PR Tips | Social TV: Changing the Way You Watch
ABC is home to some of my favorite TV programs — namely, Nashville. I love the main character, country star Rayna Jaymes. Tons of songs are featured in each episode, as you might guess, and they’re all sung by the actors and actresses themselves. No faking! I think that’s what makes it so realistic.
And it became even more realistic when the show used Social TV to engage fans and reward loyalty. Social TV is a term used for technology that encourages social interaction with a television program or related content.
ABC employed this new tactic with the latest season of Nashville, which has been about Jaymes’ new album launch. Using its Tumblr to host a competition among fans, ABC asked them to create and submit album cover designs. I can only imagine, as a fan, how cool it would be to see my design used on the show!
So how’d it turn out? Well, the network’s director of marketing reported that “The Nashville blog follower account continues to grow and has increased 550% since we launched the contest. Reblogs were up 22 times which is an outstanding statistic because Tumblr is a platform that is measured best on how content is shared versus individual accounts that have a high number of followers.”
It’s not the only time ABC has used this strategy. When the network’s Season 3 finale of Revenge aired recently, ABC offered a platform on their website for fans to post “condolences” for the characters killed off during the episode. Believe it or not, there were lots of posts.
Watching our favorite TV shows is no longer just watching. The Social TV concept is one more way that technology and social media are changing the way we do everyday things.
