Share This Too: More Social Media Solutions for PR Professionals

Chapter 11

Live Social Events

Russell Goldsmith

Live events, broadcast online on mobile and through social media, can help deliver true engagement within a community. Here, we explore opportunities created by Google+ Hangouts, whilst looking at what is required to keep audience retention beyond a few minutes.

When I rented a room at university, one of the other people in the house refused to contribute to the TV licence as he said that a television was “anti-social” and that “all people did was sit around a box in the corner of a room not talking to each other”. His loss. All those quality hours spent in high-level discussion about Neighbours and Home & Away passed him by. Fast forward a few years and I wonder what his views would be on the fact that “social TV” has now become an exciting and challenging aspect for brands involved in content marketing, whether they are sponsoring or advertising around traditional TV programming, or producing their own videos online.

According to the TV Licensing Telescope Report 2012,⁸³ 26% of us say we have commented on a programme on a second screen, rising to 46% of those aged under 25 saying they have used a social media channel to comment on a TV programme. Most importantly for me though, is that 57% of the UK's social media users aged under 35 say social media buzz around a TV programme can affect whether they watch a programme live or not. Being involved in and following “chatterboxing”, as the report calls the experience, in the build-up ...