{"id":315,"date":"2011-01-19T00:54:19","date_gmt":"2011-01-19T05:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tim.mcguinn.es\/s\/?p=315"},"modified":"2015-07-23T01:18:54","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T01:18:54","slug":"315","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tim.mcguinn.es\/s\/?p=315","title":{"rendered":"Estimating Views: Newspapers vs Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Vineyard<\/a>

Image via Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

Some people do puzzles to stay sharp, I like to run a marketing model.\u00a0 The kind where I\u00a0set up a spreadsheet, make some assumptions and justifiable estimates, and then hope like hell my hypothesis is in the ballpark. From there I usually have to spin it to make it easy to digest.\u00a0 Good times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This week an idea came up about the effectiveness of using PR to support a regional project that would cover Central to Western NY vs using a Facebook<\/a> Fan page.<\/p>\n

Here’s some background with the names changed.<\/p>\n

About the Newspapers:
\n<\/strong>Below are the five largest regional newspapers and their circulations that I found by searching around.\u00a0 The two assumptions that I added are:
\na) Views – each purchased newspaper is viewed twice
\nb) Impressions – I assumed that an article like this would be read by 20% of the buyers.<\/p>\n

Bottom Line:<\/em> Getting an article in each newspaper in the region would be seen by 180,000 people.<\/p>\n

NEWSPAPER\u00a0   Circ\u00a0    Readers\/Circ\u00a0  Views\u00a0 Impressions\nBuffalo\u00a0   160,000\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\nRoch\u00a0      119,000\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\nSyr\u00a0        85,000\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\nBing\u00a0       65,000\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\nElmira\u00a0     23,000\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0          452,000\u00a0          2\u00a0       0.2\u00a0   180,800<\/pre>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Now, Facebook:
\n<\/strong>a) Group size – I used 30,000. I realize that this is a fairly large group, but there is a similar group in the region that already has more fans than this, so it is certainly achievable either working independently or doing a coordinated project with the other group.
\nb) Impressions – Total impressions are generated by getting “Like” clicks and comments that will then get your post to appear on Facebook walls of non-fans. To determine how many impression a single announcement post would get, I used 5 impressions\/fan. This is a very conservative estimate since it is\u00a0based on the impressions I get for another project that is non-consumer so less viral, but let’s go with 5.<\/p>\n
FACEBOOK\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\nGroup Size\u00a0\u00a0 Impressions\/Fan\u00a0   Total Impressions\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a030,000\u00a0         \u00a05\u00a0            \u00a0150,000<\/pre>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
Bottom Line:<\/em> A post to our groups Facebook page would get 150,000 impressions.<\/p>\n
From the bottom line numbers it seems like newspapers would still prove the strongest plan.<\/p>\n
Intangibles:
\n<\/strong>If you ever placed a newspaper article, you know how much work it is. Now think about doing that for five newspapers. It’s a lot of work to get thos 180,000 views.\u00a0 Along with the work, you have also relinquished the message to local writer, so you have lost some control in the message.\u00a0Now let’s look at the effort for doing a Facebook post.\u00a0 Once you tweak the voice of your press\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now let’s look at the effort for doing a Facebook post.\u00a0 Once you tweak the voice of your press release to talk directly to your buying audience, you can post it right up.\u00a0 You control the message and you don’t have to do all the follow-up and scheduling involved in the newspaper placement.\u00a0 For this I estimate 150,000 views.<\/p>\n
But still 150K is still less than the 180K for the newspapers, so why is this better. First the work effort is less, but #2 is the big thing — you can do it again next week!!\u00a0 Why not? Add a few new pictures and an update to the schedule, and bam! Another 150,000 views.<\/p>\n
FACEBOOK\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\nStatus Update\u00a0Imp\/Fan\u00a0Fans: Finger Lakes Wines\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\nimp\/fan\u00a02\u00a030,000\u00a0\u00a062,821
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\nPicture Update\u00a04 to 6\u00a030,000\u00a0\u00a0150,000<\/p>\n
Related articles<\/h6>\n