I’ve been pondering and pondering on a topic or example of great social media use. It didn’t quite hit me until tonight watching The Voice which is a music/singing competition on NBC famous for its blind auditions, spinning red chairs, and I WANT YOU! buttons. I hope you all have at least heard of The Voice (totally one of my guilty pleasures while balancing work and school).
The show website if you’re curious: http://www.nbc.com/the-voice
What I find genius about this show is its utilization of social media but Twitter specifically. Each judge has their own Twitter handle, where they actively tweet throughout the show, before, and after and engage in the on-goings of what is actually going on in the show. The tweets appear on the television screen as well (at least for us out West here).
SPOILER ALERT:
I love that they got the coaches involved in the tweeting, but even better is the involvement of the audience as well. With users utilizing the hashtag #VoiceSave and the first name of the artist they are rooting for, the audience can help save an artist from elimination which has been dubbed “The Instant Save” on the show. The show’s Twitter handle also makes a “retweetable” post that would count as a vote which makes it even easier to participate.
The artists on the show also utilize Twitter handles and tweet as well. The show even created its own quirky hashtags….one of which is #Lukified which has been trending thanks to Blake Sheldon saying it on a weekly basis on air!
Compared to the other singing competitions on air, The Voice has been solid in its standing where both American Idol and the X Factor seem to be slipping away. The Voice certainly has the best integration of live television and social media, which begs the question if its social media use is part of the key to a successful reality television competition run?
The show has amazing use of Twitter and live TV which serves as a great example of dual-platform integration. I totally encourage you to watch the show just for it’s great Twitter use (and of course great music).