Posts Tagged ‘television’

Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

New partnership between X Factor USA and Twitter

A new partnership between Twitter and the TV show The X Factor USA will add Twitter to the list of ways audience members can vote, in addition to voting by phone, text messages, online, and mobile apps.

The new form of voting will be through direct messages to the account, not regular tweets. Normally, you can only direct message someone if they are following you, but Twitter has made it so that anyone following @TheXFactorUSA can vote. More details on how to vote can be found here.

Steve Martin turns tweets into a book

On October 27, funny guy Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo) tweeted: “Due to absolutely no demand, soon I’m publishing a book of my tweets. Many of your replies included! All my profits to charity.”

The book, titled “The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten.” is slated to be around 112 pages of Martin’s tweets and fan replies. It’s expected to be released around June 2012.

The book’s description explains that, “With over 1.4 million followers (a number growing by the day), and a now famously uncanny ability to pack 140 characters with a maximum amount of humor and wit, Steve Martin has defined what it means to be a celebrity in today’s world of social media.”

Lady Gaga reaches 15 million followers

Lady Gaga (@LadyGaga) has become the first Twitter user to have 15 million followers, with the newest million added in the past 28 days. Gaga and her Little Monsters have set many records on Twitter before.

Over at All Twitter, they did the calculations and if Gaga continues amassing followers at her current speed, she should be expected to hit 20 million followers between March and April 2012.

Kim Kardashian files for divorce, takes over Trending Topics

On October 31, Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) filed for divorce from her husband of 72 days, Kris Humphries. After all of the publicity surrounding the wedding, including a 2-night, 4-hour wedding special on E!, the news of divorce has caused quite a stir.

On Twitter, several joking hashtags and  Trending Topics began circulating, including #ThingsLongerThanKimsMarriage, which is still the number one Trending Topic.

While the public may not have been sensitive, Kim’s sisters Kourtney and Khloe tweeted support for their sister. Kim has not tweeted anything since the news of her divorce broke.

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Samuel L. Jackson joins Twitter

Samuel L. Jackson announced on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that he finally joined Twitter. He even sent his first tweet from an iPad while onstage with Fallon, after having some humorous trouble with auto-correct. Jackson has quite a distinctive voice and manner of speaking, which his followers will be happy to know isn’t toned down at all on the social network. You can watch the video of Jackson tweeting here.

Senator uses Twitter to help with weight loss goals

Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri started a weight-loss plan in May that included healthy food, cardio, and Twitter. Back in May, she tweeted about being unhappy with her weight and deciding to make changes. As the pounds came off, she used Twitter as an accountability tool. A well-known dieting tip is to share your goals and progress with people around you, both to receive support and to keep yourself from slacking and “letting down” your supporters. The Senator occasionally posted updates on her fitness since May and received a lot of encouragement. On October 8, she tweeted that she’d met her goal and lost 50 lbs.

NBC gives Grimm followers sneak peek of the new series

Grimm is a new series on NBC that premieres on October 28. But beginning on October 14, all followers of the show’s official Twitter account have the chance to watch it early. The account sends followers a direct message with a unique access code to use to view the premiere.

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Weekly Wrap — Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

Twitter to open international office in Dublin

The Irish Industrial Development Agency (IDA Ireland) announced through a tweet that Twitter has decided to establish an international office in Dublin. The tweet read: “Ireland is trending. Twitter to establish international office in Dublin. #idairl”.

It will be Twitter’s third location outside the United States. Ireland is becoming the European capital for web companies and social media, with presences by companies such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.

USA Today Twitter account hacked

The hacker group The Script Kiddies recently hacked into USA Today’s Twitter account (@USAToday). Previous hacks into accounts such as Fox News and NBC involved tweeting fake news stories, but this hack was more focused on publicity.  The Script Kiddies tweeted links to their Facebook page, encouraging the Twitterverse to “Like” them and even vote on who their next target should be.

The Amazing Race contestant reunited with passport

In the premiere of the 19th season of The Amazing Race, contestant Kaylani lost her passport before she even left the country. But because of Twitter, she was able to get it back and continue on with the race. Luckily, Ryan Storms tweeted this: “So after being randomly filmed for ‘The Amazing Race,’ I see that one of them dropped (their) passport!!!” An “uber fan” of the show saw this tweet and encouraged him to race the passport over to the airport, which he did. It was because of this that Kaylani and her teammate were not eliminated.

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Changing the Way We Watch

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

With today’s technology, an electronic that only does one thing will not survive.  You can use your phone as a computer, your computer as a TV, or even your TV as a phone.  The way television has been for our whole lives is no longer good enough.  People want to be able to watch and stream TV on any and all of their devices.

This is where metadata comes in.  Metadata is “in-depth descriptive information about programming that includes title, storyline, cast, genre, release date, images, and more.”  All of this information helps viewers find and discover content on multiple platforms.

But that’s not all.  The videos might be all ready for viewing, but how will viewers use them?  Services still need to offer apps and online services for the consumers to sit back and watch a show.  Boxee just released an app for streaming to and from iPad, and Cablevision just updated the Optimum app for iPhone and iPod touch to include support for live TV content and videos on-demand.

Once viewers can watch TV anywhere, they want to be able to talk about it anywhere, too.  This Mashable article suggests the eventual integration of social media and all these new ways to watch, referred to as social viewing.  HBO Connect is an example of a social viewing experience.

Personally, I still prefer actual televisions to a small iPhone screen, but portability is everything now.  People want to take as much of their lives as possible with them wherever they go, including their favorite TV shows.

So, how do you watch?

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Were the BET Awards the “Most Social Awards Show Ever”?

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Sunday night, the cable network BET had their annual awards show, the BET Awards.  The network’s Social Media Director JP Lespinasse had said that it would be “the most social awards show ever.”  While that can be debated, no one can say that BET did not effectively integrate social media into the awards show, with a reported 500,000 tweets shared about the awards show.

It all started with a “fandemonium” challenge launched earlier this month on one of BET’s flagship shows, 106th & Park, which posed social media-themed challenges to viewers to vote for their favorite artists.  After some confusion, the winning artist, Chris Brown, was announced at the awards show.

The social media integration continued into the day of the awards with a “social media lounge” and social media host Lala.  In the lounge, tweets from viewers using the #BETAwards hashtag were shown in real-time on a screen.  Footage from the lounge and backstage areas were streamed live online, and winners were revealed by the award presenters using HTC Evo View 4G tablets.

BET also held a contest for audience members via Twitter, providing viewers with a real incentive for joining the social media discussions of the show.  At the top of the broadcast, a secret hashtag was revealed, and any Twitter user who sent a tweet with the hashtag was entered to win a Ford Focus.

While my Twitter timeline always goes crazy during an awards show, I definitely noticed a difference in how my friends and followers were discussing the show.  Reading my personal timeline as the awards show was happening, it seemed like more users were using the official hashtag, mentioning the BET Awards Twitter account, and generally were more involved in the social media discussions of the broadcast.  Whether you watched the broadcast or not, have you noticed more discussion of it on social media sites compared to other shows and events?

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Is Technology To Blame For Lack Of Sleep?

Monday, March 7th, 2011

A study by the National Sleep Foundation is making a correlation between a lack of sleep and the use of technology before going to bed. A study conducted by the group found that 95 percent of people surveyed admitted to using electronic devices within the hour before going to bed, while two-thirds felt they didn’t get enough sleep during the week.

The referenced devices blamed for these instances include television, laptops/computers, video games and smartphones, all of which help increase exposure to artificial light which is said can suppress the release of sleep-aiding hormone, melatonin.

It’s an interesting theory, and I’m sure that it has a great deal to do with cases of lack of sleep. But what caught my eye was the part of the research that found 22 percent of kids 13 to 18 say they are “sleepy”, in part because of this:

“One in 10 kids report they are being awoken by texts after they have gone to bed.”

The above quote is from Charles Czeisler, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. I don’t know what percentage of people actually put their phones on silent or turn it off completely, but I do know devices can alert users on everything from texts to e-mail to Facebook and Twitter updates. Kids love to be social and with mobile devices they can socialize at anytime.

Flat out, there’s just more at our disposal than there was even 10 years ago to occupy our time.

I personally find that the nights I can’t sleep is because I’m just distracted by what’s going on around me, either the television show I’m watching or the e-mails I’m getting on my phone. Had I not been exposed to the artificial light before heading to bed maybe I’d be able to sleep through those distractions, but knowing I have them around doesn’t make it any easier.

So now that we know this, what will we do about it? Will we heed the warnings and turn off these devices well-prior to bedtime? Will we choose to *gasp* pull out an actual book to read instead of watching a screen? It may be time to choose between your trusted devices and a good night’s sleep.

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eZanga’s Television Commercial

Monday, January 12th, 2009

We have BIG NEWS for the beginning of 2009!

eZanga will be airing our first national television commercial this Monday, January 12! The commercial can be viewed on several major networks including: BBC America, CNBC, Discovery HD, Fox Business, Fox News, and MSNBC. We are extremely excited about our new venture into broadcast television!

Stay tuned for updates and make sure to be on the look out for our eZanga television commercial! If you don’t watch enough TV to catch our commercial, you can preview it here:



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