With a number of national media outlets successfully jumping into Snapchat Discover in its early days, local media are weighing whether or not to follow. Diana Marszalek examines the early forays some smaller outlets are making, and the pros and cons of investing in original content for the nascent platform.
It is well established that networks, agencies, and advertisers can better understand how audiences on Twitter are interacting with TV programming by delving into the endless conversations taking place there. Now, new research shows that Twitter TV activity can also tell us just how engaged the general viewing population is with the programming it watches. What does that mean? In short, it means that increases in conversation on Twitter during live programming signal that there is high engagement with programming among the general viewing audience.
To reach younger audiences, established media brands are experimenting with the popular app. It may seem like an odd strategy. The stories put out through the app by partners such as CNN, ESPN and National Geographic vanish quickly. But the hope is that the estimated tens of millions of Snapchat users — mostly between 13 and 25 — will also swipe to view a video on the crisis in Ukraine, take a cute pet quiz or try out a cronut recipe found on the app.
Not that long ago, Snapchat turned down a massive $3-billion acquisition offer from Facebook, and almost everyone thought the company had lost its mind. Now, the startup is reportedly raising money in a financing round that will value it at a staggering $19 billion. Is there anything that could justify putting that kind of market value on a company that is only four years old and still has almost no revenue?
For better or worse, Facebook is going to start looking a lot more like a product catalog. The social network plans to unveil Product Ads — a new format for brands to show off multiple offerings, and in some cases, their entire inventory. “Businesses can now showcase more products and people on Facebook can discover more relevant products,” a Facebook spokesman said on Tuesday.
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If there’s an “It Girl” in the online-media space right now — a single company that sums up the current landscape, for better or worse — it would have to be Snapchat. The four-year-old company is the platform everyone wants to be seen with. But what exactly do media companies get out of this? Is it a potential share of future revenues (assuming they appear)? Is it exposure to new users, and especially much-sought-after millennials? And are those returns going to be worth it, or are they building another house of cards on someone else’s land?
We’re going to see a lot more made-for-the-Web political advertising in the next election because candidates are drawn to Facebook, especially for its lower expense. Looking ahead, those ads won’t be a roadblock to other content, but streaming directly in users’ feeds, where they’ll have a few seconds to grab attention. Another disruption alert for local broadcasters is sounding loudly here.
WXYZ Apologizes For Facebook Headline
Yesterday morning, Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ posted a link on its Facebook page to a clip of the horrific TransAsia Airways crash that killed at least 25 people. The first sentence on the post was oddly enthusiastic: “You’ve got to see this!” Viewers were certainly not happy.
Twitter users jumped at the rare opportunity to mock the longtime newsman, many using the hashtag #BrianWilliamsMisremembers.
An estimated 114.4 million people watched New England’s thrilling win over Seattle, making it the fifth time in six years that a Super Bowl game has set a record for the most-watched event in U.S. television history. Facebook said an estimated 65 million people conversed about the game on the social media site, more than any other Super Bowl and second only to two World Cup games last year for most talked-about events. There were some 265 million individual posts, comments or “likes,” according to Facebook.
Matthew Ingram parses Emily Bell’s recent speech to British journalists and concludes the bottom line “is that journalists and technology companies or social platforms need to work together to figure out how to handle the atomized, networked and democratized media environment we all find ourselves in.” Facebook and Google are functioning as journalistic tools, even if they’re not strictly journalistic organizations, and they have a larger responsibility to society.
KSLA Shreveport ‘Help Wanted’ Video On Facebook
Philips uWand released a report on smart TVs this morning that shows some counter-intuitive trends. While ownership of smart TVs is on the rise since 2012, the study finds that uses like video clip viewing, gaming and Internet browsing is decreasing.
Nielsen says adding deeper social media Twitter data to a new predictive TV program promotion model can help TV executives and advertising executives better determine which shows will succeed. Using two variables — promotion activity and Twitter activity — Nielsen’s new model significantly improves the accuracy of whether a broadcast or cable show will succeed — 65% versus 48%.
People around the world are posting 75% more videos to Facebook than they did a year ago, the company announced on Wednesday. And that growth is steeper in the U.S. where people are posting 94% more videos to the social network.
David Carr tackles the problem of how social sharing — now a vital part of a self-obsessed culture producing troves of UGC — leaves traditional media companies largely out of the equation. An abundance of messaging and self-publishing services are instead proving more useful for users, and getting a media message into this ephemeral space is growing harder.
WXMI Facebook Page Explodes After Apology
The new advertising product connects advertisers with social media conversations around NBCUniversal programming and talent.
Most Twitter conversations around television happen during the live broadcast, during the event whether it’s the finale of Sons of Anarchy or a good football game. Brands though, are starting to run campaigns to extend that liveness to before and after the event.
Social TV is no longer a new phenomenon. Millions of people take to Twitter to share their passions about their favorite programming in the heat of the moment — as the moments happen. While the majority of the conversations happen during live broadcasts, as networks look to boost fan engagement and build program audiences, networks and agencies can now quantify how much of the discussion happens outside of the live airing window for more than 650 English and Spanish language programs.
New research from Ipsos indicates that Twitter users are more likely to have a pay-TV subscription, and more likely to watch traditional TV, than people who don’t use the service. Ipsos says 93% of Twitter users have a pay TV subscription, compared to 86% of non-Twitter users.
The “Facecast” will usually be posted in the early afternoon, and was set to start today. ABC said Facebook users will see the report in their news stream if they have “liked” World News Tonight, or else will be able to find it on the newscast’s Facebook page. ABC said it was the first newscast created specifically for social media by an evening news anchor.
Scandal star Kerry Washington made a suggestion to creator Shonda Rhimes when Scandal debuted in 2012: Get the cast to religiously use Twitter to generate buzz. Rhimes quickly sent out an email to her tightknit crew to crank up the social media. A phenomenon was born that got the attention of the network’s top brass and Hollywood’s television industry.
Social Media Rescues Snow-Bound Stations
Social media has proved an invaluable tool to Buffalo, N.Y., TV news operations throughout the week-long ordeal that started last Tuesday when early-season storms dumped seven feet of snow in some areas. As the snow piled up, the stations went wall-to-wall with their coverage, but were short-staffed and sometimes unable to put ENG vehicles on snow-clogged streets. Reports from viewers started pouring in as soon as the storm hit, providing a bounty of user-generated content.
Before social media, if you missed a live episode of the latest hit show, you’d feel left out of the conversation at the water cooler. In today’s instantaneous world of social media, however, you’re more likely to feel left out on Twitter. And that fear of missing out seems to be pushing people to catch up: New research from Nielsen found that social media “reminds” people to watch an episode after the live airing.
Sarah Glover moves from WCAU Philadelphia to work with NBC Owned Stations to build and engage social audiences at the 11 stations.
The daytime talk show host announced Thursday the launch of Ellentube, an online video portal and iOS app that features exclusive clips from The Ellen DeGeneres Show and gives fans the opportunity to upload user-generated content. Ellentube — which was created by DeGeneres and Ellen show executive producers Mary Connelly, Ed Galvin and Andy Lassner — will be organized around video playlists based on popular Ellen video categories.
Facebook 3Q Ad Revenue Soars 64%
The steady increase indicates that Facebook has succeeded in steering advertisers to its mobile platform at a time when most of its users are using Facebook on phones and tablets. Investors were initially worried about the desktop Web era-born company’s ability to succeed in mobile advertising, but those concerns are long gone.
In a bid to expand its own audience, the social media and blogging site is reaching out to fans of certain shows through deals with the shows’ creators.
Trip Chowdhry, a co-founder and analyst at Global Equities Research, has been interviewing developers ahead of an Apple announcement set for Oct. 16. ”All these developers strongly believe that Apple has opened its Apple TV APIs to some big developers including Facebook, Twitter, CNBC and Disney” Chowdhry says. “These developers feel that Facebook and Twitter APIs may be built into [the] Apple TV Platform API, which if true, could jump-start a completely new TV experience called ‘Social TV.’ ”
