Twitter Microsites Offer Networks Real-Time Engagement

In a television era dominated by DVRs and Netflix, network executives are facing incessant pressure from advertising partners to increase the number of eyeballs that are watching programs in real-time. Traditional media has often been lambasted for fighting change, but the recent trend toward connected television and the ubiquitous popularity of social media has forced many media giants to embrace these technologies.

Twitter, the micro-blogging site that easily connects users across the globes with one-click follows and hashtags, has become a valuable real-time thermometer for networks to gauge viewer feedback during programs. What began as networks monitoring chatter on the main site feeds has evolved into the launch of enhanced microsites developed and powered by Twitter, and several major brands have already come on board. Visa and the NFL partnered with Twitter to launch a microsite covering the Super Bowl XLV. Women’s Wear Daily, Bobbi Brown and Bergdorfs sponsored a microsite for New York Fashion Week. HBO created a Twitter microsite for True Blood fanatics.

These microsites provide encompassing coverage of live events with real-time tweets, pictures and aggregated news. Brands can deliver real-time updates and become a destination for consumers to share knowledge and engage in active conversations on a particular topic with like-minded individuals. Most importantly, these microsites are a platform for branded content alongside user-generated content, integrating two incredibly powerful forces in Web 2.0 marketing. Brands can subsidize the costs of developing these sites by partnering with sponsors (i.e. “New York Fashion Week: Presented by American Express”) that obtain prime real estate alongside highly relevant content and engaged audiences.

For networks, these microsites encourage and facilitate real-time conversations that cannot occur on a comparable scale outside of the live program time slots. Networks can use these microsites to provide advertisers with more in-depth viewer metrics (i.e. 250,000 unique tweets, 50,000 hashtag mentions, etc.) that can command premium ad rates.

These microsites have significant potential beyond enhancing live, lean forward television viewing experiences. Imagine brands like Apple and conventions like CES implementing these sites for major product launches and events. It’s more important than ever to go where your customers and users are, and microsites offer networks and brands the opportunity to drive engagement and become a central online conversation destination.

Will more Twitter microsites pop up in 2011 and beyond? Would you use a microsite to tweet on your connected TV?