KickApps Takes NBC Local to New Heights

NBC Local Media is proving that social media is a vital piece to the success of today’s media puzzle and is key to audience growth and engagement. In a recent article in Media Week, NBC Local Media talks about the relaunch of their ‘hyper-local’ websites this year and the success they’re experiencing on the new properties.

Take a look at these numbers:

• Visitors to the 10 Web sites doubled from 6 million in Nov. 2008 to 12 million in Oct. 2009.
• Page views are up 296 percent from 29 million to 113 million

From the Media Week article:

NBC Local Media attributes the growth of sites such as nbcchicago.com (WMAQ-TV) and nbcphiladelphia.com (WCAU-TV) to the inclusion of more social-media tools, allowing visitors to interact with one another and the content on the site. For example on average, visitors cast 10,000 votes to indicate their “mood rating,” as “thrilled,” “furious,” “intrigued” or “sad.”

Launched a year ago, the 10 Web sites moved away from the style and approach of the traditional TV station Web site, evolving into a local portal offering more local services, news and information, along with user-generated content. The sites are also available via an iPhone application introduced a month ago.

I’ve always thought that the Mood Ratings feature on the NBC websites is one of the coolest ways to get an audience engaged with an otherwise static piece of content. Using our Polling API, we were able to customize how audiences rate an article. It certainly beats the 1 to 5 stars rating system that seems to be conventional on most website doesn’t it?

I personally think all the hot air about the death of the mainstream media (MSM) is just that, hot air, and some gloating from the cynics. That said, the MSM HAS to evolve in some pretty big ways to make it through the tough times they’re facing and NBC Local Media is a terrific example of this. If you bring together content and some interesting ways to interact with it and other audience members, you’ll get people to engage on your website.

It takes vision, courage and an ability to execute. 296 percent. That’s a very real number. Congratulations, NBC Local Media!

NBC Local Media websites in your city: New York, Los Angeles, Bay Area, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Philadelphia, San Diego, Washington DC, Connecticut and Miami.