NCME Webinar: Learning with The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!™

Wednesday, February 16, 2011 3:30-4:30 p.m. ET

NCME and KQED will host a webinar to introduce PBS station outreach, education, and community engagement staff to opportunities for educational community engagement using this series and website resources. Join in to learn about resources for building science explorers in your community.

To register for this webinar visit http://mediaengage.org/renewUpgrade/webinars/02-16-11.cfm .

iMA Conference, Partnering with SXSW Interactive

In case you haven’t heard, iMA is partnering with SXSW Interactive this year, March 10-15, 2011. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear about and connect with the most innovative initiatives in pub media AND attend the world’s premier conference on emerging trends. Both events in one travel budget. Every session is focused on giving you ways to make a difference immediately! Here is a glimpse of what you’ll see at iMA:

• Jason Seiken (PBS) and Kinsey Wilson (NPR) explaining their Local / National Strategies and ways for you to take advantage of them.
• How to create a mobile strategy that makes sense and examples of the best mobile apps.
• How to ensure success on-line by incorporating web analytics into your business planning.

Plus advanced social media concepts, how to start collaborating, building a multi-platform team and even a little fun with some of the new talent in our industry. For more information visit www.integratedmedia.org/conference

For answers to all your iMa questions, contact Jeannie Ericson (jericson@integratedmedia.org), 404.822.6123.

PBS Social Media Stats for January 2011

Perhaps you received a message from PBS’s Director, GA Digital Marketing & Communications, Kevin Dando announcing that PBS is doing the largest hyper-targeted Facebook ad campaign PBS has ever done or you’ve noticed that the PBS Facebook Fan Page has surpassed 500,000 fans – either way this is great news for stations as you can leverage PBS for your own promotions.

Next week we’ll have more details on how you can set up your own social media dashboards and tracking. In the meantime, we’d like to share some of our January stats regarding PBS’s major social media outposts, with comparison to December’s numbers.

PBS KIDS Facebook Fans: 28,875 (up 10% over previous month)
PBS KIDS Facebook Monthly Impressions: 1,326,763 (up 33% over previous month)
PBS KIDS Twitter Followers: 6,003 (up 13% over previous month)
PBS Facebook Fans: 481,049 (up 2% over previous month)
PBS Facebook Monthly Impressions: 98,786,112 (up 18% over previous month)
PBS Twitter Followers: 637,955 (up 2% over previous month)
PBS YouTube Videos Viewed: 4,462,846 (up 12% over previous month -- all time monthly high)

Sources:
Twitter follower data source: www.twittercounter.com (followers calculated as of the first of the month)
YouTube view source: TubeMogul
Facebook data source: Facebook Insights (fans calculated as of the first of the month)

The entire FY 2011 social media stats dashboard is at http://to.pbs.org/socialstatsfy2011

Improve your SEO: Five Easy Steps for Better On-Page Optimization

Improving your search engine optimization (SEO) doesn’t have to be a complicated process. Although investing in SEO audits, rethinking site structure and information architectures, developing a stronger SEO-focused content strategy, and other ‘big picture’ projects can create significant benefits in the effectiveness of your site’s organic web traffic, it never hurts to start with the basics. By simply understanding what search keywords your station should be targeting and applying our five easy steps for better on-page optimization, your station can start improving its SEO today. When consistently applied, the steps outlined in this guide can immediately impact your pages' search relevancy, which will help you improve search engine rankings across the board. Additionally, the cumulative effect of better rankings, higher click-through rate to your site, and stronger engagement by visitors who land on your pages drives better performance all around.


READ THE WHOLE STORY TO LEARN MORE >>

Make Your Local News Coverage National: Health Care Law

This is your chance to ensure your own community’s news coverage is included in a national spotlight. PBSNews.org needs your links to online articles, interviews, investigations, videos, and data collections related to the health care law.

This is a great opportunity to drive traffic to news and information on your web presence. If your station has covered health care law on your site, please send your links or any questions you might have to Matt Vree, PBSNews.org Senior Producer (mdvree@pbs.org).

Baby Zimmerman, Coming Soon

The time is near to add the newest member to the SPI team as baby Zimmerman is due to arrive in the next couple of weeks.  I will be out on maternity leave beginning the week of February 21st through the end of May and while I will miss the daily interaction with working adults, my responsibilities will be covered by the SPI team, which I feel so lucky to be a part of and I thank them in advance for their help while I’m out.

As many of you know, I am the PBS Interactive lead on all things TV Schedules for station sites, including the relationship between PBS and Rovi, our online data provider for TV Schedules information.  I have left this core product in good hands, so fear not.  If issues, questions or concerns arise, please send them to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org and you will be assisted.

For initial assistance and general TV Schedule questions, please visit the TV Schedules Resource Center in Station Remote Control here: http://www.pbs.org/remote.control/toolsindex/services/TV%20Schedules%20Resource%20Center/index.html


While the road that lies ahead will no doubt be filled with sleepless nights, I’m excited to finally “join the club” of parenthood and welcome any tips, suggestions, or wonderful stories from your experiences as I head down this exciting, but unfamiliar road of being a new mommy.

Take care and be safe during this crazy winter weather!

Meaghan

FYI Corner: Facebook Insights, Socially Aware Metrics

By now, many people swear by Google Analytics to decipher all of their internet metrics, but using Google to get the right analytics for social sites can be difficult. Enter Facebook Insights: a free tool for Facebook Page owners and Platform developers that provides real-time metrics and can help stations always post the best content.

READ THE WHOLE STORY TO LEARN MORE >>