The Knight News Challenge used social media like Facebook, Twitter and blogs to promote its 2008-09 competition with a small team and limited budget. It achieved a 47% increase in web traffic, 50% more unique visitors, and 100% more blog posts about the program compared to the previous year. The social media plan included blogging, local meetups, an online community called the Garage for peer review and mentoring, Facebook groups and events, email blasts, and outreach to influencers on Twitter and blogs. By budgeting time and a small amount of money, strategically planning content and measuring results, the Knight News Challenge was able to successfully promote the competition through free social media tools.