I know you’re planning to watch tonight’s basketball game. I am, too. But I already know the big winners of the March bracket: The Trentonian and First N’ Ten.
After a competitive month with strong community engagement, the Trentonian’s Facebook fans have chosen the best bar in Trenton. Jeff Edelstein, columnist and engagement whiz, who says his role was simply to “publicize on social media and host our live TV bits,” explains (lightly edited):
Our editor, Mike Topel, had the idea to have a “best bar” tourney to coincide with March Madness. He enlisted Joe D’Aquila to figure it out. Joe and I then posted on our FB’s and Twitter, and on the Trentonian’s, looking for nominations. Relatively unscientific, but it worked. Got 32 entries. Picked ’em out of a hat. Joe set up Facebook polls on the Trentonian page for the first round.
Honestly, I was expecting blah results.
I was blown away.
Each round had each matchup getting hundreds of votes. A few of the bars in the Final 4 got together to donate some money to charity. That got convoluted, but D’Aquila stepped into it, went to the Trentonian FB page, told everyone they had an hour to nominate a charity. Thirty got nominated. He set up another trio of polls, giving everyone an hour to vote. And the winner was Capital K-9 Association, run by a Trenton police officer, that raises money to buy bullet-proof vests for police dogs. The two finalists each donated $500.
Also, both bar owners said they were exhausted from the contest, and that it was THE topic of conversation for the two weeks it was going on among patrons. I presume the same can be said for other bars that made it past the first cut.
The final matchup was First N’ Ten vs. Sportsman’s Pub.
We closed it out Friday with a live Trentonian TV bit produced by Joey Kulkin, giving away prizes, interviewing bartenders, what have you.
In the few weeks since this began, I think we gained something like 500 new followers to the FB page and our FB “reach” — whatever that means — has skyrocketed, from 4,000 to 50,000 during the contest.
I think the plan is to do “best diner” next, bringing the ad dept. into the mix and figuring out a way to get the polls on the Trentonian website instead of FB. Pizza — a dangerous topic around these parts — is also on the docket. A lot of great background work on this project from D’Aquila. He really ran with it.
Tune in to Trentonian TV, Friday at 11:30 am for the Greatest Bar in Greater Trentonaward show! bit.ly/vZFdZh #TrentonianBarBracket
— Joe D’Aquila (@Joe_Daquila) March 29, 2012
In the voting, First N Ten defeated Sportsmen’s Pub, 1,410 to 1,330.
Thanks to Jeff for passing along this story. More stories about Digital First journalists at work (keep ’em coming, colleagues):
Coverage of deadly fire shows Daily Mail’s Digital First progress
What does an engagement editor do? Digital First editors answer
Michigan tornado coverage shows off Heritage journalists’ digital skills
Oakland Press collects community photos of children with a statue
Troy Record’s breaking news coverage drives Facebook discussion
An engaged reporter: no longer ‘just a fly on the wall’
Pottstown Mercury engages bloggers in community food drive
Facebook engagement tips: Use breaking news photos and calls to action
Jeff Edelstein uses Klout to reach people interested in his content
Valentine’s Day: a perfect opportunity for community engagement
Community internships: Oakland Press helps bloggers develop skills
Google+ Hangout helps with video interviews
Banjo app helped Andy Stettler find local tweets
Lisa Fernandez shares a crowdsourcing (or fetching) lesson
Buffy Andrews’ tips for daily beat checks using HootSuite
Larry Altman’s account of live-tweeting a breaking news story
Examples of live-tweeting government meetings
A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom
Romeo and Juliet on Facebook: great fun and community engagement
San Pedro landslide shows power of social media
Reach out through Facebook to gather information on tragic stories
Engagement opportunities: weather, elections, sports, school fun
Denver Post social media use delivers on mountain lion vs. kitty story
Opening our Journal Register newsrooms to the community
Include staff members’ usernames in tweets promoting your content
Crowdsourcing Hurricane Irene recovery map in Connecticut
JRC journalists use social media to cover earthquake and hurricane
Trentonian uses Google+ and other tools to cover apartment shooting
Steve, the link to joey’s blog is broken here:
We closed it out Friday with a live Trentonian TV bit
the end of link contains a “tre” that breaks it.
Thks for fixing ,)
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Fixed it. Thanks, Sam!
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