MTV Uses Twitter to Power Pop-Culture Show

by Jon Mandell on December 8, 2009

in Business, Coooool, the Social Web

With the median age of MTV’s viewership resting between 15 and 17 years old, the pressure to stay current and embrace new technologies must be crushing. Luckily, the network is proving to be up to the challenge.

In April 2009, MTV launched It’s On with Alexa Chung, a popular culture variety show that went into its second season this past October. Since April, It’s On has built up a huge following, both on and offline. The show’s official Twitter account currently has over 680,000 followers.

The audience interacts across a number of platforms:  TV, online and mobile. There’s a large and active following on Twitter. The show engages that Twitter audience who tweet their thoughts about the guests and the show. Then MTV takes the pulse of viewers by aggregating the themes of those Twitter conversations - Radian6 blog

With more and more programs incorporating two way communication with their audiences by harnessing social networks, this is starting to look less like traditional media trying desperately to latch on to the newest thing, and more like the future of broadcast entertainment.

If your favorite program was to incorporate social media in an engaging way, would you participate?

About the Author: Jon spends his days concocting social strategy at SmarttNet, a Vancouver Internet marketing firm. Follow him on twitter!

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  • AmberNaslund
    Jon, thanks so much for mentioning the Radian6 and MTV work. What's changing so much in social media isn't just the media itself, it's the methods for distribution and sharing of that information. The interactivity of content, and the feeling of access that fans get from being part of the entertainment itself.

    It's awesome to see media outlets rethinking and creating new things in the wave of the social web, not just re-purposing what they've always done. I'm excited. :)

    Best,
    Amber Naslund
    Director of Community, Radian6
    @ambercadabra
  • Jon
    Hi Amber,

    It is great to see an established media outlet making innovative use of new these new tools. I'm hoping to see a lot more of this in the future!

    Cheers,
    Jon
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