NPR's Facebook app

Posted at 3:24 PM on April 14, 2011 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Media

NPR has rolled out a new Facebook app that -- with any luck at all -- might distract your friends from all of those quizzes that suddenly seem to be spamming things.

Andrew Phelps -- if you recognize him from the guy who created WBUR's Hubbub, you really are a public radio nerd -- writes at the Neiman Journalism Lab:

The new Facebook app called I Heart NPR asks fans to put themselves on a map with thousands of others. Users can play games, such as Name That NPR Theme Song (I earned four-of-four virtual tote bags, thank you), and then share the results with friends. Secret games will be "unlocked" with every 100,000 new users, according to Kinsey Wilson, NPR's general manager of digital media.

It's not entirely clear what the point is of the map of NPR listeners since you can only find yourself on it and most people -- especially public radio people -- already know who and where they are...

Find it here.

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Comments (3)

Most be going after the substantial "What else can I do that would be an utter waste of time?" market demographic.

Posted by Jim Shapiro | April 14, 2011 4:04 PM

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What's the point? C'mon, look how pretty that map is. I imagine that would come in handy if NPR were ever forced to argue that they serve a representative cross-section of the U.S., of every political stripe and therefore deserve federal funding.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | April 14, 2011 6:26 PM

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Yeah, but I don't think the map shows you that. I think it shows you the relative popularity/density of public radio listeners in a particular location compared to public radio listeners in another location.

Of course, it also shows you there are lots of public radio stations.

Posted by Bob Collins | April 14, 2011 8:05 PM

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