#second screen experience

[madmediamaven]

[digitallablive]

Harnessing Twitter for TV

In one of the most popular (by proof of attendance) sessions I’ve attended at SxSW was lead by Jenn Deering Davis of Union Metrics, “How Twitter Has Changed How We Watch TV”. While the session was packed with insights and recommendations, I felt that the title was misleading. If anything, it gave marketers a toolkit on how to best leverage Twitter for the show development and marketing of television shows. Hey, I’m not complaining at all.

Here were Jenn’s strategies for how to best engage TV viewers on Twitter: -Build interest. Prior to the launch or season premiere of a show, think about how you can get viewers to talk about and anticipate the show. Although it’s not the absolute metric, a key indicator in predicting a show’s success is by measuring the volume of Twitter conversation that a show garners within its first week. FOX’s Terra Nova earned only 90K tweets in its first week, but Pretty Little Liars (one of the tweeted-about shows on television) earned 90K tweets within 2 hours. Soon after its debut, Terra Nova was considered a flop and was unfortunately canceled. Before the third season of Raising Hope was aired, the producers of the show debuted its season premiere on Twitter an entire week prior to the TV broadcast, earning plenty of Twitter conversations and shares, which helped to increase buzz about the show. For weeks prior to the Grammy’s, the awards show’s official handle released tweets of images and videos showcasing what the stars would be eating, drinking and more, building interest and anticipation for the upcoming broadcast -Increase discovery. 3 out of 10 people watch TV shows because of recommendations from their friends on Twitter. Amplify these conversations by activating Twitter advertising. Leverage the fan base of another show with a similar audience. For example, to promote Castle, the team conducted outreach to Firefly fans, and even incorporated clever cameos of the Firefly cast to increase viewership -Engage fans. The folks behind Archer created Twitter accounts for each character to extend story lines beyond each week’s episode, giving fans a chance to stay entertained by the show for the entire week, as opposed to half an hour every week -Participate in real-time. Last week on American Idol, the AT&T Idol Fan Meter asked fans to tweet to the show about whether they agreed or disagreed with feedback from the judges (disclosure: AT&T is a BBDO client that I work on). The Pretty Little Liars Twitter account tweets with fans during the show, retweeting and reacting to their commentary -Incorporate viewer feedback. Although Twitter is not a completely accurate representation of all TV audiences, it’s still important to monitor and analyze what’s being said about your show

The phrase “second screen experience” has been exhausted in marketing over the last few years, but it’s clear that Twitter remains one of the key ways to build a fan base and extend engagement among TV viewers.

[gorgeousanon]