Social TV

I've written about social media's impact on television before (check out my postings on Talent Zoo's Beyond Madison Avenue) and now more and more people and news outlets are recognizing the significance that social media is having on everything; not just friends updating friends.

I'm sure you've seen the commercial for Sharetv.com, where you can interact with people online and share your opinions and ideas, etc., about television shows and programs. Studios are taking notice and have invented what they call 'social tv.'

Essentially what this means is that people no longer just want to watch tv, they now want to interact with others who are interested in the same genres (much like traditional clubs and networking organizations).

AdAge wrote an article today on 'social tv' and the benefits its giving to programs. As I'm sure you are aware, watching a tv program in "...the old school fashion..." (i.e. at the time it actually airs and with commercials) is not a common practice anymore. With social media, producers are able to track who is talking, texting, tweeting and facebooking about their show and then use that information to attract sponsors. Many programs, such as Tosh.O on Comedy Central, have incorporated social media into their programs (Daniel Tosh does a regular segment where he answers tweets he receives).

Borrowing a quote from the AdAge article, David Dickman, senior VP-digital media, Warner Bros. Digital said, "Extending the customer base to online is going to broaden your demographic push. The digital aspect is going to broaden out that base and just bring more people into the fold."

Mr. Dickman, you are correct. The face of how we connect with customers, clients and partners is changing and companies are rushing to catch it. Expect a few mistakes, but a ton of successes. It will be interesting to see how social media goes hand-in-hand with, well, just about everything media related. Perhaps we'll see discount coupons through Twitter, contests through Facebook and even a scavenger hunt that ties all social mediums together (imagine how fast that would bring in an audience!).