Social Media Marketing

Maybe if you are a multinational corporation, like Samsung Mobile, you don’t have to care how you spend your money. Must be nice. For the rest of us, let Samsung’s recent Facebook (FB) advertising campaign be an example of what not to do in social advertising.

The advertising rate for the FB log out page is around $700,000 per day, which is even more ridiculous when you consider that the disengaged FB user is the worst demographic to target and the worst time to target them.  However, before I get too far off on a rant, let’s take a look at what Samsung has taught us.

1. Think hard about your Call-To-Action (CTA). Samsung’s CTA is to “like” their poorly made video. Even if I did like Samsung’s video, which I don’t, what good does my “like” do for Samsung? They might get a better edgrank score, but is there a real conversion taking place? Not really. Your CTA should send visitors outside of FB, to a landing page, or an app, where a conversion will actually provide your brand value. For example, a CTA that sends visitors to a designated landing page and prompts them to enter their email address will build a contact database that a brand can then leverage with a targeted email campaign. Samsung may have gotten a big reach, but if you’re not converting that reach what’s the point?

2. Write copy that is inclusive and motivational. I get what Samsung means by the statement “If you caught our SMM Fan Santigold concert, ‘Like’ if you’re excited for what’s next,” but it isn’t clean copy and it excludes a huge demographic. I did not catch their fan concert, so I don’t feel like they are speaking to me and I’m not necessarily excited about what’s next. Better would have been to say, “Don’t miss the next Fan concert. Sign up to get exclusive access to all the hottest events.”

3. Make sure your graphic is awesome! I am not the target demographic for this ad, but as a photographer and a design junky, Samsung really missed the ball with this graphic. Santigold is no doubt a striking model, but all you have to do is a quick Google image search to find at least 5 photographs of her that grab your attention better, are more visually appealing, and make better use of the canvas.

4. Spend your money wisely. I literally salivate at the prospect of having 700k to spend on FB advertising in one day. My team here at Bonfire could put together an amazing campaign for that amount of money. We could implement multiple ad campaigns over the course of a couple months, run simultaneously, so that we could determine which copy and graphics resonated the most with demographics to actually sells more phones and increases customer loyalty.

So if you have 700k that is just burning a hole in your marketing budget, give it to charity or give it to Bonfire, but don’t follow in Samsung’s footsteps. As marketers we should be constantly pushing ourselves to attach an ROI to everything we do. The old days of traditional advertising with no accountability are over. The days of strategic advertising that drives real and quantifiable results are here. Rejoice!

For a professional writer the success of Pinterest could be terrifying. In half a year it has exploded to become the third most popular social medium in the world. Out of nowhere the network is expanding faster than even Facebook’s initial growth. Marketers gush about its potential; Forbes just declared it a $7.7 billion company. In the month of March Pinterest received over 100 million visitors. The suddenness of these figures is striking, but the real concern for writers is a fact behind the growth: it came about almost entirely without words.

The site hardly uses them. Everyone who’s visited it knows instead of headlines and pithy copy Pinterest relies on imagery to draw in visitors. Anyone who’s analyzed the metrics knows it retains them better than Twitter’s abrupt wall of text. Comic book advertising long ago revealed that photos engage people better: a sea-monkey illustration continues to sell plastic jars of brine shrimp. The benefit of good imagery is undisputed fact, but writing has never looked as comparatively obsolete as it does now.

The New York Times cheekily reminded readers that a picture is worth “about seven Twitter posts.” Marketers have always understood that a well-created image is more valuable than a sentence, but the success of Pinterest implies they’re not even comparable. The network doesn’t just use pictures; it relies solely on them and still succeeds. With a pigeonholed demographic (80% of pinners are women), this site can’t devalue language on its own, but it does reveal a larger, more expansive trend.

Pinterest isn’t as important as a case study in itself; it’s more useful as a portent, a sign or warning that visual revolution is in the air. For a site to succeed so tremendously without language proves humans have entered a new cultural era. Communication is rapidly evolving. The old exchange of information is no longer viable. Words continue to matter, but only as contextual frames for imagery. A company or brand with any hopes of success needs to see this, accept it, and begin to strategize accordingly.

The attention spans of people may have shrunk over the last century, but more likely they’ve changed. Browsing pins and boards is entrancing. Some have called it an addiction to images. The mind remains focused, but it’s now trained to concentrate on pictures not sentences. Pinterest flourishes because of this shift, and while it might someday dissolve, its use of imagery is enduring. It succeeds now because it reflects a cultural evolution, and any brand that doesn’t adapt itself will die out.

Technology is the driving force behind this change. Expanding 3G networks and high speed Internet have made the distribution of photos and videos possible. Capturing attention and selling products both relied on imagery for centuries, but consuming and sharing them have never been easier. As more brands leverage this, language as a foundation is eroding. Visual content will continue to rise as a prominent form of strategic marketing. Writers probably won’t encounter a sudden burst of unemployment, but they may begin to replace photographers and graphic designers as the world’s supplemental artists. The marketers not in this field aren’t facing doom; they just need to invest in good visual content creation, and soon.

If you’ve had a Facebook page for one year or more, you’ve probably noticed that getting exposure is much harder than it used to be.

Aside from being massively more crowded than years prior, Facebook’s EdgeRank (the algorithm that determines what an individual sees in their news feed) has become more complicated and specific to the tastes of individuals that it’s nearly impossible to leverage the tool if you don’t have a relevant fan base who loves to interact with and share your content.

Despite the fact that Facebook remains very secretive about their algorithm, Argle Social’s webinar last week provided answers to several key questions for marketers and gave new insight into how we should behave in regards to EdgeRank.

Three Variables That Determine EdgeRank

Facebook’s EdgeRank is determined by three variables: Affinity, Weight, & Time Decay.

1. Affinity is the relationship Facebook thinks you have with a given piece of content, according to actions you have taken in the past. In other words, the more you share, comment, ‘like’, and click on different objects, the higher it will (eventually) appear in your news feed.

2. Weight is the importance Facebook assigns to actions people take and different types of content distributed by people and companies.

Objects (content distributed):

1. Video
2. Photo
3. Link
4. Status (copy w/no video, photo, or link)

“Time decay” refers to how recent or “old” the item is. Simply put, newer items are more likely to appear in the news feed than older items. This is why posting content at times when your audience is logged in to Facebook is crucial in increasing exposure.

EdgeRank Best Practices

More generally, you should consider a few things when thinking about EdgeRank:

1. Give your brand personality. You have to be interesting to get exposure on Facbeook. Everything you put into the news feed must be compelling, entertaining, informative, or nurture the community in some way. Share exclusive content. Include lots of photos and videos. Start your own traditions. You are no longer competing against other advertisers – you are competing against people’s friends, families, dogs & cats. They have personalities, so you must too.

2. Use separate campaigns and contests. Campaigns allow you to determine what content is best and see the big picture of things in a very tactical medium. Run a 3-month campaign (no shorter) to gain new perspectives on different types of content.

3. Include calls to action. Click ‘like’ if you agree. Comment with YOUR favorite color. Share this get well graphic with a friend of yours who is sick. Be careful not to use these too often, but throwing them in every so often can give you a nice boost in interactions. What could be easier than telling them exactly what to do?

4. “Stir the hornet’s nest”, as it was referred to in the webinar. This is my personal favorite and one that can drive massive results. Pinning your fans against each other with borderline controversial content, “bubble” events, and content that pushes their buttons (a little) is one of the best ways to get people talking. Don’t make the mistake of getting political, challenging moral beliefs, or being offensive here – just don’t be afraid to put something out there that people might disagree with.

Now it’s your turn:

What EdgeRank best practices do you have to share?

This post was written by Bonfire’s Chief Strategist, Garrett Ira.

–By Justin Albano, Director of Business Development at Bonfire Social Media–

B2B marketers and business owners often ask me if the benefits of social media only exist in the B2C realm. The answer is a resounding no. The core concepts of social media: establishing your brand as an industry influencer, engaging with your customers, leveraging brand advocates, and nurturing leads along a sales cycle are just as powerful in connecting with companies as they are with consumers. In fact, B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not [1], and 57% of B2B companies have acquired a customer through LinkedIn [2]. However, just like any other marketing tools, here are some best practices that will get you started in the right direction.

1) Know Your Objectives

What do you want? More customers? A better relationship with your customers? Both? As a biz dev guy I love “to do lists,” strategies, and most of all accomplishing objectives. Often, companies that I talk with are either focused on driving more leads or improving their brand’s perception and share of voice. Dependent upon your company’s objectives, you need to understand which, or both, of these categories your company falls into. Without defining your objectives, you stand no chance of measuring success or understanding the effect of your actions.

Action Items:

• Start macro and go micro. What do you really want out of your business? Do you want to grow a secure company that can be passed on to your kids? Do you have a quick profitable exit in mind? Start with your vision and let it set the framework for your strategies in every business facet. Then develop your bottom up action items, i.e. what will it actually take to get there?
• Set success metrics and milestones and review your progress regularly, not just at the end of the year.

2) Understand Your Demographics

It may seem obvious, but it never ceases to amaze me how few companies actually understand who their demographic is, what their buying cycle looks like, what motivating factors/events cause them to take action or where they get information on products and services.

Action Items:

• Create customer profiles that allow you to examine your demographics in a more intimate way. For example, Suzie is a mother of two who works full time, loves to play tennis and hike, cares about the environment, and prefers to watch movies rather than TV. Setting up these profiles gives you a great demographic snapshot and helps to focus your marketing efforts.
• Once you understand your demographic’s buying cycle, what info, education or resources can you provide to make their buying decision easier? This is not only important for brand awareness and brand perception, but should be the driving force behind your lead nurturing cycle.
• It is crucial for you to understand your industry’s keyword landscape. Which keywords are your demographic using to search for the products/services you offer or information related to your offering? Which keywords are obtainable? How do you currently rank for those keywords? Google provides some free tools for the Do-it-Yourselfers, but any digital marketing shop should help you build the list and give you the analytic insights that will enable you to make sense of it all.
• Discover which social platforms your demographics are already engaged with and focus your efforts there. Currently, there are over 800 million users on Facebook, 300 million users on Twitter, 116 million users on LinkedIn and only 60 million users on Google+ [3]. If you currently have an email database, run it through some social networks to discover who is already using which networks. This could save you mountains of time in the long run and allow you to target your unique demographics.
• Listen via social networks like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and forums, as well as online news sites. Once you know your demographic’s hangouts and keywords, you can listen to social conversations via CMS platforms like HootSuite/TweetDeck and by setting up Google Alerts that monitor articles, blogs and forums that are currently talking about your keywords.

3) Create Value Based Relationships

Social media is not the place for old-school messaging tactics, and the concept of protecting your secret sauce is dead. Company decision makers typically go to your website, not social networks, to learn the benefits of your products or services. Companies and consumers alike are actively searching for value-based content that makes their lives and their buying decisions easier.

Action Items:

• Offer value-based content. If you help companies streamline their processes, don’t just talk about how you do it; offer them free templates or How-To whitepapers that teach them how to be more efficient. Providing this type of value will convert prospects in to fans of your company and customers in to loyal brand advocates.
• Understand the difference between relevant content (e.g. interesting articles, company update s, etc.) and compelling content that provides value and motivates visitors to take action (either by providing contact information or requesting a demo).
• Monitor conversations within social communities, like LinkedIn discussion threads, and offer advice or input wherever possible.
• Don’t be afraid to give away the secret sauce. As we all know, understanding how to do something and actually doing it are two very different things. Some of Bonfire’s best clients are those who tried to do it themselves first and quickly realized that their time and resources are much more effectively spent doing the things that they already excel at rather than learning how to develop custom Facebook tabs, constantly managing social networks, writing blogs or producing webinars.

4) Leverage Your Current Marketing Mix

A common and dangerous myth is that social media replaces traditional and costly marketing channels with free messaging. This is simply not true. Social media is at its best when it is amplifying other marketing efforts or when integrated in to a well thought-out campaign.

Action Items:

• Install social plug-ins throughout your site. These allow visitors to share your content on their preferred social network quickly and with a minimum of effort.
• Utilize landing pages to capture leads and initiate your lead nurturing cycle.
• 59% of B2B purchase decision makers have used their smartphone to research products and services when they are considering purchases [4], so optimize your content and landing pages for the increasing number of mobile users.
• Include QR codes on in-print advertising and articles with compelling calls to action.

This is not rocket science and it’s not revolutionary. Instead, this is a new application of what the heart and soul of American business was when companies took the time to connect with their communities and develop relationships with their customers. As a B2B marketer your audience might be smaller than your B2C counterparts, but that means you can be much more targeted and strategic with your marketing. While a B2C marketer may segment their demographics down to niche communities, you can target specific decision makers within your target companies and develop a value-based relationship that not only nurtures the current sales cycle but also sets a positive framework for a long and supportive business relationship.

—-
Stat Citations
[1] Source: Hubspot, State of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report, 2010
[2] Source: http://www.hubspot.com/social-media-monitoring-in-10-minutes-ebook/?source=hspd-affiliate-PID-3701805-txt-ad-social-media-10-min-day-ebook-20110819&AID=10933127&PID=3701805&SID=skim1024X498223X8a5f920e568fa93e07c8561649950bf2
[3] Source: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/b2b-social-media-marketing-statistics-to-ponder-099980
[4] Source: http://socialmediab2b.com/2011/09/b2b-decision-makers-smartphones/#ixzz1jmUIeJul

Social networking sites now reach 82 percent of the world’s online population, representing 1.2 billion users, or nearly 1/6 the population of Earth. It accounts for 19 percent of all time spent online. (Comscore) In 2011, social media not only was further integrated into our lexicon and media consumption, it became a communication platform for important events around the world.

Some of the biggest events in 2011 like the Arab Spring and the death of Osama bin Laden were announced via social media or spread via social media.

Arab Spring

Time Magazine

Time Magazine’s 2011 person of the year was The Protestor. This speaks to the power of the Arab Spring movement that shook the Middle East and sent shock waves around the world. The Arab Spring began with the Tunsian Revolution at the end of last year and continues today. Protestors have organized on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and blogs to spread the word and gain support for the movements in Egypt, Israel, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. Even as individual countries began to shut down access to the Internet and individual platforms, protestors kept finding new ways to get the word out.

Accoring to Yahoo! News, one of the most popular hashtags of 2011 was #jan25 which marked the beginning of the protests in Egypt which ended February 11th when President Mubarak stepped down from power.

Protests in Baharain, Syria, and Libya were also spread via social media and included shocking moments like the photo of Gaddafi’s body that went viral and when a NATO commander announced the end of the Libyan war via Facebook.

The Occupy Movement
Protests moved stateside on September 17, 2011 and by October 15, 2011, the protests had spread to 1,000 cities in 82 countries. (Wikipedia) The #OWS movement has been supported through a variety of channels. On September 25, the hacktivist group Anonymous uploaded a YouTube video threatening action if the NYPD showed brutality against protesters. A massive march in NYC was organized via Twitter on October 5th. On November 19th videos from several different viewpoints of the students at UC Davis getting pepper sprayed received millions of views via YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. On December 20th Anonymous released the personal information of NYPD officers who evicted OWS protestors.

These are just some of the major moments that have been fueled by social media to mobilize protestors and keep the Occupy Wall Street movement alive.

Other Memorable Moments
#japan was one of the most popular hashtags in 2011, following the tsunami in March.

Steve Jobs, the man who defined technology communication, was memorialized after his death via Tweets, Facebook posts, and montage videos.

Many of us may remember where we were when we heard of the death of Osama bin Laden. I saw the news via my Twitter stream, others found out via Facebook, and any other platform that was able to spread the news.

Who knows what 2012 will bring as technology and social media continue to infiltrate our communication habits. The new trend of image based social media including Instagr.am, Pinterest, and Tumblr blogs may be the next platforms for getting the message across.

You know what they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Sources:

Ever since we discovered that social media was a viable tool to achieve real results in business, many companies have started seeking data to discover more about the reasons behind why people choose to follow and interact with brands on platforms originally created exclusively for individuals.

As we transitioned from traditional marketing to social, it’s tempting to ask questions about what we should do to get more fans, stay relevant, and exceed our success metrics.

After reviewing a recent study from ExactTarget, I realized we might be asking the wrong question. In a medium where customers are reluctant to allow brands to enter their bubbles, perhaps we should ask “What should we NOT do?”. It turns out that there are several reasons that people will not connects with brands online, all of which are becoming more important with every day that passes and the news feeds become more cluttered with information. Here are three reasons we can’t afford to ignore:

1. They don’t want to be bombarded with messages or ads.

“Bombarded” suggest that there is a ceiling to the amount of people and companies that your customers want to have included in their news feed. They just want the important stuff, the stuff that matters. This means they may not ‘like’ a page even if they are a regular customer of the business.

Making the choice to avoid direct promotion is a difficult one and may even be counter-intuitive for traditional marketers and salespeople. It is, however, absolutely crucial in gaining and maintaining a loyal fan base. When someone “likes” your Facebook page, think of it as the equivalent to subscribing to a magazine they love. They subscribe because the content is entertaining, informative, or beneficial in some other way. Would you subscribe to a television advertisement? How about a billboard or yellow pages ad? Of course you wouldn’t. Use Facebook advertising to advertise. Use Facebook pages to add value for your customers.

2. They don’t want companies to have access to profile information.

This one is a bit odd because “liking” a Facebook page does little to compromise personal information to the actual business. Yes, there are privacy concerns with Facebook as a platform itself, but business pages are not able to dig into profile information if the user has selected the correct privacy settings.

All of this aside, I can’t help but ask what is underneath the surface of this act of not wanting to give out information. I think it hints towards something much bigger: a lack of trust.

Trust is the single greatest factor in determining purchase behavior, creating a huge need for marketers to build trust with fans and customers. This is of course determined largely by the DNA and core values of your business, but there are certain behaviors that need to be adopted in social media to build trust – like being as responsive as possible. Simply responding to the vast majority of fans, whether the mention is positive or negative, is actually a way to build trust and also differentiate from competitors. Recent research has showed that more than 70% of companies completely ignore the customer service element of Twitter. This creates a nice advantage for companies whose streams are full of @replies, retweets, and mentions of their followers.

The bottom line here is, it’s irrelevant if we say we’re trustworthy. If we demonstrate that we’re trustworthy, however, it could mean a huge difference for our businesses. Actions speak louder than words. What level of trust do you think Starbucks and Comcast have with their customers?

3. They “don’t see the benefit of it”.

This might sound broad, but there is an important lesson for every brand in this one: make the value of your page as obvious as possible. This means you need to tell them WHY they should like your page, which forces you to be pro-active in putting them first. Why would they want to subscribe? Community? Information? Exclusive content or discounts? Whatever you’re doing for them, make it obvious. Simply adding “Like us on Facebook” in all of your communication mediums won’t get it done. “Like us on Facebook because you’ll be left out of something phenomenal” sounds a lot better.

So what can we take away here? Do a self-audit of your social media presence. Replace your sales copy with exclusive content and discounts. Get rid of your broadcasted message and ask your audience for their thoughts. Make them proud to display your logo on their profile as a business they support. Above all else, before you take action online, ask yourself “What’s in it for THEM?”.

There is a race happening you might not be aware of. The race is for how your business controls and manages your social media. With some major players getting involved and some serious money changing hands this could prove to be a sector to watch. In this post, I’ll try to quickly summarize the most relevant platforms and what kind of businesses they are best suited for. Most only focus on Facebook, but all platforms listed have aspirations to work with other platforms.

Involver was one of the first Facebook application developers and continues to push out compelling products for companies. Bonfire has worked with Involver in past and overall they create a good product. They have jumped into the platform management ring with their “Enterprise” and “Business” solutions. They are very similar with Enterprise giving users every feature and product they make. I’ll focus on the features from Enterprise. If you want to read more about the “Business” product, click here. Below are Enterprise’s capabilities:

• 24 available “pre-made” white label Facebook applications
• Publishing on a claimed 40 media outlets. Most notable: Facebook, Twitter, WordPress
• Post scheduling on Media outlets
• Bit.ly analytic integration
• Social monitoring for keyword alerts
• Message Sentiment Measurement
• Message workflow management
• Internal analytic dashboard
• Up to 10 users

Price: Starting at $2,749 per month.

Wildfire started as a small FBfund (Facebook’s investing arm) company “way back” in January 2010. They initially created apps for pages that were simple to deploy and required no long term contracts.

As of June 2011 they have 120 team members and thousands of customers (we have used several of their products in the past). They have big aspirations to become not just an app developer for Facebook, but a fully functional social management system. In June of this year, Wildfire launched their Suite product. Here are their Suite’s capabilities:

• Drag and drop Facebook Tab creator: This feature requires no coding knowledge and can be updated frequently.
• Content Manager: The Wildfire content manager will allow for social media workflow simplicity and allow community managers to schedule and assign content posting on Facebook. This feature is very useful for companies with large teams or publish content with a high frequency.
• Promotion Builder: This allows companies to construct giveaways using a straightforward interface — drag and drop the text fields you’d like to require during the sign up, tweak the banners, then enter the official rules and you’re good to go.
• Dashboard: Facebook analytics can be difficult, but Wildfire’s dashboard can simply success metrics. Their dashboard shows analytics that are more detailed than Facebook’s standard Insights and you can even chart your progress against a competitor’s.

Price: Custom pricing. In a statement they say “low hundreds” to “low thousands”

Buddy Media is the gold standard when it comes to social media management. I mean gold as in both expensive and the best. They have every feature you could ever want in a platform and are fluent in all major languages. This is very important if you are a multinational brand that wants to segment your social media community. They currently service some of the largest companies in the world such as Starwood Hotels, Sony, Southwest Airlines, American Express and Ford. In addition to their impressive client list, they also recently received an additional $54 million in funding to grow out their infrastructure. Buddy Media can do everything Involver and Wildfire can and more. I’ll focus on the “and more” for the sake of time.

• Drag and Drop Facebook page development
• Multiple language support
• Real time analytics
• Scheduling and posting on multiple social platforms
• Large team workflow management

Price: Customized pricing. Most plans start at $5,000 per month.

I hope you have found this information helpful with any decision making in the future. If you have any you would add that I missed, please comment below.

Videos can quickly grab a customer’s attention and stay in their mind longer than a photo or even the written word. But how can you make your videos more interactive? Allow users to not only view your videos, but become immersed with them.

Annotations are a trusted, but under-utilized YouTube tool that can boost both page views and subscribers for a channel. A video’s power can be enhanced by using this simple (and free) tool.

Two examples of annotation creativity:

Interactive Promotions/Games

Annotations can be a fun way to promote products. Instead of a video showcasing a new line of toys, Hot Wheels used annotations and turned their YouTube videos into an online game. Users can choose both the type of car and add-ons to race. While it takes a lot of planning and video production, the end product is a seamless use of YouTube Annotations.

‘Choose Your Own Adventure’

Many adults remember growing up with ‘choose your own adventure’ stories. The digital versions of these use YouTube annotations to create a fun story. Fun and interactive, they can be a nice way to promote products or services in story-form.  And, unlike their hard-copy predecessor, you can’t skip ahead and change your mind!

More Practical Uses
While creativity is key to utilizing annotations, this tool can also be used to increase the number of subscribers.

• Subscribers: By using the Subscribe link type, your video can have a great call-out for viewers to subscribe to your channel, allowing for more video views and greater channel reach.
• Linking : If your channel has a lot of content, annotations can link these videos together. It not only keeps viewers on your channel longer, but also allows for a deeper understanding of your services, products or mission.
• Promoting Other Channels: Does your company have more than one YouTube channel? Annotations can help link these by promoting another channel in a relevant video. This can help to promote smaller channels from a large, central channel.

Where to begin?
Start by mapping out your annotations. Whether they are simple links to other videos, words of wisdom, or interactive elements, planning is key. Try to create a virtual path where users will be compelled to spend more time on your channel.

The actual creation of new annotations is relatively easy. Be sure to keep in mind both the placement and type of annotation.

Like anything, however, annotations can get out of hand. It is important to remember what makes videos great is the actual viewing experience. Annotations should be used to enhance and not detract from the experience. By having timely call-outs it can help increase the amount of time users both spend on your channel as well as the amount they share your content with others.

Learn More

Here are a few great resources for getting started on a YouTube annotations project:

How To: Use Annotations to Promote Your Brand on YouTube – A great step-by-step guide on YouTube annotations.

YouTube Help Guide - A simplified guide that can be used as a resource when getting started.

Television shows are a natural match for interacting and engaging with their fan base via social media. Part of this effectiveness stems from shows being serial in nature and the fact that many shows have a branded mythology behind it. While these factors can aid the conversation when the show is not airing, how do you interact with a television while it airs? Proper social media planning can make fans not only feel engaged with the show, but also appreciated.

A recent TV Guide study found that over a third more users Twitter to discuss a show while it is happening than Facebook. This begs at the question: How are shows utilizing Twitter and what can they do to make it better?

I have outlined a few examples below of how shows from different genres are using Twitter to ramp up real-time interaction with a show on-air, what they are doing right, and how (in my modest opinion), they can make it that much better.

Trueblood

True Blood does a wonderful job of creating an interactive Twitter environment. Beyond the usual show hashtags, they have created Bloodcopy.com which is the official place to follow all things related to True Blood on Twitter.  By compiling both the official profile and the character profiles, fans can interact and follow everything in an efficient, streamlined manner.

Glee

Glee is an interesting case. The show does an amazing job in general with social media. By acknowledging a Gleek of the Week each episode, they are fostering an engaged audience who feels valued and  appreciated. However, the various Twitter profiles from the main official profile to the various cast and characters seem to have a disjointed feel.

NCIS

Even though it was named one of the Top 10 most tweeted about shows by TV Guide, their official Twitter profile leaves a little to be desired. Despite having a handy branded hashtag (#NCSI), the profile does little to interact with the community, instead relying on mainly just promoting the show.

Top Chef

Finally, there is Top Chef, everyone’s favorite cooking competition show. Their Twitter profile (and the Bravo network in general) are leaders in real-time fan interaction. Both during the show and afterwards, the official Twitter profile acknowledges fans and answers their questions. A simple RT of fan feedback can go a long in making an audience member feel appreciated.

Summing It Up

How to make it better: Official profiles should not shy away from interacting with fans. By simply thanking fans or answering their questions directly, fans feel like their comments are being heard. While a fanbase may be interacting during an episode, engaging them can go even further.

Centralization: Part of the fun when interaction with TV shows is the blurring between reality and fiction. A tweet from Sue Sylvester can be a whole lot more entertaining than an official tweet. The key, however, is creating a central location where cast, characters, and fans can all tweet together (see the True Blood example above).

Fun Hash Tags: Branded hash tags are great for everyday use, but to keep fans engaged in real-time discussion, why not choose a catch-phrase from the current episode? This helps not only to increase interaction, but spur further conversation.