Traditional Views

The Women’s World Cup final between Japan and the United States this past summer got an 8.6 overnight TV rating, but that was not the statistic everyone was talking about. The thrilling finish to the game drew 7,196 tweets per second, dwarfing previous spikes such as Osama bin Laden’s death (5,106 per second) and Super Bowl XLV (4,064).

This reflects a continuing trend of social media playing a large role in big TV events. James Poniewozik wrote an article for TIME about this phenomenon in March of 2010. He noted that old media has not traditionally fared well against new media: “New technologies are born – radio, TV, the Internet – and either kill what came before or render it less relevant.” But his hypothesis is that social media (i.e. “new media”) has actually helped TV (“old media”) with its big events. Record TV audiences still tune in for the Super Bowl, Olympics and Academy Awards ceremonies.

As Poniewozik says, people like to talk about big events. We throw parties for occasions like the Super Bowl and American Idol finales so we can share the experience with as many people as possible. We are eager to go to work/school the next day to hear from everyone who could not make it to the party. Well, now we do not have to wait until the next day. Twitter and Facebook allow us to instantly hear from hundreds or even thousands of other people. I can immediately find out what Bill thinks about the Steelers pass defense or what Jenna thinks about both teams wearing the same color of pants.

If Poniewozik is correct, old media folks should not look at social media as a problem. It can compliment TV programs and can be a great benefit with a good strategy.

With a good strategy. Much easier said than done. Social media is still a relatively new field and most of us are still trying to figure out what works and what does not. I found an article discussing a few ways traditional media is going social. Whether these tactics have been effective is beside the point for the purposes of this blog post – the mere fact that they are doing something shows that they are not looking at social media as a problem.

My favorite example from the article had to do with the efforts of John A. Byrne, the editor-in-chief of the business magazine BusinessWeek. He is using social media to get story ideas from consumers of his magazine. Readers submit pitches to Byrne, and he and a community editor review each of them and assign at least one per week to a BusinessWeek journalist.

The Women’s World Cup final broke the Twitter record not because women’s soccer passed up football in popularity. It did so because Twitter has gotten increasingly popular, and that trend has showed no signs of stopping. The growing popularity of social media has been discussed ad nauseum, and old media will not do itself any favors by ignoring it. There are examples of social media complimenting old media, and the segments that find other ways to utilize social media will gain a crucial competitive advantage.