The November book is a fond memory – or distant, depending on how the numbers came back – and it seems like a quarter of the newsroom staff is out for the long awaited holidays. December is here, the staff is sluggy, and the news is slow. What can you do to generate a little content? Ask the viewers to send it to you.
Holiday video and pics on Twitter
Christmas is practically tomorrow, and it’s a weekend. There’s no one to shoot video and nothing to shoot, so ask your viewers to shoot video for you and post it to Twitter with the hashtag of your choice: #WXYZsurprise, #KZYXholiday, or the like. What’s in this content? Christmas stuff!
- Reaction pics of the kids opening gifts – love ’em or hate ’em, either reaction is good TV
- Your beautiful holiday light display
- Your neighbors’ hideous holiday light display
- Christmas morning show
- Dogs in Santa costumes
Put some thought into it and ask the viewers, they will deliver. (Better yet, make it a holiday pic contest! Ask support@socialnewsdesk.com about getting signed up for SND Campaigns, or as your SND client strategy specialist for details.)
Keep it going on New Year’s Eve
When the ball falls on the 31st, many people will be glad to see 2016 go. How are your viewers celebrating?
- Pics and video of “the final countdown” on New Year’s Eve
- Video tributes to your favorite personalities who passed on this year (man there were a lot in 2016, right?)
- Funny/sweet/awkward New Year’s Eve kisses
- Baby New Year pics; preferably of an actual baby, but Uncle Andy in a diaper is pretty funny, too
Get that stuff on air
Now that you have contributions from your viewers, you can use SND On Air to get that content on air!
If you asked your viewers to tweet the content with a specific hashtag, open a search column on your SND Dashboard for instances of that hashtag. If you asked your viewers to post the content to your Facebook wall, open your “Posts by Others” stream to your main Facebook page to pick them out.
As you find the content you want, click on the “…” in the lower right corner of each post and add the content to an SND On Air playlist. Did you realize that SND On Air can play back video from Facebook and Twitter on air as well as still pictures and posts? It can! With just a couple clicks, you’ve prepped that video to play back in your on air display with audio if you like!
Need help setting up your first playlist? Want more information about getting signed up for SND On Air? Give us a shout at support@socialnewsdesk.com.
