Elections are a special opportunity for people who work in media. They provide a familiar context (almost a control variable, really) to check our progress—and test our assumptions. Every two years, a lot of things are exactly the same: two parties; plenty of speeches; a map of the country spotted red and blue. But increasingly, a lot of things are different. Here’s a sample from Tuesday night.
The new live TV
Posted by @robinsloan on Tuesday September 14th, 2010∞
The MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday drew in over 11 million viewers, making them the highest-rated since 2002. They also beat last year’s tweet total, with 2.3 million posted during the East and West Coast broadcasts. Those are the numbers that matter. First and foremost: the size of the raw audience. But following close on its heels: the scale of the live conversation. On both counts, the VMAs this year were a huge success.
This isn’t MTV’s first foray into Twitter integration; they worked with Stamen Design to capture the conversation around the 2009 VMAs and, in 2010, the MTV Movie Awards, Jersey Shore, and more. But the 2010 VMAs kicked things up to a new level.
Tweeting a bestseller
Posted by @robinsloan on Tuesday September 7th, 2010∞
We haven’t talked much about books here on Twitter Media, even though so many writers have used Twitter so effectively to build audiences and sell books. There’s an interview with William Gibson in the Wall Street Journal today where he mentions Twitter quite a bit, so I thought I’d take the excuse to dive in.
How news breaks now
Posted by @robinsloan on Thursday September 2nd, 2010∞
The subject matter is grim, but it’s worth reading this Washington Post piece chronicling how news of the Discovery Channel gunman spread on Twitter. This isn’t your usual “gee-whiz, we heard about it first on Twitter” story. Instead, the reporter, Paul Farhi, actually reconstructs the timeline. There’s a slideshow of key tweets (!) and an inventory of richer media—including one chilling Twitpic—that pushed the story forward.
And here’s Farhi channeling Jim Farley, who runs news at a D.C.-area radio station:
Although the stream of postings and tweets can be chaotic, he says, “there are far more people out there [reporting via social media] than any news organization could ever employ. They can tell you the size and shape of an event, and the right questions to start asking.”
The right questions to start asking. That’s important. What I like about Farhi’s piece is that it emphasizes the synthesis. Tweets don’t replace journalism; they kick-start it and turbo-charge it.
And the Emmy tweets to…
Posted by @robinsloan on Tuesday August 31st, 2010∞
So, this just about sums it up:
@jmr483 haha. i have to say twitter & jimmy have revolutionized my emmy experience. superb.sara tindall
stinds
The most visible Twitter integration in this year’s Prime Time Emmy Awards came when host Jimmy Fallon introduced several presenters with tweets sent in by viewers—but there was actually a lot going on backstage, too. All in all, Twitter helped to build buzz beforehand, keep viewers engaged during the show, and keep them talking after it was over.
But, let’s start with those introductions.
Four ways to use Fast Follow
Posted by @robinsloan on Monday August 16th, 2010∞
The mobile team here at Twitter has rolled out a new feature called Fast Follow, and its genius lies in its simplicity: text “follow [account]” to 40404 (Twitter’s U.S. shortcode) and you’ll immediately start getting that account’s tweets via SMS—without ever signing up for Twitter.
The applications for small businesses and storefronts are obvious; suddenly, there’s a super-simple call to action you can post above the cash register. But there are some really interesting media applications, as well—especially because we know that 90% of text messages are read within three minutes of delivery and 99% are read eventually. It’s a powerful medium.
So here are some things to consider:
FALCON PUNCH!
Posted by @robinsloan on Wednesday July 21st, 2010∞
I love this new segment from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon: “Late Night Hashtags.” It proves you can do fun things with tweets without fancy technology (or any technology at all, actually). As you’ll see below, it’s really all about the prompt:
Tip of the Twitter Media hat to Gavin Purcell.
Small discoveries
Posted by @robinsloan on Tuesday July 13th, 2010∞
So, the Discovery Channel celebrated its 25th anniversary back in June, and as part of the event, it launched a program called My Discovery. The idea was simple: to prompt viewers and users for tweet-length discoveries—at any scale, from personal life to the wider world—and then show the best of them online and on-air.
Here’s the program’s online hub:
Back in June, more than a hundred of those discoveries were featured on the channel in prime time. (You can see them tagged AS SEEN ON TV on the My Discovery site.) Here’s one that was featured on TV that I like a lot:
It’s OK to question everything, it shows you’re paying attention and thinking about what you see and hear. #mydiscovery @MythBustersR Schooley
feketenoemi
Many of the Twitter integrations we’ve featured here are all about analyzing and visualizing thousands and thousands of tweets in real-time—because we love that stuff! But this project is a good reminder that you can do the opposite, too; you can shine the spotlight on a carefully-chosen group of tweets that surprise, delight, or tell a story.
Your site needs this
Posted by @robinsloan on Friday July 9th, 2010∞
I’m completely enamored of the new Kosmix Firsthand toolbar for Firefox and Chrome. It has, several times, made me gasp in surprise (when’s the last time a toolbar did that?)—and if you run a site, you should try it out right now.
But first: what’s it do? It does this:
Those little blue “T” icons are Kosmix’s contribution to the page. It adds Twittery context to the web, scanning pages for proper names—people and organizations alike—and connecting them to Twitter accounts. (You can roll over any icon to see a slick, lightweight list of recent tweets.)
The fact that the New York Times home page lights up with those icons next to both LeBron James and the IMF blows my mind. Like: yes. That is the point exactly. This is a place to connect to NBA all-stars and quasi-governmental institutions and everything in between.
As you click around, it’s a thrill to see that an organization you love has a Twitter account—
—but it’s just as interesting to get introduced to a new name (who’s Mia Wasikowska?)—
So, this is obviously a cool product. But I want to take it a step farther. If you run a site, here’s an interesting exercise:
- Install the toolbar.
- Browse your site and watch the icons appear (some in surprising places, I guarantee).
- Ask yourself: Is this a better experience than what we’re providing now?
- If the answer is yes: How could we make it even better, by providing this context ourselves?
Because while the Kosmix toolbar is wonderful, I think a thoughtful custom implementation would, in most cases, be even better.
Anyway: thanks to Kosmix for a great product (and for indirectly providing a way for publishers to prototype this kind of feature).
Modern Family and ‘Google Mirth’
Posted by @robinsloan on Tuesday July 6th, 2010∞
This isn’t brand-new, but it’s worth watching if you missed it the first time around. At the D8 Conference this year, Kara Swisher talked to Steven Levitan, the executive producer of the show Modern Family. Now, I wish I could snap the player below to 4:09, which is where the good bit starts. Alas, you’ll have to scrub it there yourself:
Levitan says:
When the show airs on the East Coast, it’s six o’clock our time [in LA]. We hit Twitter, and we search for “Modern Family”—the writers, we do this—and we call it Google Mirth. People are watching the show, and people are, in real-time… they’re basically… they’re laughing on Twitter. “Ah haha! Love that line!” We get instant feedback.
There’s something great about that—about people at the absolute top of their game, with one of the biggest shows on TV, still waiting with bated breath, watching Twitter, wondering, as we always do, no matter how successful we get: “What does everybody think?”
Here’s another line from Levitan, via the official liveblog. This is something that I say a lot, too:
I think what [Twitter is] doing is bringing people back to watching television live. Because they want to be a part of that conversation.
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