It’s no secret that broadcast TV has never been as interactive as it is today, and audience involvement is growing even stronger with the advent of live-streaming capabilities on Facebook, YouTube and beyond. In fact, a good digital footprint can make or break a moment, cutting straight through all the noise.

In Los Angeles last week, KTLA 5 News had to move swiftly when gunman Mainak Sarkar killed a UCLA engineering professor on campus. Within minutes of the @UCLABruinAlert of the shooting that went out at 9:53 a.m. PT, the Tribune-owned station broke the news on-air, on its website and on Facebook and Twitter. Within 30 minutes, KTLA had a helicopter and crew on scene. The station even published live breaking-news coverage on Facebook using Facebook Live. By 11:00 a.m. PT, the station had hundreds of thousands of views of the embedded live video stream of its on-air broadcast. The post ended up with more than 1.4 million views and more than 15,000 shares, according to Olsen Ebright,executive producer digital, KTLA.

“I watched the live-stream on my computer,” commented one UCLA representative, whose building was on lockdown for most of the morning. “I think a lot of other people did too because not everyone has a TV in their office, and email updates just aren’t immediate enough in a crisis.”

But news isn’t the only place a station can build brand trust with their audience online. Stations across the country are turning more and more to social media to build stronger connections with their audience – even when the station is not on the air – and strengthen the power of their brands outside of traditional media.

As John Kukla, VP creative services at KDFW/KDFI Dallas-Fort Worth explains, “information is the vehicle that drives our ongoing relationship with our audience. What we know, what we’re learning, what our viewers are sharing with us. The key is to always be transparent, and avoid the temptation to tease. True social conversations involve real people talking to each other — not an institution ‘bringing down the tablets’ as TV news used to do. Our viewers rely on us, and we rely on them…and we never take that for granted.”

Brand Manager Carly Munoz at WOOD/WOTV Grand Rapids, Mich., understands the importance of knowing who a station’s audience is and delivering the online content that these audiences want.

“WOTV is an ABC affiliate that heavily focuses on lifestyle content and women’s programming and generally speaking, women typically tend to be frequent social media engagers at work and at home. The cool thing about live-streaming is you can take your viewers behind the scenes, whether it be news, a community event or a local TV show. It allows our audiences connect with talent in a very personal way – and with our station—- and gives them a unique perspective that people watching at home can’t see unless they follow you. Personal connections with our content strengthen brand loyalty and our relationships with our viewers, hands down.”

Stations that successfully use social media to support their brands know it’s not enough to just throw something “out there.” Strategy is more important than ever.

“Live-streaming and social media have changed our creative direction and promotion strategies tremendously over the past few years,” says Emily Mowers, director of marketing, at ABC affiliate WVEC Norfolk, Va. “It used to be, ‘storytelling, storytelling, storytelling.’ Now it is about story-sharing and story-framing. We don’t talk to our viewers, we talk with them. We empower our viewers to help shape the frame of our news and programming through social media so they feel like they are participating in the process. Oftentimes, viewers even give valuable feedback and questions that we may not have even thought of.”

The immediacy of live-streaming on social media caters to people’s “fear of missing out” (#FOMO) and enables viewers to be engaged in the moment. Authentic stories shared on multiple platforms allows viewers to feel like they are first to know — along with you — and builds trust and brand loyalty in ways we never dreamt of 10 years ago.

Get more great tips and ideas on how stations are successfully building brand loyalty through social media during the “#SocialLocal: Building Your Brand With Social Media” session on Thursday, June 23 at 2:15 p.m. in Montego ABC at the PromaxBDA Station Summit at the Mirage in Las Vegas.

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