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PUBLIC INTERACTIVE®

SCORE!
South Dakota Public Broadcasting
Wins Big With Public Action™

When your colleagues at South Dakota Public Broadcasting (SDPB) decided to start using Public Action, the community engagement tool from Public Interactive, they knew just when to do it: the day before the 2007 state football championships.

South Dakotans take their high school sports very seriously. Since launching Public Action in November, SDPB's Web site has attracted 744 comments in 27 discussions, all on high school athletics. And that's just the people who join in. Some 2,000 others visit the discussion pages on the network's Web site — every day.

The discussions are active, competitive and proud. They draw high school students, parents, fans who now live out of state, and armchair sports commentators. Like this one, expounding on the 2008 Boys AA Basketball tournament:
Amazing game between Mitchell and Yankton! ... I thought Mitchell was done for going down the stretch, but a great play at the end of regulation by Brett Young hitting the 3 in the corner while getting fouled and then having the composure to step to the line and hit the free throw to tie it. ... Can't wait to see how the rest of the tournament plays out.
SDPB's Kent Osborne courtside
SDPB Director of Online Services Kent Osborne says, "Public Action helps us connect to our community. People can send questions or stories to the announcers, so our producers follow the message boards during the games. Someone might write in and say, 'The kid playing today is the grandson of so-and-so who played years ago,' and we'll put that on the air." He adds, "We have people in Iraq and Afghanistan watching online, so we'll send out a special message to so-and-so in Afghanistan."

Sometimes, dealing with people who are so passionate about their teams has its challenges, but Public Action makes dealing with it simple. "We had an incident during the last boys basketball tournament where some things were said about a coach and his son," Osborne recalls. "We removed the discussion and locked it.

"We do use the self-moderating tool so people can alert a moderator when something is inappropriate. We'll review it and if they're right, we'll delete it. There are some opinionated fans, but that's fine. That's all a part of it. You let everyone have their say, as long as they're not violating the terms of the discussion area."

Although, the network has been covering high school sports on-air and online for years, SDPB radio doesn't broadcast games — it offers updates on the Web site. It's not much of a challenge to get South Dakotans to log on for high school sports, but SDPB still works hard to promote the full range of sports content it provides. "The TV announcers do a great job," Osborne says. "They pound the online content into the ground!"

In addition to the discussions, SDPB streams the game stats, using a system that's connected to the scoreboard and updates itself every three seconds. "We do that for all tournaments. Some people watch the live streams of both stats and video. We've got it all, and Public Action lets us generate discussions from everything we offer."

Next, SDPB plans to use Public Action in conjunction with an upcoming broadcast special on the State Capitol.

"People have been coming out of the woodwork with great stories about the Capitol and things that happen there,"Osborne says. "You can't fit every interesting story into one hour, but online, we can encourage people to share their stories and let them embed video, anything they want. Public Action will be a big part of allowing the discussion to continue."

Osborne and his SDPB colleagues are clearly strengthening ties to their communities statewide with Public Action, and the resulting goodwill is immeasurable.

Whether it's through high school sports, regional politics, local volunteerism or any one of a dozen other vehicles, you can use Public Action to engage your community and reap extraordinary benefits. To find out more, contact your PRI Client Relations Manager — today!