Tracking the Buzz as TV Becomes More Social
Posted by Bill Ives on Mon, Mar 01, 2010
Social Media is moving into television on an increasing basis and this will have a number of implications. This is the theme of a post by Tim Dillard on TheNextWeb: Will 2010 be the Year of Social TV? For example, fans of certain TV shows from different time zones are saving the latest episodes of their favorite shows and then arranging common viewing times with their friends to watch the shows whilst discussing the action together on Skype,
The shows themselves are also launching efforts, sometimes with mixed results. In the UK, high profile post-apocalypse drama, BBC's 'Survivors', launched with stream of tweets from 'survivors'. They were supposedly trying to get messages out to a world in which most of the population had been wiped out by a mystery virus. However, the effort did not last. In another failed case, Fox tired integrating Twitter during reruns of sci-fi series 'Fringe' in the US. It got criticism almost immediately from the show's fans by swamping the screen with tweets from the cast and crew of the show, thus obscuring much of the action. Sounds like those tweets do blast you with multiple tweets in a row, except even worse.
It seems the most successful efforts so far are user generated. For example, with Twitter, real-time conversations about TV shows at the shows are broadcast live are linked together through the use of hashtags. This is the same with online communities. The television shows will need to move better in this direction by listening to their viewers and being creative.
One of the issues that comes up with this move is the ability to track the buzz around shows. The Darwin Awareness Engine™ provides one solution to this tracking issue. With its real time reach and the display of rising stars as buzz climbs, the Awareness Engine can help shows keep up with their buzz.