Socially Viewing Euro 2012
Social sharing is now a well-established part of our daily lives and as such, we are communicating via platforms such as Twitter and Facebook on a regular basis.
There are subtle differences between each of these but they are both leaders within the social space, it is generally presumed that if someone is using social media, they must be using either Facebook or Twitter and for some, both.
As someone who uses both, I can honestly say I use both platforms for totally different reasons. And as someone who works in marketing, I see Twitter as a hub of information and follow everyone and anyone with the same interests as me.
When a news story breaks or I overhear a piece of information that I want to confirm, it isn’t a news website like BBC that I check – it’s Twitter.
In the last year, there have been many times when Twitter has broken news stories which otherwise we might not have heard about or wouldn’t have quite so quickly, if it hadn’t been for someone’s personal tweet.
For example, Whitney Houston’s death was first announced on Twitter by the niece of the maid that found her body, news of Barrack Obama’s trip to Afghanistan was leaked on Twitter and when Michael Jackson died, it was Facebook that informed me of the news.
There has been many an argument over the legal implications of Twitter and the updates people are entitled to make via the social network. For example, a story about a certain footballer’s indiscretions and the riots in London last summer. Twitter now puts a blanket on certain information so that large groups of people aren’t able use the network to promote illegal behaviour.
So why do I use Twitter and why do I use Facebook?
Well that is an easy question to answer, I use Twitter to:
- Promote my blog
- Communicate to like-minded people
- Communicate with celebrities and authority figures
- Find out information
- Socially view (explanation below)
- Communicate with brands
- Update me on the news
I use Facebook to:
- Keep in touch with friends and family
- Communicate with brands
- Look for offers
- Look for inspiration
- ‘Banter’
When I think about the circumstances in which I use Twitter the most, it tends to be in the evenings while I am watching TV – also known now as social viewing. As an example, during last night’s football match, I tweeted three times and updated my status once. I then proceeded to have notifications of likes, retweets, conversations with celebs and peers on Twitter and general banter with friends via their Facebook status.
Social viewing is one of the latest marketing objectives to influence the social sphere. Many brands are now building it into their social strategies to compliment and add greater value and impact to their above-the-line advertising campaigns, which have been suffering due to on demand technology.
So, how is this new form of marketing being affected by Euro 2012?
We have already seen #England2012 trending as a promoted tweet on Twitter during England’s first match. This has encouraged fans to comment using the hash tag, create an on-going conversation and lead a percentage of those using the hash tag to the brand using the promoted tweet.
When it comes to football in particular, every man and women feels that they have a greater knowledge than the England Manager at the time. Twitter allows them to have a voice on this and feel that they are being listening to.
Brandwatch have created this infographic based on what people were saying via Twitter during last night’s England football game.
