More on Twitter: Fox TV introduces Tweet-Peat episodes to promote upcoming season
September 02, 2009
By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk
Robert Scoble wrote this interesting post earlier this week on his infamous blog, Scobleizer, in which he says that Twitter is underhyped and worth somewhere in the $5 to $10 billion range. He believes Twitter has taken over the business world and that businesses are seeing real ROI but aren't sharing that publicly. He points out that Twitter is really the only place online that you can reach the richest and most educated customers.
Well I had a discussion just yesterday with a business associate over lunch in which I suggested using social media marketing and trying out Twitter to gain some new business leads. He currently has been using Google AdWords exclusively for this. While I agreed that paid search is great for generating leads, it should not be the only marketing tactic used. He said that he thought only consumers were on Twitter looking to follow celebrities. So while celebrities do love using Twitter, I told him that the majority of who I follow and who follow me are other business professionals, many in marketing and social media, and like Robert Scoble, technical evangelists as well.
So then later yesterday I read about how Fox TV is integrating Tweets into a select few of their TV shows this week which they are calling Tweet-Peat episodes. Select cast members and producers of Glee (Friday at 9 pm ET) and Fringe (Thursday at 9 pm ET) will tweet this week during the reruns to help promote the upcoming fall season. Their 140-character-or-less tweets will scroll across the TV screen answering fan questions and discussing info about the new season. Fans can also just follow them on Twitter @FringeonFox and @GleeonFox.
So here we have the integration of the big screen with the online world. I'm sure we would all agree that people simultaneously watch television and go online and most of us probably multitask as well. But will the fans of these TV shows understand what Twitter is all about?
A Forrester Research study of 4,766 people in the United States ages 18 to 88, conducted in May, suggests that three-quarters of U.S. online adults have heard of Twitter but never used it. Twitter users are more likely to tweet and follow others for personal purposes. 43% of monthly Twitter users tweet at least weekly. Only 10% of U.S. online adults who were unfamiliar with Twitter before taking this survey expressed interest in using it in the future, according to Forrester.
So just in case the Tweets are a flop for Fox they are also running a couple of good old-fashion sweepstakes promotions that most TV fans are very familiar with entering. The Complete the Pattern Sweepstakes will send one lucky winner on a trip for four to the set of Fringe in Vancouver, BC and the Great Clips Shear Glee Sweepstakes sends a winner along with 3 of their friends to Los Angeles for an exclusive tour of the set of Glee.
So we have quite a bit of conflicting information and opinions out there about Twitter and how it fits in with both the business world and with consumers. Is it overhyped, underhyped, just a fad or is it really going to change the world? I'm going to stay close to this topic and right now I tend to lean towards the opinions of Robert on this one. What do you all think?
When the world tweets, TV follows lol.
Posted by: Axxo | September 03, 2009 at 05:03 AM