Twitter spreads its wings into TV and video

By Steve Keenan

It’s been a very good week for Twitter. During last weekend’s Superbowl, the microblogging site was featured on half of all TV adverts at half-time, way ahead of any other social site.

Basking in its glory, Twitter promptly announced it bought social TV analytics company Bluefin in a further demonstration of its move to broaden away from 140-character speak.

Bluefin is based on semantic search, the new darling of social media analytics. Rather than just simply analysing links, semantic searches the text to work out what people are talking about. Good and bad.

And in this case, to see what social media users are saying about a TV show or advert. The results and follow-up are up to the brand, to be used wisely, intelligently or – sometimes - stupidly.

But working out the conversation between TV and social is big business. A recent study from Brandwatch showed a hashtag flashed on screen when the show starts can kickstart a social conversation by 63 per cent.

It’s tied in to the growing second screen phenomenon, whereby people use a mobile or tablet to comment while watching a show. Twitter research shows that 60 per cent of UK viewers will tweet while watching TV– and two-thirds will mention the programme in one way or another.

By telling brands who is talking about their product, and what they are saying, Twitter can sell more directional advertising and charge a higher price.

This is all delightful news to Twitter which, having grabbed the high ground of short form words, is now moving definitively into TV and film communication.

All this just 10 days or so after Twitter launched Vine, another recent acquisition, and an app that allows iPhone users to film, pause, film again then post (maximum) six-second videos which play on a loop.

Posters can use hashtags, a la Twitter, to find what they are looking for (and yes, #porn was an issue in the first week. Surprise!).

Indeed, #Travel is one of the 12 featured sections inVine’s Explore tab. And so? Wait: this is big news. Bloggers can film that cocktail mix, the bungee jump or airport landing cleverly, post, hashtag and share.

Companies can set up their own accounts, then it’s just down to their creative flair. Imagine, for example, the best ski run crunched down to six seconds and posted within seconds. Or highlights of a cruise ship covered in the same time.

And no surprise, Twitter will shortly launch video ads for brands and as sure as eggs are eggs, they will be promoted on Twitter too. Cost? No idea yet. But until then, start playing with Vine. And start thinking of Twitter as TV and video.