Talk Shows for the Win
I admit, it was difficult to think of corporate social media wins. In trying to find an instance of corporate social media to write about all I could think of was people, celebrities or not, directly mentioning companies on Twitter to call them out on their bad products or services, hoping for compensation. I really wanted to find a win and I think I finally did, in the world of talk shows.
Popular talk shows have mastered the art of planned social media content. My personal favourites are The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Ellen. You haven’t seen true Snapchat creativity until you’ve seen The Tonight Show’s daily stories, always finding creative ways to share the guests and segments that will air that night on the show. The content of their feeds isn’t disingenuous or the same post over and over again announcing the show’s upcoming guests and performers, but are filled with conversations with fans and guests, celebrating the show’s reach and sharing entertaining videos, photos, etc. The content is also non repetitive and has different purposes across platforms, for example, Twitter allows The Tonight Show to live tweet during the show’s air and interact with the audience while sharing their reactions. On the other hand, Facebook, although it also includes line-up info, is mostly used to share clips of recent shows. Another classic example is The Late Late Show with James Cordon and their success with Carpool Karaoke. The segment gained popularity because it was posted on YouTube and could be easily watched and shared.
I think the reason that social media has become so important for these shows is because it provides another way to reach audiences. They understand that they need to be able to connect with people whether or not they’re watching the show. The number of people with cable subscriptions is decreasing and the watching of talk shows through YouTube videos is more common. Producing planned content across all platforms allows talk shows to capture attention and remain relevant. Even if the audience isn’t sitting down to watch the show live they are able to consume the show’s content and, more importantly, share the content.
