NYT Scores Facebook Goals

An internal memo reveals that the New York Times has succeeded in its goal to attract over 100,000 Facebook fans during 2008.

Extracts from the missive feature on the Nieman Journalism Lab blog and they show how much value the newspaper is placing on its social networking strategy.

It was issued after the Times followed up Barack Obama’s election victory with a big push on Facebook.

This included encouraging members to submit suggestions about Obama’s first actions once taking office, creating gift icons celebrating his presidential victory and a front-page advert.

NYT president Scott Heekin-Canedy writes in the memo that as a result of the strategy: “We increased our number of fans more than three times in just 24 hours - from 49,000 to 164,000 - and in the process far exceeded our 2008 goal of 100,000 fans.”

He adds: “Possibly the greatest success of this campaign, however, is that our fans continue to rapidly grow…into a powerful, free word-of-mouth network that we will leverage for future marketing messages.”

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