon as
we can
Ample opportunities for interaction
Simple, direct analysis with options for more
information linked throughout the piece
 What Could We Do To Repeat?
Social Media
Short, easy-to-digest tweets, FB posts with
links back to main site
Accurate, repeated content updates
throughout developing situation
Guides, digests of important, complex
legislation, options shared repeatedly across
platforms
 What Could We Do To Repeat?
• Use PBS partnership to drive traffic as well as MSM
sites
• Provide content others can use, embed
• Encourage and use sharing tools – including Digg,
StumbleUpon, enthusiastically and often over the
course of the day
• Be aware of popularity cycles – generally FB on the
weekends, Twitter, other tools during the weekdays
• Staff accordingly
 What Could We Do To Repeat?
• Consistently cover breaking news events with
staff during the event – regardless of timing.
• Be aware of Google trends during the situation
or crisis for headline SEO
• Find additional background pieces and post to
Facebook, etc for context
• Partner with MSM looking for sources, context
• Continue developing FB, Twitter, audiences for
future events