New York - Networks can juice their TV ratings and keep a show's super-fans engaged through a deft use of social media -- but the efforts can backfire if they're out of sync with the Facebook and Twitter crowd.
That was one insight from speakers on the "Second-Screen Sizzle: TV & Social Media" panel at the "TV in a Multi-Platform World" event here Thursday presented by Multichannel News, B&C and TV Technology.
"Your audience doesn't want to hear from you every hour -- maybe a few times a day, or during a live event," said Marc DeBevoise, CBS Interactive senior vice president and general manager of entertainment. "Outside a live show you have to limit it. They don't want to hear 16 times a day from Ashton [Kutcher] about Two and a Half Men -- they get annoyed."
CBS last fall held a Tweet Week and a Social Sweep Week, with talent from each show hosting social chats every night. Social engagement increased across all the shows, with an increase of 750% for Social Sweep Week, DeBevoise said. But because there were up to a dozen posts per day, "we had people unfriend or unfollow us," he said.
