Stations' Facebook pages

[tyrannical bastard 3444]

Once upon a time, there was a website called the Facebook, where college students were able to friend each other, and forged a new way to keep in touch with each other long after graduation, as people moved away from home.

 

Flash forward five years later, and Facebook starts their rise to the mainstream of society, where anyone can join, and even companies begin starting their own pages. By now, the "News Feed" becomes the central focus of the site, and it shows every post of all of your friends in one place. It annoyed the hell out of me (and countless others) at the time, but it's become part of the norm now.

 

Around this time, TV stations started to join the fold, creating their own pages, posting their stories on them, and into people's newsfeeds Some went the extra mile to show behind-the-scenes pictures, post promos, and even occasionally give away stuff like gas cards just by being their "friend". Seems like a great idea, right?

 

Flash forward to today.

 

Let's say that you "like" several TV stations across the country, all owned by different owners in different cities. You like them because you're from there, you want to go there, or are interested in their content they have to offer. Because of the "Liking & Sharing" that has become very common (and very annoying) on Facebook, it's getting pretty inane. The prospect of getting as many "likes" as possible has really had an effect on the content posted, and you'll see the same damn story five times over the course of a couple days, usually from a place far away from the actual station. Even worse, some stations will post useless garbage like crossword puzzles and baiting questions just to engage "discussion" and put the icing on the cake by saying "LIKE if you agree!...SHARE if you want something done!" Plus, stations have found ways to game the system by sneaking advertising into some of their posts.

 

Add to all of the other garbage mindlessly shared by others, and the actual content some people want to hear about is buried, and further lost as Facebook tweaks their algorithms to lose people you want to hear from, and puts the crap you don't want to see first in line because they're assuming you want to see more of it. :bang: :bang: :bang: The cycle completes itself when the station begins REPORTING on all of this garbage, because it's "trending", wasting time that could be covering actual news.

 

Well that's my rant....what are your thoughts?

[ns8401 846]

I'm glad WXYZ doesn't get too involved in like and share stuff. But facebook bugs me, I may be 24 and in their target group but it's an idiotic website.

[trev57 46]

I've noticed, at least in Milwaukee, it's all about getting more traffic to the stations' website. Stuff like "You won't believe what happened next. Click to see more", which then redirects to their website.

[Rusty Muck 4164]

WJW, back in 2011, had an on-air campaign for their Facebook fan page where their anchors lip-synched to Pitbull & Enrique Iglesias's "I Like It."

 

I can't find the video, but you probably get the idea.

[C Block 1487]

That same content will probably also be repeated across tons of newscasts across the country. It's that same story of the kid on meth who drove his Cadillac into a 7-11 in Florida, because, well, I guess that's interesting. That's a ratings tactic that's nothing new.

 

Facebook did change their algorithm for pages recently though, and it reduced the view counts of a lot of pages. One of the things they down-rate pages for is the "Like this if you agree." "Share this if you're outraged," etc. posts. Those types of posts no longer get pages the viral range that they once enjoyed with them.

[tyrannical bastard 3444]

 

WJW, back in 2011, had an on-air campaign for their Facebook fan page where their anchors lip-synched to Pitbull & Enrique Iglesias's "I Like It."

 

I can't find the video, but you probably get the idea.

 

If I had a nickel for all of the Harlem Shakes, Pharell's "Happy", and all of the stupid and insipid covers of "Let It Go".....

 

And all of the "friend drives" stations conduct when they're thisclose to a milestone number, like 150,000! I do remember WJW's drive to 100,000 included a donation to a local animal society if they reached the mark.

[MidwestTV 1173]

What really annoys me is that my Facebook advertises the Facebooks of other TV stations all around the nation. If I go to a stations' FB in, let's say, Wichita, Kansas, I will forever be advertised the markets' stations. It's really annoying.

 

Individually, what a station can do to really annoy me is act so damn personal with the viewers, meaning that they communicate with you as if you've been personal friends with that station for years. No, just don't, PLEASE. Your job is to report me the news, not act all buddy-buddy with me. One of the web producers at KCTV uses the station's Facebook page as if it's her own personal Facebook. i.e "I got so mad when I read this story..." "I can't believe what happened here..." "Oh my gosh, this is so cool! I've always wanted to do this..." (not exact quotes, but you get the idea). That one web producer makes me want to unlike the station, but I don't because I don't like KMBC so I don't want to replace KCTV with them. I already got KSHB and WDAF.

[jerseyfla 193]

What I can't stand is all the dummies who harass the station through their Facebook page on programming decisions, most of them are out of the station's control too. The station does the viewer a courtesy by posting a programming note that a sporting event will be shown in the afternoon instead of their soap operas or syndicated programming and instead of viewers thanking them they get all vile on them through Facebook.

 

WKRG in Mobile is the one who gets picked on the most of any of the pages I follow, especially during NCAA Tournament time or when CBS broadcasts the Sun Bowl if New Years Eve is on a weekday. You get 80-100 viewers playing armchair programming director saying "this sucks!", "it should be on ESPN!", "You can't interrupt my stories (soaps)!", blah, blah, blah. But when Alabama or Auburn is playing for the BCS National Championship, which has been happening for the last 4 years on ESPN, those same 80-100 people are wanting to rip the GM's head off or some people have tried to contact their congressman because the game is on ESPN and they don't have cable and "All Tide/Tiger games are always on Channel 5!".

 

Another thing that will make a station's FB page a living hell for a few months is if you live in a small market like I do where networks were fed from outside markets and then your local stations establish those networks on subchannels and thus those outside affiliates disappear from cable and/or satellite. When WWL and then WDSU disappeared from Directv and Dish there was a HUGE uproar on WLOX and WXXV's FB pages. And what made it worse was before that, Fox mandated that WVUE and WALA be taken off area cable systems to protect WXXV which at the time had no newscasts like the outside stations did so people were threatening to lodge FCC complaints if WVUE or WALA didn't come back to their cable system.

 

I guess FB pages in these ways free up some lines on the station's telephone switchboard, haha!

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

What really annoys me is that my Facebook advertises the Facebooks of other TV stations all around the nation. If I go to a stations' FB in, let's say, Wichita, Kansas, I will forever be advertised the markets' stations. It's really annoying.

 

Individually, what a station can do to really annoy me is act so damn personal with the viewers, meaning that they communicate with you as if you've been personal friends with that station for years. No, just don't, PLEASE. Your job is to report me the news, not act all buddy-buddy with me. One of the web producers at KCTV uses the station's Facebook page as if it's her own personal Facebook. i.e "I got so mad when I read this story..." "I can't believe what happened here..." "Oh my gosh, this is so cool! I've always wanted to do this..." (not exact quotes, but you get the idea). That one web producer makes me want to unlike the station, but I don't because I don't like KMBC so I don't want to replace KCTV with them. I already got KSHB and WDAF.

 

As someone who likes both KMBC and KCTV's Facebook page, KMBC isn't much better at that than KCTV is.

 

(I know exactly what you're talking about too)

[Weeters 1806]

Welcome to the age of the "social media producer" who's only job is to post mindless drivel to the station's Facebook page in an effort to "connect" with the viewers. Of course, part of that is seeing what the viewers like and imitating that. Buzzfeed is popular, so that must mean it's time to cull the internet for the Top Ten Cheeseburgers That Totally Look Like Bill Clinton and fill everyone's feed with that, right under the story about how three people were killed overnight. A lot of these are syndicated through station groups, CMS systems, and affiliate wires, and half of those seem to be written by interns who did the bare minimum of research before they churned out a story about the "Top 13 Totally Weird Things That Actually Happened".

 

Then there's the "viral" content. I follow stations from all across the country and it seems to take three, four, even five days for the same stupid "viral" story to filter through them all.

 

And then come the comments. Oh lordy, the comments. Dog stuck in a tree? Someone's going to find a way to blame Obama. And if the story is even remotely political, just log off.

 

The "golden age" of the TV station Facebook page was when they actually tried to interact and not jam garbage content down our throats in an effort to please the sales department.

[TriangleTriadMediaNews 267]

WRAL gets attacked every time they break into programming to cover severe WX or other breaking news, especially if it's during soap operas, even if they delegate regular programming to 5.2, they'll catch shit for it because of the amount of people w/ satellite TV around here, and believe it or not... Obama has been blamed for them breaking in to cover a tornado warning.

[MidwestTV 1173]

What's really funny (and ironic in some cases) is when a station does something that's immensely unpopular that pisses off the viewers, the viewers go to the station's Facebook page, moan and groan and complain about it...only to have their comments deleted. That, in turn, causes even more hell because it's obvious that comments are being deleted. The irony comes into play when the station mentions on its page and sometimes on air encouraging viewers to go and write and interact on their Facebook. How can you encourage us to interact and comment on your Facebook only to go and delete our comments because you've done something stupid and we're voicing our opinions about it...something that you've asked us to do?

 

The reason why is obvious, they don't want any bad publicity, but it's still incredibly stupid.

 

(I'm looking at you, KMBC)

[tyrannical bastard 3444]

 

Welcome to the age of the "social media producer" who's only job is to post mindless drivel to the station's Facebook page in an effort to "connect" with the viewers. Of course, part of that is seeing what the viewers like and imitating that. Buzzfeed is popular, so that must mean it's time to cull the internet for the Top Ten Cheeseburgers That Totally Look Like Bill Clinton and fill everyone's feed with that, right under the story about how three people were killed overnight. A lot of these are syndicated through station groups, CMS systems, and affiliate wires, and half of those seem to be written by interns who did the bare minimum of research before they churned out a story about the "Top 13 Totally Weird Things That Actually Happened".

 

Then there's the "viral" content. I follow stations from all across the country and it seems to take three, four, even five days for the same stupid "viral" story to filter through them all.

 

And then come the comments. Oh lordy, the comments. Dog stuck in a tree? Someone's going to find a way to blame Obama. And if the story is even remotely political, just log off.

 

The "golden age" of the TV station Facebook page was when they actually tried to interact and not jam garbage content down our throats in an effort to please the sales department.

 

Don't even get me started on Buzz-feed speak......this way of conversing on this forum will completely totally blow your minds!

 

My personal favorite is a certain station group asking baiting questions about Obamacare, Benghazi and the like EVERY DAY, in addition to all of the garbage mentioned above. Any guesses?

[ns8401 846]

 

Don't even get me started on Buzz-feed speak......this way of conversing on this forum will completely totally blow your minds!

 

My personal favorite is a certain station group asking baiting questions about Obamacare, Benghazi and the like EVERY DAY, in addition to all of the garbage mentioned above. Any guesses?

 

Fox

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

Fox

 

Either that or one of the local Sinclair stations.

[sanewsguy 509]

My least favorite part about social media with local stations is perverts going on and making sexual comments about or to the attractive personalities. It's kind of irritating and disturbing to read really.

[tyrannical bastard 3444]

Another problem is when the "social media producer's" primary influence is their own friend list, where seemingly innocuous people turn into idiots because of the unproven and worthless stuff they mindlessly share and agree with.

[rkolsen 1675]

My least favorite part about social media with local stations is perverts going on and making sexual comments about or to the attractive personalities. It's kind of irritating and disturbing to read really.

This is a reason why there is a feature on pages that only allow station personnel to post the stories relegating the fans to only reply.

[tyrannical bastard 3444]

Bumping this thread for a very good reason...

 

Kudos to stations like WCMH that go out and debunk the questionable content that infiltrate's peoples' news feeds. In this case, they tackled the "ice water for dogs" post that resurfaced a few days back after being dormant for several years....(this is another problem with Social Media...all it takes is a couple dimwits and trolls to re-viralize something!!!)

 

Here's their report....http://www.nbc4i.com/story/25830584/is-ice-water-really-dangerous-for-dogs

 

Stations need to be doing this.....A LOT MORE! After all, isn't the purpose of news to report the facts and seek out the truth?

 

Instead of posting trending garbage like the sexy felon, it's getting to the point where seemingly intelligent people are getting fooled by this garbage on a daily basis. Stop the problem at the root with some actual reporting and research!

[AaronQ 259]

 

Bumping this thread for a very good reason...

 

Kudos to stations like WCMH that go out and debunk the questionable content that infiltrate's peoples' news feeds. In this case, they tackled the "ice water for dogs" post that resurfaced a few days back after being dormant for several years....(this is another problem with Social Media...all it takes is a couple dimwits and trolls to re-viralize something!!!)

 

Here's their report....http://www.nbc4i.com/story/25830584/is-ice-water-really-dangerous-for-dogs

 

Stations need to be doing this.....A LOT MORE! After all, isn't the purpose of news to report the facts and seek out the truth?

 

Instead of posting trending garbage like the sexy felon, it's getting to the point where seemingly intelligent people are getting fooled by this garbage on a daily basis. Stop the problem at the root with some actual reporting and research!

 

And here's the post from their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152096127432751&set=a.100459317750.102871.38342932750&type=1

[tyrannical bastard 3444]

A bright side of Facebook....the opportunity for viewers (and fans) to tear a station a new one for a decision they made....

WDSU has taken a lot of heat for their decision to black out the 4th hour of the Today Show because of Karen Swensen (who works at WWL) making a guest appearance with fellow WWL alum Hoda Kotb....

http://www.wwl.com/WDSU-takes-a-beating-over-Today-Show-blackout/19304868 (scroll down to see the statement from WDSU's facebook page and over 1,000 responses!)

 

I'm waiting for the day that a station's facebook page is the subject of a mass de-friending for something that has a sizeable impact on their numbers...

[sanewsguy 509]

Our decision not to air the fourth hour of the "Today Show" follows a longstanding practice. WDSU does not enable the promotion of anchors on other local television stations through roles as hosts of programs on our television station. We regret the circumstances that required us to make this decision.

Dumbest "policy" ever...

[rkolsen 1675]

Dumbest "policy" ever...

It is but it makes sense, especially when she will promote the station she's at now.

 

Also I wonder if they blocked out the 2AM/1C edition of the fourth hour?

[tyrannical bastard 3444]

In a place like New Orleans, this seems very out of character. There is lots of cross-over, especially with semi-natives like Robin Roberts (and her sister Sally Ann who's at WWL), and even city-wide responses to the recent retirement of Norman Robinson and the passings of legends Nash Roberts and Buddy D.

 

I didn't see the show, but for those who saw it said that they made no mention of Karen's current role. In hindsight, they would have benefited more just by airing it, and getting hordes of WWL viewers to switch over to WDSU instead of angering a swarm of viewers who were expecting to see one of their own on a national TV show. And it's the FOURTH hour of the Today show a wine-infused gab-fest, not like it was one of their newscasts or something!

 

WDSU had better pray that Bob Breck doesn't catch the Weather Channel's attention....because if he does, and a storm is coming to New Orleans, WDSU would be well-advised not to enforce their "policy".

[cg41386 131]

I've noticed, at least in Milwaukee, it's all about getting more traffic to the stations' website. Stuff like "You won't believe what happened next. Click to see more", which then redirects to their website.

A little unrelated, but I've noticed some stations do the same thing when they send out push alerts on the iPhone/iPad. It'll be a teaser, essentially, and then it'll say tune into (insert upcoming newscast here). WCAU and WABC are guilty of this practice, I'm sure there are others.