Digital Media Strategies in Broadcast Improving Audience Engagement Through Social Media
Broadcasters are responding to changing viewing habits with content specifically designed for digital distribution or additional content to complement and enhance the original programming. What is less clear to broadcasters is how to use social media as a tool to proactively drive viewer engagement and how to translate increased engagement, social media traffic and dialogue into new revenue streams. In this paper, Scott Bowditch and Jennifer Jarvis discuss the importance of a digital media strategy and examine how to get viewers both talking and spending. Digital media can take many forms including corporate websites, streaming, video posting to third party sites and social media. It can be consumed in multiple ways, but the focal point of distribution of digital content has become the mobile second screen tablets and smart phones. Some content producers create programming specifically for digital outlets. For broadcasters and producers of content for television, there is a now a clear requirement to have a digital media strategy. But how does one determine what that strategy should be? A first step in creating a strategy is to understand the business of the digital space. The key to social media participation is access. When it comes to online consumption, the fastest growth is on mobile platforms. The low cost of mobile devices - tablets and smartphones - combined with increasing accessibility has helped double mobile data traffic each year over the past four years. By the end of 2013, it s estimated there will be more connected mobile devices on the planet than people. And connectivity is nearly universal; it s estimated that 95 percent of the world will have cell phone reception and 3 billion people will have Internet access by next year. This connectivity is fueling media consumption and conversations. A number of surveys in the U.S. and U.K. show 70-80 percent of viewers also use a second device while watching TV. And these devices are often used to post social content about what they are watching on television. Facebook now has more than 1 billion users across more than 200 countries. In the final match of the Euro 2012 football tournament, a new record was set on Twitter with more than 15,000 tweets per second when the final goal was scored.
Social media content is so closely linked to television that Nielsen announced a new rating system in the U.S. that will track the traction of specific television shows on Twitter. Starting this year, Facebook will also jump into the television world by partnering with networks like CNN and BSkyB to provide access to demographic information about the conversations happening around specific programming. These data points clearly show that the digital media space is growing rapidly and is closely linked to traditional media. Therefore, a strategy needs to be created not just for the requirements of today, but for the larger model that is sure to be required tomorrow. So, where do we start? In the digital space, as in traditional content delivery, the most important thing is to win the competition for eyeballs. Business models for digital require the sale of advertising to generate revenue and the value of sales inventory is determined directly by the size of the audience. To build an audience, one must not only create compelling content, but make a longer term connection with the consumer of content. So the larger question becomes how does one use digital media to increase audience engagement?
There are a number of things that a content creator can do to increase audience engagement. First and foremost is to create a strong presence in social media. Twitter and Facebook have become the modern day water cooler conversation points but on a global scale. All companies must strive to keep their content in these spaces concise and compelling while ensuring that followers and friends are not overwhelmed with excessive amounts of comment. These outlets are not channels for the distribution of the primary product, however, so the ability to click-through and access the content must be front and centre. Secondly, audience members must be able to consume the content provided in a manner of their choosing, be that on television at a scheduled time or by some other method at their own convenience. Finally, engagement can be driven through giving an audience the opportunity to be a part of the content by influencing the flow of the show or adding commentary to the production.
So, how does one create social media content that is timely and relevant to one s core message? There are a number of ways to approach this. One could hire a team of people who can be connected to the creative process for the core content and create social content in real time. Given the potential cost of this option, it may not be the best solution. Instead, an integrated platform that allows users to create social content in parallel to the core content creation could be implemented. There are many advantages to this approach, most notably the lack of requirement for additional staff, a guarantee that the message is consistent because it is cocreated and the ability to publish the social content at just the right moment based on the release of the core content. [What about core content?] Ideally, most of it would be repackaged across platforms to avoid incurring additional production costs. The ideal system would allow the producer to simply and easily manage multiple versions of the same content within the same GUI. Using the same core information, a content producer can highlight different areas to take advantage of the unique benefits of each social media platform. Metadata does need to travel with the digital content so the system must have the ability to support it. [But what about the money?] Perhaps the most challenging aspect of developing a digital strategy is determining how that strategy can translate to revenue. Again, many companies encounter a significant challenge when attempting to monetize their social media presence. Social media should only be used as a portal with which to connect with the audience. If we attempt to advertise to our friends and followers, we are far more likely to alienate them, especially when it comes to younger consumers. The overall goal must be audience engagement, not monetization. If the former is achieved, the latter can take care of itself; it is the second level of engagement that provides the avenue for realising revenue. When a user clicks through from a social portal to view video or text content, they have come to expect advertising as part of that experience. It is here that advertising can be sold without risk of turning away the target audience. Similarly, if a user asks to be sent a piece of content, this interaction can be branded, thus allowing for additional revenue. [How can I use social media to enhance my linear production and further engage my audience?] Again, there are a number of ways to accomplish this. Almost universally, people like to be famous. Even if a tweet only appears for 5 seconds as part of a crawl or ticker, including social media content in a linear stream allows the producer to include the audience in the production, thus giving the individual audience member that fleeting moment of fame that they crave. Social media data can also tell part of the story or be the story in itself. Tools that make polling data available are essential for tying 1st and 2nd screen experiences together. Trending polls can be used to gauge the mood of the world, a nation or even a single building on a given topic. Directed polls can be used to create engagement in a specific event or program. Both can be used to create compelling graphical information that connects the audience with the content creator.
Any strategy put in place MUST be able to react to the future of social media, Web publishing and second screen applications. There is always a next big thing and any solution that requires forklift upgrades or massive swings in process to address the new reality will cost more than they can ever return. A good strategy will be centred on technology and workflow solutions that will grow and shift as the distribution and consumption landscape changes. Here at Ross, we have created a solution to the technology and workflow portion of your social media, Web and digital distribution strategy. It s called Inception. We have built the modern newsroom control system (NRCS) from the ground up as an integrated scripting, social media management and Web publishing tool that forms the spine of any digital media strategy. Not only does Inception provide all of the necessary elements of a traditional NRCS timing engines, scripting, scheduling and so on it also allows the user to repurpose video and text content for publication to social media and the Web. As you would expect, Inception currently interfaces with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Brightcove, Flickr, Wordpress and Mass Relevance, and the list grows with each new release. We have also included Inception Polls in the package: a comprehensive polling system that allows users to generate, through trending or directed polls, relevant statistical information for use in research and for the creation of compelling graphical content for a programmer. Inception Playlist provides a means for the aggregation and moderation of social media content for use in the linear stream. Most importantly, Inception allows the user to manage all of this content in a single environment with full editorial control and approval processes; an important consideration for content providers juggling multiple workflows and content streams. Scott Bowditch and Jennifer Jarvis Ross Video 2013, All Rights Reserved