Social Media - new ways to connect listeners
Post categories: Proms, Radio 3, behind the scenes
|16:56 UK Time, Thursday, 9 September 2010
Radio 3 Interactive Producer Andrew Downs explains how Twitter and Facebook have been harnessed to link Radio 3 fans at the Last Night of the Proms.
Are you the kind for whom Twitter invokes tutting rather than tweeting? I could have fairly counted myself as one of the former kind when the chance came earlier this year to wear the Radio 3 interactive team's new Social Media hat.
The principal challenge facing me and my fellow interactive team members is how to guide licence fee payers to Radio 3 online content they would find interesting if only they knew about it. The world we call 'social media' offers tools to help meet that challenge.
In a limited experiment this year we've harnessed social media sites Facebook and Twitter to tell people about online content related to the BBC Proms. This is content like photo galleries, video clips, MaestroCam and PlayerCom, and recommendations to help orientate the overwhelmed, for example this video from Sara Mohr-Pietsch with her choice of concerts as the 2010 season draws to a close.
At the end of the experiment our team hopes to understand better what sustainable social media activity could look like for Radio 3 and the Proms.
In the short time I've been wearing my new hat, it's become increasingly clear that online social media applications now mean that the likes of Facebook and Twitter have a significance approaching the scale of Google's for bringing people to online content. This power mainly comes from two things Facebook and Twitter make easy: networking and personal recommendation.
Earlier in the season Radio 1's Rob da Bank offered his Proms recommendations on Facebook. That's an example of the power of social media to connect people and interests, agnostic of demographic expectations. What could be more in keeping with the spirit of the Proms?
Watch out for Twitter and Facebook activity at the Last Night of the Proms. To join in the conversation on Twitter include the hashtag #bbcproms in your tweets and follow @bbcradio3live and @bbcproms.
Comment number 1.
At 19:51 11th Sep 2010, Sheila Barclay wrote:Why are Scottish viewers being denied the chance to watch the real last night of the proms? The BBC Scottish is a fine orchestra and the Caird Hall a well respected venue, but this is not what I tuned to see tonight.
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Comment number 2.
At 17:24 19th Sep 2010, Rashid Karapiet wrote:I wondered about this as well. Also were there entrance charges for venues like Hyde Park in London or was it free, first come, first served?
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