social media

Despite the growing popularity of social media, mobile users prefer to get their news from mainstream news sites rather than their friends, according to a new Reynolds Journalism Institute survey.

After a long battle with brain tumors, KOMO Seattle anchor Kathi Goertzen died  on Monday, sparking a massive social outpouring in Seattle. A few hours after the news broke, a new wall post was appearing on her Facebook page every 10 seconds.

The use of social media continues to expand and evolve in both television and radio, according to the latest findings from the RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey. And stations are getting more and more creative in how they use social media.

The Council for Research Excellence selects Keller Fay Group, Nielsen, Nielsen Life360, NM Incite and Bluefin Labs to participate.

The social media company, along with multiple Hollywood producers and network executives, are in serious talks about the possibility of launching several original video series via Twitter.

NBC-owned WCAU Philadelphia (DMA 4) has named Sarah Glover as social media editor effective immediately. Glover joins the station from the Philadelphia Daily News where she was originally a staff […]

As athletes parade into London’s Olympic Stadium this Friday, Twitter Inc.’s Olympic hopes will play out in a spartan office in Boulder, Colo. There, a handful of people will spend 20 hours a day to help corral millions of Twitter messages from Olympic athletes, their families, fans and NBC television personalities into a single page on Twitter.com. NBC will promote the website with on-air promotions and links to athlete interviews or video clips.

Traditional media must recognize that having a social media strategy is essential for remaining competitive. Stations can’t take advantage of their ability to deliver a large base of engaged consumers to advertisers if they themselves aren’t engaging in the type of social media campaigns that we’re seeing at the network level. In addition, social media is quickly replacing email as a form of interacting with consumers, particularly when it comes to 18-34 year olds.

Viewers of NBC’s coverage will be encouraged to talk about the Games on Facebook, and Facebook users will be reminded to watch the coverage on NBC.

Now in it’s 20th season, the NBC News show is launching “Dateline Chatline,” a major social TV initiative aimed at merging “all viewer discussion surrounding Dateline into one easy-to-access, user-friendly online site.”

On the hunt for new revenue streams, Facebook is pitching TV chiefs on a new online video ad model that would monetize its popular “like” button. Under the plan being discussed by the social network giant and some cable TV executives, Facebook would give the networks the ability to ascertain the popularity of certain video content on its platform while taking a cut of the added ad revenue created by the increased exposure, sources said.

Panelists at the PromaxBDA Station Summit discuss the value, opportunities and problems that stem from Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.

News staffers are prohibited from tweeting, posting or distributing via other social networking means “anything that compromises the integrity and objectivity of you or NBCUniversal,” even using a personal account. Some observers see the policy as overly broad, but NBC says if material is not solid enough to include in a newscast, it shouldn’t be distributed via social media either.

KIRO Seattle traffic anchor Jenni Hogan is the most followed local female TV journalist on Twitter and Facebook in America and was named as one of the top female geeks in the world by the Huffington Post. She offers some advice on the importance of networking, landing your dream job and what she’s learned from her mentors.

The CW’s audience was born into the social web. This fact has forced the network to quickly adapt to the Gossip Girl and Vampire Diary-loving fans that are loud, passionate and screen-agnostic when it comes to programming. Rick Haskins, The CW’s executive vice president of marketing and digital programs, talks about his network’s social TV strategy.

The Jerry Sandusky case was more than a media circus; it may have been a story that the media (at least in the public eye) got right. TV, radio and newspapers told the story fairly, the verdict seems correct — and, for many, social media provided a forum for venting, an encyclopedia and a community.

Gathering around the television or radio during storms to consume continuous news reports has been a longstanding tradition for some Tampa Bay area residents. But some of today’s media consumers also use social media to track severe weather, seeing updates from official sources quicker and staying connected to news sources even when power fails in their homes.

The reality is that most newsrooms are falling behind the news consumer when it comes to social media, Web and mobile. If we still want to be the people providing them with new and vital information then we need to first catch up, and then leap ahead.

The Cox-owned CBS affiliate in Seattle will present a live special tonight that has been named, planned and even given a time slot by the audience over social media. As it airs, trending topics and audience participation will dictate much of the content.

Rachel Webber, Tumblr’s director of partnership development, talks about how Tumblr fits into the social TV ecosystem, networks doing a great job on Tumblr and best practices for launching and succeeding on the platform.

Consumers are willing to forge a bond with those things that mean something to them and that they, well … like. But oftentimes in the social media space, clicks aren’t pursued independently; they’re more likely to be activated when it’s made easy and somewhat seamless. Since TV is a strong driver to the Web, local stations make that easy connection between advertiser and end-user.

Social networking is the most popular online activity worldwide. It’s big and only getting bigger each day as a place where consumers engage, share, interact, shop and consume news and information. Despite all the efforts put behind building and creating social channels, few have been able to generate significant revenue, but the payoff is coming as businesses engage fans and convert customers. 

At last week’s upfront presentations, network television executives spoke the languages of social media and Web science to a greater degree than ever.

In nearly every upfront presentation, the TV networks took pains to stress their expertise in connecting advertisers to consumers, not only with splashy TV programs but also via social media.

Comcast announced today that its Skype for TV service just launched in Seattle and Boston, with eight more markets launching by the end of the week. The $9.95/month Xfinity add-on includes an HD camera, Skype adaptor and full-keyboard remote control. Once you’re wired up, you can access your Skype contacts — even import from Facebook.

Bitly, the URL shortener of choice for most people, has analyzed its click-tracking data to find the optimal days and times for posting links to social media. The results show interesting, distinct patterns among Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.

For the last two years, the social TV startup Fans.tv has been powering social chats for networks like the CW. But today, it’s rolling out its own consumer-facing site so fans can connect around their favorite shows.

Tribune Media owned Zap2it.com has launched some brand new social TV features to provide more opportunities for engagement across their news site.

In its first partnership with a Spanish-language broadcaster, Shazam said it will be enabling viewers of Thursday night’s Billboard Latino Music Awards on Telemundo to tag the event for expanded content.

Twitter and Facebook have quickly become one of the basics of TV news. Faster and easier than blogging, which industry watchers say is becoming increasingly passé, and more personal than station-run websites, social media has become so important that stations are investing in training talent to use them and, in some cases, mandating it.

One of the biggest trends is focused on making it easy for producers to integrate social content on-air. Until now, displaying a tweet or a poll has been extremely labor-intensive (put poll on website, tease website from on-air, refresh poll results, create graphic of results, write them into script, drop it into the rundown.) But new partnerships are automating the entire process, tying it to social curation and the second screen.

Panelists at an NAB session debate the finer points of the value and influence of Twitter, Facebook et al., but a consensus was clear: It’s hard to overestimate social media’s impact on politics. For all that’s going on at NAB 2012, click here.

Symbols and messages associated with social media are proliferating on TV, and they’re getting through to TV viewers, according to a new survey of 1,000 U.S. adult TV viewers by Accenture, which revealed high levels of recall for social media messaging, as well as high rates of social media activity in response to this kind of messaging.

Its new Shout makes it easier to incorporate tweets into live broadcasts. For all that’s going on at NAB 2012, click here.