Amazing what you can learn about people by engaging with them online.
The news industry is getting used to this idea. For a couple of centuries, we used to talk "at" our readers. Oh, we would run the occasional letter to the editor, but for the most part it was a one-way conversation.
Those days are over.
Now we "engage" readers and ask them to take part in a conversation.
For the past week in Delaware County, the conversation has been about pizza.
And I discovered this - in Delaware County, pizza is serious business.
Everyone has their favorite pie, and they're more than willing to tell you about it, and defend the merits of their favorite.
All of this, of course, comes on the heels of something we called the March Madness of Delco Pizza.
It all started when Pica's - and their iconic rectangular pie with the sauce on top - made an impromptu appearance on the "Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon. Upper Darby homegirl Tina Fey was a guest on the show and was treated to some of her favorite pizza. It was quite the coup for Pica's.
Our story and Facebook post on the appearance was burning up cyberspace. That's when we noticed in the comments that people had very strong opinions about their favorite pizza. Pica's soon had a lot of competition.
That's when online editor Vince Carey and features editor Brian Freeman decided to put together our little contest, complete with a bracket patterned after the NCAA tournament. We started with 26 pizza joints. The online voting whittled it down to four. The final twosome - Gaetano's of Clifton Heights, and Clank's of Marcus Hook - came into the office last night for a special showing of our 'Live From the Newsroom' show.
My thanks to Cindy Shenkel, owner of Gaetano's, as well Michael and Dawn Clymer, from Clank's. They could not have been nicer. If you missed the show, you can watch the replay here.
We sampled both of their delicacies. They talked about their family enterprises, their history, and the importance of such small businesses in communities all across Delco. It sort of covered both ends of the county, with Clifton and the Hook both represented. Our friend Lorraine Ranalli joined us and talked about the long tradition of pizza in Delco.
The pies from both were dynamite. I have to admit I'm a thin crust guy, and Gaetano's was out of this world.
At the end of the show, we unveiled the online voting that had been held during the day. The vote went heavily to Clank's, but the truth is both are winners.
So was this little community engagement project. Just yesterday alone, more than 1,150 people voted in the championship round on our Facebook page promoting the contest. There were more than 130 comments posted.
In total we garnered more than 9,00 votes and 420,000 page views for the contest.
It was such a success we're thinking of making it a regular part of our online offerings. In May we're thinking about doing the best shore spot to kick off the summer season.
Once again, our deepest thanks to Gaetano's and Clank's for upholding the great tradition of Delco pizza.
When it comes to a slice of Delco, they're tops.
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