Dan Biddle, Head of Broadcast Partnerships at Twitter UK came to Uffindell to share his thoughts and experience in the use of Twitter to connect with audiences while giving insights on the power and influence that Twitter has today.
Dan refers to Twitter as ‘the room we’re watching TV in’. Rather than distracting audiences, it amplifies the experience by creating the social soundtrack around what we are watching. Twitter does not challenge TV, it works with it.
Dan used several histograms, from SecondSync, to show the ebb and flow of Twitter activity during shows. The data is based on Twitter activity minute by minute across each show.
In this example, he shows the Twitter reaction to an episode of Britain’s Got Talent where a woman came on stage and started throwing eggs at Simon Cowell. As the graph shows, the highest peak of the episode was not the end results but that moment.
Twitter doesn’t challenge TV. Twitter is the room we’re watching TV in
Brands are getting more on-board with Twitter. They are seeing the value in being present and part of the conversation.
Lynx is a great example of a brand using Twitter in a positive way. After Lynx was mentioned on the show Dogging Tales, it could have been seen as a disaster for their brand. Instead of trying to sweep it under the rug, they used it to promote themselves and express their brand:
‘Crisis meetings’ all morning thanks to Les in #DoggingTales last night… We’ve concluded there is no crisis pic.twitter.com/cqfmTDEhWH
— Lynx (@lynx) April 5, 2013
This allowed them to play on their image; it was light hearted and funny and had a massive response from the Twitter audience.
Calling it ‘the Tweet Spot’, Dan talked about how companies can understand the rhythm of their shows then pinpoint and prepare for those key moments. A great example is a tweet the BBC put out during their show Africa. They posted this harrowing image of a mother elephant standing with her dead baby.
"She won't abandon her baby." #Africa pic.twitter.com/QNhHB5wZ
— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) January 9, 2013
Being prepared and tweeting at the peak of activity meant their tweet was retweeted over and over, they were part of the discussion. And that was the key message, as a brand be part of Twitter. Use it to connect to your audience and promote your brand.
Uffindell would like to thank Dan for coming in and giving a truly interesting and hilarious talk about Twitter and it’s place alongside television.
For information on future Catalyst Club talks, and further discussion and photos of Dan’s talk, be sure to visit The Catalyst Club.
