Millions tuned in Friday to watch Conan O’Brien’s last episode of “The Tonight Show.” A few fans here in Fargo, ND were watching for more than just his final monologue. Earlier this month, local Top 40 radio station Y-94 offered Conan a morning show sidekick gig to solve his post-Tonight Show employment problem. They sent the press release to local media and hoped it would get picked up in the Forum and local TV stations. Imagine their surprise when Conan discussed the job offer on the air:

Conan invited viewers to vote on his next move on The Tonight Show blog, and Y-94 activated their fans to campaign on their behalf. I want to highlight what happened over the course of the next week as a great example of how a movement can spread organically through social media. I asked The Morning Playhouse co-host Zero a few questions about what happened next, and how the Fargo-Moorhead community jumped into action.

Flint: You posted a job offer to Conan on your website. How did he find out about it?
Zero: We assume he Googled himself, or someone from his show Googled “Conan O’Brien job offers” since they knew he wanted to do that bit. The next day we started getting phone calls saying, “You were on The Tonight Show, did you see it?” Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that he would mention it on the air.

F: The next thing I saw was the Facebook group, Conan O’Brien to Y94 and Fargo!!! Go Vote. Did you make that on behalf of the station, or was that organic?
Z: That was an NDSU student who has no affiliation to the station. He was a listener who made the group and sent us a bunch of emails that first night to tell us about it. It was really fun to watch that group grow before our eyes. It went up to over 5,000 members in just a few days. [ed. note: currently the group has over 7,900 members]

F: What other social media content did you create, or did you see fans create?
Z: There were a few smaller Facebook groups, but the first one was by far the biggest one. We posted a few YouTube videos and we also saw some Fargo high school kids had made their own video, which we posted on our Morning Show Facebook page.

F: Why do you think the listening community got so passionate about this cause?
Z: When Conan mentioned it on the show, he didn’t just say “become a morning show sidekick on Y-94,” he said “become a morning show sidekick on Y-94 in Fargo, North Dakota.” It struck a chord with people in Fargo because it’s not too often that Fargo gets a national shout-out. Especially for something positive. Usually it’s when we’re flooded. Also, Y-94, Conan O’Brien, and Facebook all have a younger audience, so it was kind of the perfect storm. It made sense that it would spread over Facebook.

F: Did you win the voting on the blog?
Z: We did win, we ended up with 44% of the votes.

F: I thought the “adult film” option was going to win, to be honest.
Z: Yeah, it is hard to beat that!

F: Did Conan mention Y-94 in his last episode of The Tonight Show?
Z: No, he didn’t. But we’re still hoping something else might come out of it. We’ve made a lot of phone calls so we’re not giving up yet…

Zero is right on when he says that this is an example of a “perfect storm” for social media. Conan O’Brien fans across the country have been creating Team Coco Facebook groups; Conan-related graphics have been created, remixed, re-tweeted, and posted on blogs. When Fargo was mentioned on the air, the cause became especially relevant to Y-94 listeners. Add that enthusiasm to a specific action that people can take, such as voting, and you have all the ingredients for a successful Facebook campaign.

What other Facebook movements have you seen that developed organically?

Special thanks to Zero of Y94 for making this post possible.