Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, I got used to my home town being the butt of nightly jokes on national television. “On a clear day in Cleveland…you can see absolutely Nothing!” was a popular refrain from Johnny Carson. The “Mistake on the Lake”, the flaming Cuyahoga River, a mayor who skipped a Presidential visit to keep his bowling night – it all added up.

At the other end of Lake Erie is Buffalo, New York. No stranger to ridicule, the area has struggled economically while maintaining a fierce local charachter as the home of hard-working, value-preserving Americans.

Imagine the challenge of the local newspaper in this area. The Buffalo News not only operates in a tough advertising environment, but is battling what all newspapers are facing – extinction as consumers prefer to get their news and information from digital sources.

Imagine my surpise when I learned that the newspaper had established MyBuffalo.com and started Rack’em Up as an incentive program to drive participation in “Western New York’s Social Network“.

The program is simple, but effective. People are invited to enroll in order to participate and are then able to earn 50 points each for a variety of activities. Participants accumulating over 500 points per week are automatically entered into a random drawing to win one of three prizes.  The earning opportunity results from posting on a blog, starting a discussion forum topic, posting a video or photo or inviting friends to join MyBuffalo.com.

In a day where creativity and innovation is demanded for survival, I applaud the use of social networking by MyBuffalo.com to create reader engagement. I’m sure that subscriber retention and advertising rate support are goals of the program. It will be interesting to see evidence of success in reaching those two goals.

In the meantime, Let’s Go Buffalo!