Twitter can help humanize a brand
Twitter can be used for countless promotional strategies. A company can do everything from holding a contest for a new slogan to giving away a prize to the person who Tweets the most creative use of a product.
These uses of the social media service are common and effective. But how would a strategy more unique and risky work? For instance, what if a Broadway musical used Twitter to put on a viral version of their show? Would it be an overnight success or closed at curtain?
The creative team of the off-to-on Broadway musical “Next to Normal,” proved an online performance brings in big followers, as the The New York Times recently featured. By creating Tweets from the characters in the play, the “Next to Normal” Twitter account more than quadrupled its followers in less than one month’s time. Then, once the actors began answering followers’ questions through the account, numbers continued to grow. The account now has more than 550,000 followers.
The Tweets also brought in ticket sales. Followers quoted in the article shared they saw the show because of the fictional messages. And after the cast’s (non-fictional) performance on the Tony Awards June 7 — the same day the viral version of the musical ended on Twitter — the show’s house went from 72 percent to 99 percent capacity, according to the Times article. (The entire transcript of Tweets is available on the “Next to Normal” website.)
This strategy had me wondering what other industries could use a similar tactic to gain followers. What if a sports team Tweeted players’ and coaches’ reactions to a game during the broadcast or reality TV shows had their cast members Tweet reflections about events in each episode as it’s airing. One of the many things I’ve learned from Duncan is that social media is all about closing the gap between company and consumer and engaging in an online dialogue. Although these situations wouldn’t be fictional, like the “Next to Normal” approach, and there are probably some crazy legal things I don’t know about that would hurt my suggestions, they would engage the audience without a contest or giveaway, shaking things up a bit in the online promotional world.
What other industries do you think should adopt a similar promotional strategy? How would they execute it?
Please share! You know I love to hear your thoughts!
Alyson (follow me @alyandthecity)
Comments via Facebook