Our CEO, Josh March, spoke on “Social Telly: from Campaigning to Commentary to Community Building” yesterday for Social Media Week, a global conference currently held across 9 cities including London. Chaired by Editor-in-Chief of New Media Age, Michael Nutley, other speakers included MD of KEO Digital, Nick Underhill, Channel 4′s Multiplatform Commissioning Editor and BBC Vision’s Social Media Exec., Rowan Kerek Robertson. You can watch it here if you missed it.
It was a fun event where I learnt, amongst other things, that Channel 4′s Shameless has one of the highest engagement levels on Facebook while Skins, Eastenders and Hollyoaks are each one of the lowest in comparison.
Josh was making the argument that engaging with viewers should be a high priority for broadcasters at a time where there is now much more flexibility and choice, with TV on demand available both online and on television sets directly; the public are becoming less dependent on the times at which media companies decide to air. As programmes are watched on the web, conversations around them follow – broadcasters should be involved. Social media is a great channel to get people talking about your programmes and spreading the word to create the next hit show.
Some facts:
- 85% of fan page interactions are in the Newsfeed – fans rarely go to a Facebook page directly.
- Facebook’s algorithm is based upon interactions such as comments and likes, and the more engagement updates receive, the longer they will be held in the news feed.
- In Twitter, @replies and re-tweets directly increase visibility in the feed.
- Measuring and analysing engagement is key if you want to increase it - failing to address engagement levels can mean brands risk losing out on the value of social channels.
- Communication in social channels is two way - marketing and customer support channels occupy the same space.
- The more successfully you push a Facebook page or a Twitter account for marketing, the more your customers will use it to ask questions or grieve their complaints. Failure to deliver can alienate existing and potential customers.
- Silence is golden - Strictly Come Dancing maintained a quiet period between seasons to create a big bang in late 2010 rather than risk losing fans at a time when it was less relevant.
- Non-profit organisations are a natural fit for social media campaigns (See Channel 4′s Hugh’s Fish Fight). People (who believe in your cause) want to help, often don’t want to expend much time or money, and want to look good to their friends, family, and social network. A social media campaign lies at the nexus of these three motivations. And, most importantly, it gives your fans an easy way to act!
These certainly suggest that social media has a unique role in TV to expand conversation and interaction around programming content, from campaign to commentary to community building. Looking at the best practices in the world of TV and social media are lessons we can learn from to take to the advent of social TV.
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