Left to right, Sabrina Caluroi of HBO, Scott Rosenberg of Umami, and Gayle Weiswasser of Discovery.

Social media has taken television into an interactive experience. Now you not only tune in to watch your favorite show but can connect through Facebook and Twitter to not only express your reactions to an episode but engage with the actors as well. The Center for Communication recently explored the developing area of interactive television that included:

• Sabrina Caluori, VP, Social Media & Performance Marketing, HBO

• Scott Rosenberg, Co-Founder and CEO, Umami

Sabrina Caluori felt that television has always been a social medium where office workers gathered the day after watching their shows to discuss and share their favorite moments. But today with social media no one has to wait since they can now engage in real time conversation through Facebook and Twitter.  The social media strategy of HBO is not platform specific as some interactions work best on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or a combination of all three. What is the secret to social buzz? Allowing viewers to add their own content and meaning to posts and/or tweets.

Sabrina shared  with the audience  the time she was live tweeting True Blood  and had to be careful with the time zone differences as East coast fans were able to view the show first followed by fans on the west coast. Discussion followed on Twitter about what transpired during the show and Sabrina discovered that Australian viewers were complaining about the spoilers as they were the last to view the episode. HBO Go and Twitter enables fans to have a conversation with actors from the shows. HBO Connect  is a popular area featuring live Q & A’s and recently held a session for Eastbound and Down that received 2000 questions in a span of thirty minutes.

Scott Rosenberg’s company Umami created an i-pad app that connects a users’ social media circle to include all the great content created by the super fans of any show/series and also measures where that viewer is in the show and what they are talking about on their social networks. Social media with interactive television enables viewers/fans to get more content about their favorite show and provides writers and producers with the ability to offer a rich branded experience. Scott believes that  television viewers are now seeing social media integrated on the first screen through commercials and promos during shows.

So how does this affect the viewing experience? Scott felt that other transmedia can be a distraction from the first screen, but it depends on the experience. It is best to try and make the conversation experience fun, but there may be too much noise from oversharing, and people cannot keep up with this overflow so may prefer some type of technology to filter it all.

Gayle Weiswasser sees social television as the second screen app providing content for fans/viewers to not only learn more, but talk  about their favorite Discovery Channel shows.  When Carlos from the TLC show Cake Boss made a Facebook birthday post he received 17,000 likes which revealed that fans love the connections and ability to post pictures and chat in different formats. Gayle uses this data to see what viewers ares sharing, checking in, and/or watching clips online.

Even though the DVR may have created more competition, Gayle believes viewers would rather tune into live television (as revealed by the  TV Guide Study) to avoid spoilers that show up on Twitter and Facebook. Gayle observed that social media creates more work for her current staff as it is impossible to feed all content platforms. Interested in a job at Discovery Channel? For new hires Gayle seeks out those that are  passionate about social media, knowledgable about all the shows, and is able to understand what types of content work with different audiences.

You can follow Sabrina Caluori on Twitter @sabrinacaluori

You can follow Scott Rosenberg on Twitter @scottrinnyc

You can follow Gayle Weiswasser on Twitter @gweiswasser

Retailers seem to believe that you do not receive enough email from them.

Retailers must think you only receive a few emails a day, so why not send more to you every day? According to the Wall Street Journal article, “Stores Smarten Up Amid Spam Flood”, here are some of the stats:

- Last year, the nation’s top 100 retailers by e-commerce revenue sent recipients an average of 177 emails apiece up 87% from 2007 according to Responsys Inc.

- The most aggressive emailers – including Neiman Marcus Group - sent each recipient more than 500 emails apiece in 2011 Responsys said.

So why are the retailers doing this? According to Bud Konheim, CEO of Nicole Miller, “You get into this mind-set that the more emails you send, the more sales you generate, but that can really start to annoy people.” J.C. Penny used to “send one a day but has cut back to an average of three a week.”  The retailers are also trying to keep up with the daily deal flash sales which Gilt Group and Groupon have made mainstream.

Here is an older stat:

Unfortunately I find myself deleting more unread email than ever before. If you really want to get my attention, use the US Post office and send it to me through the mail.

Read the full article here.

Which marketing strategy road should your business travel down?

Photo via Flicktone

Small businesses face many challenges and with limited resources (time and money), and business owners may get confused on the best way to integrate digital and traditional marketing methods.  The New York Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators provided some guidance with the panel, Integrating Digital and Traditional Marketing: Creating more powerful external and internal communication strategies.

Panelists:

• Mel Sokotch, Author of Shortcuts to the Obvious

• Kevin Dolorico, Digital Marketing Lead at LG Electronics

• Justin Amendola, VP of Global SMB Digital Strategy at Pitney Bowes

Clients always ask Mel Sokotch if the investment in the new-shiny-popular-at-the-moment social media strategy is worth investing time and money, and Mel always answers by asking how much effort is your organization willing to invest, and how much revenue would you like that strategy to bring in? If you are a hospital and need to spend $200-500,000 for a YouTube channel and videos, your organization will need to answer:

- What is the value that will be needed to bring in new patients?

- What is the cost?

- How many transactions will need to be completed?

If your company or organization is trying to figure out how much to spend on digital versus traditional marketing, Mel states that unless you are Apple or Coke you have to be careful with your marketing budget. He suggests spending in media that is tried and true and not just jumping into the shiny new thing. For example, Visa spends ten percent of their budget on digital. Mel regularly looks at Nielsen and sees two areas that keep growing every year: Television and Online search.

Justin Amendola felt that small businesses offer a unique differentiating position and since consumers are used to going to different places for different information, these same consumers now expect more from local businesses. More small businesses are embracing digital through social media, but there is more noise online, so it is prudent to decide what you want to get out of your social media strategy. Pitney Bowes offers software linked with operations when an order is placed on the company website the shipping/postage is calculated, a shipping label is created, and tracking information is sent to the customer via email. You can follow Justin on Twitter @justinmendola.

Kevin Dolorico advised that marketers need to prioritize funds based on impact. For a large company/brand such as LG  (#2 tv manufacturer behind Samsung) Kevin shared that when shopping for a new television consumers seem to have one or two brands in mind to purchase, but after doing more research they discover other brands and offerings  which leads to confusion and buyers remorse if they are not happy after their purchase. LG tries to create a consistent story line and virtual product online that eventually sends consumers to a brick and mortar store to view and touch the appliance. Another strategy LG leverages is through their digital channels by building up cookie pools (targeted messages to specific targeted audiences) via Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest used for inbound marketing.

Research  revealed that the LG mobile website assisted consumers in stores through scanning a QR code which enabled those consumers to read reviews of the specific product. So how does LG figure out how to market their largest (31 cubic feet) walk in refrigerator? They created a contest  asking people to guess how many jellybeans could fit into the Super Capacity refrigerator to give consumers some perspective of what can be stored in a 31 cubic foot space. The campaign resulted in doubling number of Facebook fans. By the way 265,000 jellybeans fit into a LG 31 cubic foot fridge so you can be prepared when Easter rolls around.

Jesse Redniss, Sr. VP for Digital at USA Network appeared on the panel, The Mobile Social Living Room during 2012 Social Media Week New York to discuss the social media campaign behind Hashtag Killer which was created around the show Psych. Hashtag Killer is digital storytelling through multiple platforms on Facebook, Twitter, videos, games, and mobile devices in real time where the user experience becomes 24/7 not just forty-two minutes every week from watching the television show. With 1.4 million viewers tuning in every Wednesday night Psych and the online game Hashtag Killer draw in users to help solve a mystery and when the users goes online the story unfolds in real time, with characters from Psych asking the user for guidance on how to proceed. The user receives texts providing clues to continue.

What have been the results from the Hash Tag Killer social media campaign?

- 128 million page views

- Users spent fifteen minutes per visit on the site

- Sixty percent of users returned more than five times

- Fifteen percent of users returned every day

You can follow Jess on Twitter: @jesseredniss

You can view the video providing more details below:

Jermaine Dupri talks about Global 14 at Social Media Week 2012 New York.

Jermaine Dupri appeared at Social Media Week 2012 held in New York to talk about his social network Global 14 . Global 14 began as a blog covering Dupri’s other interests such as art, fashion, and music and quickly found a growing community where users could contribute their music, art and fashion and receive feedback. Dupri felt MySpace and Twitter did not provide continuous communication between users whereas Global 14 provides constant dialogue. Jermaine also wanted to create a site that was spam free and Global 14  members have taken an active role in making sure that policy was followed by all.

To make a bigger impression in social media  Jermaine advised that users learn how to use their social media power using an example  of guests being invited to a dinner and seeing Jermaine Dupri sitting at one table and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at another. Most guests would choose to sit with Jermaine due to his connections and access to the most influential players in the music business.

To promote Global 14 Jermaine has embarked on four city tour in fourteen days to raise awareness, and includes meet and greets between him and for Global 14 community members to meet each other well. A west coast tour is scheduled to start in the spring.

Follow Jermaine Dupri on Twitter @Mr_Dupri.

View the video of Jermaine from Social Media Week New York 2012: