Live Tweets Rule

Last month, Twitter released the results of its study on live-tweeting TV shows and how it effects tweet reach and audience growth. As logic would suggest, when the stars, writers, judges, producers and/or official TV show accounts live-tweet the show, viewers happily tweet and follow along. In fact, in the survey, 66% of Twitter users revealed that they like to see tweets from the official show accounts and 61% are especially delighted by tweets from the cast or contestants. ABC's The Bachelor and Scandal continue to be wildly popular and quite successful in this arena.

The purpose of this study was to give television programs and their marketing teams a few insights and pointers on what this means and where to go. The rest of the study reveals some crazy-high numbers, all pretty consistent with the notion that a primetime TV show can't go wrong incorporating live tweets into the TV-watching experience. It's a win for everyone involved.

While the following tips are meant for TV shows and their various accompanying Twitter accounts, they can be tweaked a bit to fit into a more traditional brand's social media strategy.

1. Make Social Sharing Easy for Your Cast and Crew
The study plainly states that the cast and actors are a TV show's greatest asset for making an impact through live-tweeting. Various non-TV-show brands like a department store, a cosmetics line, or cookie company can interpret this as empowering stakeholders. Employees do not necessarily have to live-tweet events and happenings, and they shouldn't have to. Brands can equip their advocates and insiders (with the technology and platforms), and call on them to infiltrate commonly live-tweeted events, using the relevant hashtags and handles appropriately.

2. Anticipate Social Storylines
Tweets, while building a brand's reach and chatter, could very well be negative. A brand should prime and prepare for such sentiments, as well as forecast tweetworthy moments, where engagement is at its peak. For TV shows and other brands, live-tweeting appears spontaneous but should actually be very carefully planned and thought-out. Conversation can stray in several directions and those tangents should be considered, too.

3. Identify High Impact Conversations to Create Winning Moments
This point encourages conversation between TV show and viewer. It mentions that the live-tweeting actor or TV show account realistically cannot reply to every tweet during the program, so instead to identify the influential players and respond to them. TV show accounts often reply to and retweet celebrity viewers who have voluntarily engaged online. The associated tweets and messages exponentially increase reach, attention and the program's "Twitter-share." Other brands can do the same by recognizing similar users and relevant social opinion leaders.

4. Build a Team of Passionate Players
This starts with a passionate community manager; someone committed to developing mutual excitement and deep relationships with viewers or followers. Meaningful content infused with emotion and shared values will nurture a loyal fan base that will engage with a brand over and over again.

Good Luck!

Convince and Convert article here.

Twitter study here.

Follow me on Twitter here.

Comments open to all.

Tweet Home

"Drill down for what? Science."

This is a real tweet from the Curiosity Rover, the spacecraft that's been exploring Mars for the last two years, and I just became a huge fan its account, @MarsCuriosity.

If you're like me and have ever wondered or been concerned about how our spacecrafts are faring being so far away from home, just look to Twitter. Since 2008, spacecrafts like the Curiosity Rover and the 37-year-old Voyager have been optimistically reassuring us that they are happy and healthy.

Roughly six years ago, NASA's three-person social media team created online personas for the distant robots and their missions, and they did so with admirable finesse. The team quickly learned it was much easier to tweet in first-person when bound to 140 characters and discovered that a relatable personality paired with logical updates best resonated with followers. Then, high engagement was garnered through sharing photos and weaving-in current event humor. Followers respond well to the casual tone and intellectual tidbits offered by the various spacecrafts. Followers also just think it's cool to "communicate" with a pal that's literally billions of miles away. (Or maybe that's just me...)

Each spacecraft has its own account and unique voice. The @MarsCuriosity is the friendly, chatty new guy on Mars. The @CassiniSaturn is quite witty and stoic as it studies Saturn and its rings, and the @NASAVoyager is noted as the bravest satellite of all, the veteran with a bit of wanderlust. While the tone for each robot may be different, the model is the same: Their tweets incorporate some mix of audience interaction, current trends and specific, detailed updates. 

NASA and its spacecrafts use Twitter as a human-connectedness tool, in such a way to encourage people to care about the often-forgotten goings-on in outer space. It lets the world know that our intergalactic buddies way out there are doing ok.

Tying this all back to social media marketing, the spacecrafts' Twitter handles effortlessly intrigue and engage online audiences; take a generally undervalued topic and humanize it for maximum interest and reach. How cool is it that these rovers take a second to check-in with us earthlings and let us know it's all good? 

The Atlantic article here.

Follow these cool rovers and missions: @MarsCuriosity, @CassiniSaturn, @NASAVoyager

Follow me here.

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Don't #Ask

Q&A and #Ask sessions sprout up all the time and are pretty common on Twitter for people and brands alike. But far too often these seemingly short-lived and simple PR campaigns become unruly and unstoppable monsters.

You should evaluate what you or your brand may be risking if you decide to candidly engage in an unfiltered, real-time conversation with the anonymous, opinionated and vocal beings of the Internet. So, is a social Q&A or #ask sesh a useful or meaningful marketing tactic? My short answer is no. Although, of course there are always variations and exceptions where there's a possibility it could go surprisingly well.

Maybe the Internet has gotten meaner, but I don't think any of the following responses were unpredictable. Here are a few cautionary tales of brands that got it so horribly, horribly wrong:

Poor Roger Goodell. The recent, highly-publicized domestic violence in the NFL isn't the first time the commissioner has had a nasty go-round with passionate Tweeters or an association with a less-than-postive hashtag. In May of this year, someone in the NFL camp thought it'd be a good idea to have Goodell participate in an open forum Q&A to... Actually, I'm not sure what the intended goal of this campaign was because it was orchestrated at a time when football-related concussions/traumatic head injuries and racist team names were blazingly hot topics, even outside the not-so-small world of professional sports. The NFL used the hashtag #AskCommish, and the resulting participation was far from ideal. Some tweets were crudely funny, some were completely irrelevant, but most attacked Goodell, the brand and the institution head-on and for everyone to see. Take a look at some of the tweets here. Be warned, grown-up language ahead.

J.P. Morgan almost held its first live Q&A session last year with the hashtag #AskJPM. However, the day before the scheduled event, the hashtag was already hijacked. It failed, and it failed hard with more than 18,000 tweets in 24 hours, not a single one of which was kind. The bank originally hoped the hashtag would connect consumers with a knowledgable executive who would field questions related to leadership and career advice, but the tweets that followed harshly criticized the bank's behavior and ethics. One tweet read, "Do your clothes fit better without the added weight of a soul? #AskJPM." The avalanche of negative tweets was too overwhelming for J.P Morgan, and it consequently cancelled the Q&A session, simply stating it was a "bad idea."

The NYPD is another brand that made a faulty attempt at good PR via social media, and it sure did escalate quickly. To boost perception of and solicit goodwill toward the Big Apple's boys in blue, the NYPD PR and social team encouraged the public to take a picture with a friendly officer and post the photo on Twitter with the hashtag #myNYPD. This was ultimately received as an open invitation to mock the department and publicize several instances of police brutality and misconduct. Twitter was flooded with disturbing photos all united under the #myNYPD hashtag. The campaign backfired in a big way, and several high-ranking officials are still reluctant to admit complete failure or acknowledge the newly unearthed ill-will and resentment.

Is it at all possible for #Ask to go right? Maybe. Brands and celebrities that use a moderator or have a strictly defined goal could have better luck. LiveNation's Twitter account does a pretty good job at this. The account hosts different musicians throughout the year and filters and chooses the questions the artists receive and publicly answer, being a trusty middleman.

However, I don't think I would ever advise my friend or my client (or even myself) to bet on such a risky and volatile tactic. The Q&A sessions appear to continually be a popular brand perception tool, but it is not one I would recommend incorporating into a social media marketing plan.


AdAge article here.

Disagree with me or itching for an intellectual debate? Comments open to all.