The old adage "Sex, UFOs and Elvis" sells news better than anything, was proven wrong on Nov. 5 in Bluffton.
When a 6-buck decided to explore the inside of Luke's Bar and Grill on Main Street, it was like sex-ufos-elvis all rolled into one. As a result The Bluffton Icon had it highest-ever single view day.
After the clock struck 12 on the 5th here's the results:
- 1,272 total views (compared to 623 total views the previous Friday, which was already a high number)
- 974 individuals visited The Icon
- Views were from 28 states, Brazil and some countries we can't spell.
- As of early Saturday morning 806 persons clicked on the story to view the photos.
The normal 30-day average daily total view on The Icon is close to 600. The number of individual visits to The Icon in the past 30 days prior to Friday was 4,820.
When factoring in that we posted the deer photo around 3:30 p.m., the numbers become more impressive.
As we watched the total number of views after posting the photo, we recorded 100 in the first hour. We also saw that 50 viewers were on the Icon at the same time, which is the highest number we've seen. Usually from 15 to 20 viewers visit The Icon site at the same time.
For example, as we are writing this story at 8:40 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 6, 14 viewers are on The Icon site.
To prove the strength of social media, once we posted the photo, we posted a message to our Facebook friends. The viewer explosion took off from there.
Like a stone tossed into a lake, the ripple-effect continues as new viewers find story photo story on The Icon. They, in turn, share it with others.
As a footnote, we'd like to thank Luke Young for calling us on this news tip. He called us around 3:05 p.m. shortly after the deer left the hit-and-run scene. We also appreciated viewing the various scenes from his security cameras.
If he didn't already run a pizza business, we'd give him a free pizza for the tip of the week.
Viewers are welcome to offer other prize suggestions we might consider giving Luke for this great news tip.
