social media

Twitter Alerts is an opt-in service that will push out alerts to mobile devices with information from credible organizations during emergencies and national disasters.

During Tuesday’s two-hour documentary College $ports: #missionormoney, which explored the multi-billion dollar industry of big-time college sports, the show’s hashtag trended No. 1 in the Raleigh market and No. 6 nationally on the social network.

The NFL is the latest to join Twitter’s TV ad platform Amplify. The deal marks the biggest sports-related commitment to date. It will allow broadcasters to show video clips and ads through tweets that are coordinated with what’s being shown on television.

Twitter has a ways to go before it can really crack big TV budgets. It has great traction among the media and plugged-in social and tech scenes, but it still has work to do in convincing broadcasters and big brands that it can really make a difference. That’s why it was eager to trumpet its new deal with CBS. The pair plan to push content out across the social network to help drive audience engagement and tune-in around TV content, but also to unlock opportunities for brands in the process.

HBO’s popular drama that shows the day-to-day grind of a cable news network used — fictionally, of course — innovative social media tool Topsy to help break news about Genoa, the show’s season-long backstory that was likely based around CNN’s explosive report on the military’s alleged use of poison gas.

The ABC affiliate claims that it has more “Likes” than any other local TV station in the country, thanks in part to a big time contest sponsored by the Mercedes Benz Dealers of Southern California.

The social network, gearing up for its IPO, understands that it could generate revenue by targeting the TV advertising industry and has recently been courting networks and advertisers as it rolls out more marketing products. One of those solutions is Amplify, which is currently being used by ESPN and BBC America. Amplify lets networks post short video replays on Twitter in near-real time.

A TVB survey finds that TV is three times more likely to spark discussion than digital media and local TV news is a bigger conversation starter than both network and cable news.

Is liking something on Facebook a form of protected expression akin to putting a bumper sticker on your car? The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals says, yes, it is. The ruling comes in response to a sheriff who sacked a deputy for liking the Facebook page of his political rival.

A new SocialGuide study shows TV viewers send the majority of their tweets during program time rather than during commercial time. The study also found that the share of tweets sent during commercial time was driven across genres by the share of commercial time within a program’s airtime. In sports, for example, commercials ran during 24% of airtime, and 25% of tweets were sent during commercial time.

TV news is a go-to resource in the midst of disaster, but social media played an increasingly significant role during the recent Colorado floods, at times reaching out to the audience in ways that television can’t.

Never.no has integrated Vine and Instagram Video into its flagship Interactivity Suite (IS), a toolkit for creating the technical backbone of social TV and multiscreen engagements. Now broadcasters and advertisers […]

When Twitter started seven years ago as an obscure medium for geeks, critics dismissed it as an exercise in narcissism. Now, Twitter is taking the next critical step in its evolution — selling stock to the public. It promises to be the most hyped and scrutinized initial public offerings since Facebook’s Wall Street debut in May 2012.

Twitter has acquired Trendrr, a company that tracks and analyzes conversation about TV shows on Twitter and other social media sites like Facebook, according to a blog post by Trendrr founder Mark Ghuneim.

As audiences shift to new platforms, media companies are left wondering how to generate revenue from new devices. The message from speakers at Borrell Associates’ “Social + Mobile – Show Me The Money!” conference in Chicago is that the revenue opportunities are there, if media companies know where to look.

Telemundo will integrate Vine, the Twitter app that allows users to create short videos, into its broadcast of the Premios Tu Mundo Awards Aug. 15. The Spanish-language network will unveil the winner of one award through a Vine video, which must be 6 seconds or shorter, during the second annual show, which serves as an appreciation of Latino pop culture.

Social and mobile media can be lovable and annoying, and it’s the annoying part that holds the most opportunity, says Borrell Associates CEO Gordon Borrell. Methods of how to capitalize on social and mobile will be laid out the firm’s Social+Mobile Show Me The Money conference this month.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Procter & Gamble Co. is now spending more than a third of its U.S. marketing budget on digital media, an aggressive shift as Americans for the first time are expected to spend more time online this year than watching television. The story by Serena Ng and Suzanne Vranica quotes P&G executives as saying digital media in many cases is proving to be a faster and cheaper way for P&G’s brands to reach consumers, and feedback is also faster. WSJ subscribers can read the story here.

My challenge to the engineers who are helping broadcast countless hours of live news each week: Sign up and tweet at least one message a day. Let this community know how your latest ENG gizmo is working out for you. Maybe you just bought some new specialty, point-of-view cameras that you want to tell us about. Let us know that your innovative minds are still churning out new ideas.

There was a full-blown feeding frenzy recently on Twitter. Chances are pretty good you saw the Tweets (or stories about them), but not the TV movie that inspired them. As a television event, SyFy’s Sharknado was great social media. And a great example of what the Twitter Effect can have on programmers and the television industry. Generally speaking, the more a show is talked about, the more viewers it will deliver. The only difference is that the Twitter Effect alone won’t elevate cable deliveries much beyond what they’re capable of delivering organically. Cable programs — particularly on the niche networks — won’t deliver much beyond their base, no matter how much social chatter they generate.

The Associated Press, People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Women’s Wear Daily and Slate have given sponsored social content a whirl in the interest of scratching up new revenue. Josh Sternberg: “It makes sense. With millions of followers, Twitter is a powerful distribution platform for them. Every little bit helps. The risk, of course, is user backlash.”

You may find more promos for new fall TV shows online these days than you will on your TV set. With the rise in social-media has come an intensification of TV-network efforts to inject their new programs into the pop-culture conversation. The new season is weeks away, with many of the broadcast networks not launching fall series until mid-to-late September, or even October. However, on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook, the freshman series of autumn are already striving to be seen and heard.

With the growing importance of second-screen applications, particularly those involving social TV, it’s very likely most of your news team is actively engaging in social media networking. However, this growing activity is creating some novel legal issues and a few heavy-duty migraines for some managers. Here are tips on what to do now to prevent social media problems and ensure your station doesn’t wind up in court or become fodder for competing news organizations.

With the growing importance of second-screen applications, particularly those involving social TV, it’s very likely most of your news team is actively engaging in social media networking. However, this growing activity is creating some novel legal issues and a few heavy-duty migraines for some managers. Here are tips on what to do now to prevent social media problems and ensure your station doesn’t wind up in court or become fodder for competing news organizations.

Disney’s Anne Sweeney and TV producer I. Marlene King talk about how the online conversation is transforming the creative process.

Looking to push the focus to the “primary” screen, Dish Network has started a social media app connected to its Hopper DVR unit. Dish says the Social app is the first set-top-box app where viewers can watch TV shows and follow social media posts on the same screen.

The popular social network has developed a new ad platform that analyzes tweets during a particular TV show and gives advertisers analytics to continue their campaign on Twitter.

See how Gannett’s St. Louis NBC affiliate is using the emerging video-sharing app Vine to boost its newsgatering efforts.

The microblogging site has partnered with BBC America to offer what the network trumpets as the first “in-tweet branded video synced to entertainment TV series,” according to a tweet sent Thursday evening.