Adding Television to the Social Media Mix

Television has long been a top way for companies to spread their advertising messages. Since social media is also taking an important role in marketing, the power of both can be harnessed to figure out who the target audience is and shape the company’s promotional strategies.

An effective way to combine television and social media efforts is by encouraging customers to chat about television programs on Twitter, writes Business 2 Community‘s Chris Heffer.

He points to “Britain’s Got Talent,” a UK-based show that “is actively using hash tags to group conversations around the different acts and to encourage social conversations.”

By asking viewers to tweet, the show is involving them in the dialogue, and getting valuable feedback. It’s also finding out who the customers are and what they care about, which is helpful for advertising purposes.

“With the use of hash tags, you can find out exactly who is watching your programs,” says Heffer. “You could then figure out who the person is and what their interests are. Based on this information you could transmit adverts based upon the interests of the people watching, rather than selling adverts based upon the people they think are watching.”

In addition, evening news producers, writes Heffer, could promote a news feed “which includes the various daily headlines going along the bottom of the screen. You could tweet which stories you want to hear more about. Depending on the social feedback [producers] receive, they could dynamically change the content of the program to reflect the most relevant content to the audience.”

Social media and content marketing are all about connecting with the customer. Making television a more active experience will help the consumer care more about what they’re watching and reveal which advertisements they favor.

Since people tend to view television and use Internet-connected devices at the same time, marketers can impact consumer engagement by taking advantage both devices.

Image courtesy of brizzle born and bred/flickr

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