If you’re one of the 67 million television viewers (or millions of online viewers) that tuned in to the first Presidential Debate this past Wednesday, there’s a good chance you were also enjoying the experience with your smartphone or laptop handy. An obvious increasing trend, sometimes referred to as "the second screen," is how common it is to watch live television while engaging with social media. Of course, Wednesday wasn’t the first time we saw this. We’ve had the World Cup, the Olympics, and the Super Bowl to showcase that point.
It seems that Twitter has stolen the crown for the live tv social media experience, taking up 77% of the online conversation about the debate. 90 minutes, 10.3 million tweets. It’s an astounding record.
But the conversation on Twitter was just the beginning.
- MTV partnered with Factcheck.org to provide a live fact check.
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- YouTube and other live streaming services allowed for a slough of customized viewing experiences, including an open API that others could use to layer analysis, fact checking, donate buttons, etc. below the video.
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- Twitter itself actually set up a customized page of debate tweets (https://twitter.com/hashtag/debates).
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For the longest time, television broadcasts of sporting events were a simple video feed with live commentary layered over. Then came the score display. Then came the stats ticker, and that cool yellow first-down yard line. Watching the debate broadcast as is, without annotation, fact checking, or social media is like turning off HD on your TV.
Immersive and engaging is the new norm, and many are trying to deliver a better experience to go along with all the exciting live events that happen each year. This is why NFL Redzone, a sort of live highlights show that cuts between scoring plays across the entire NFL, has been such a resounding success.
So what will be next? How can we make the shared experience of watching major events even more social and more fun? Here at Birdfeud, we’ve asked the same question, and come up with some awesome solutions that we’d love to share.
We would love to meet you. Come see us at these upcoming events:
10/6: Tech in Motion, 6pm @1871 (http://www.meetup.com/TechinMotionChicago/events/82074342/)
10/30: Technori Pitch, 6:30pm @Chase Tower (http://technori.com/thepitch/)
And be sure to keep up with all things Birdfeud on Twitter (https://twitter.com/birdfeud)
Written by Birdfeud Director of Marketing Henry Vasquez ([email protected]).
