Twitter is becoming hugely popular, and it is attempting to position itself in the minds of its millions of users as a platform complimentary to Television.
Surveys reveal that nearly 85 percent of active Twitter users are active during primetime TV hours tweet about TV programs.
Twitter has revealed details of a data study it recently undertook to determine the relationship between a show’s Twitter strategy and its viewership, Twitter looked at two groups of similar programs – ones that made live-Tweeting an active part of their strategy, and another that did not.
By studying Twitter, was able to identify some key trends and benefits that the digital teams of social media and entertainment companies can take advantage of.
It is observed that live-tweeting uplifts Twitter conversation. In fact, live-Tweeting from cast members during show premieres had in excess of 63 percent more Tweets that day when compared to programs that did nothing. It was further noted that shows that live-Tweeted from the official handle also witnesses 8 percent increase over those that did n’t do anything.
It has been proved that live-tweeting enhances follower growth rate. It is seen that when a program is on the air and does not live-Tweet, there is a 6.5x lift in follow rate for the show’s official account. Again, when a show does live-Tweet, that lift increases 15 percent, to 7.5 x. Further, when a cast member live-Tweets, their follow rate increases by a whopping 228 percent to 12.2x.
Now while all this search findings are encouraging, it’s supporting a gut belief that many TV marketers already realize. The reason, why more TV shows aren’t participating, is a lack of knowledge into the most effective strategies for audience building online, and the lack of communication that occurs between marketing and production teams as a result.
TV social media teams must take advantage of the benefit that comes from increased communication on Twitter. How to maximize engagement on Twitter with your TV audience – the simple answer is to make social sharing easy for your cast and crew.
According to Twitter, “the most direct way, to make an impact through live-tweeting, is through the cast members. They’re your greatest asset.”
The hitch is TV stars and celebrities in general are mostly hard to motivate when it comes to getting them to tweet for themselves. The right way, to solve this problem, is to bring the digital team into the production process as early as possible.