Traditional media is slowly adapting to social media. Instead of different medias replacing each other, traditional media channels are finding ways to integrate new channels and fads into their current strategies to stay relevant.
TV shows are slowly integrating social media and other various digital media channels into their programming. Many shows, like The Walking Dead, may have a hashtag that they encourage viewers to use when talking about a premier or particular episode when online. This connects other viewers and fans to create a community. Allowing fans to come together as a community to voice their thoughts and opinions reinforces that whatever they are watching is the "cool thing" to watch, and increases the reach by free word of mouth advertising through social media communication. Some TV shows even make social media a segment in the programming. Jimmy Fallon asks his fans to share stories pertaining to a certain hashtag on Twitter. The humor is to the point due the character limit, and due to the character limit, he can get through many tweets in one segment.
Digital media, especially on phones, has become an in-the-moment outlet. Shazam, a music recognizing app, now allows users to Shazam commercials and print advertisements to receive special offers.
Incorporating digital media apps and channels on phones is very popular, but I can't help but to wonder how many ways marketers are missing their audiences. Take Dancing With the Stars for example. Their voting format has been the same since I started watching the show. I remember calling and voting for Apolo Anton Ohno when I was little during season 4, and now they are on season 23, and not much has changed in the voting process, except you can now vote online. In one of the last season's of America's Next Top Model on The CW, viewers could vote live for their favorite contestant and these result would be taken into consideration during elimination (similar to Dancing With the Stars). America's Next Top Model was a great show that considered social media into the integration of advertising for their TV show. Not only was live voting an integral part of the elimination process, but the use of hashtags was a way for contestants to stay in touch with their fans. One of the runway competitions was to take a selfie at the end of the runway and post it with appropriate hashtags to gain fans, viewers, and votes to stay in the competition.
After seeing how prevalent digital and social media is in TV shows, I have to wonder, how much more reach could marketers gain if they created more ways to connect with fans, either by creative hashtags with incentives, celebrity to fan contact, or even apps?
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