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nowing that many TV viewers watch their favorite shows with smartphone in hand,network execs are keenly aware of the power of the perfect hashtag.
Scandal's diverse, evolving hashtags helped make it No. 1 in Twitter fan loyalty last season. Photo Illustration: DiannaMcDougall; Source: ABC
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August 25, 2015, 11:38 AM EDT Television
Listen to your fans and don't gettoo clever, network execs say By JasonLynch
10 Tips to Creating the Perfect TV ShowHashtag
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KWhile the show title itself, or certain character names, are always reliable hashtags,many of the most successful hashtag efforts go a step further: a mixture of thefamiliar and enticing, all in as few characters as possible.
"There is truly an art to the hashtag. It's a language all its own," said ColleenMohan, svp of brand marketing for USA Network. "It's like writing a headline or a jingle.And we put a lot of effort into them."
That's because engaged fans on Twitter become key marketers for a show. A new Nielsenstudy found that Scandal had the top program loyalty of any TV show on Twitter last season,with 24 percent of Scandal's Twitter "authors" sending tweets about three or more episodes.
Adweek asked marketing and social media execs from CBS, The CW and USA to share theirbest TV hashtag tips. Here's what they had to say:
Keep it simple.
Given the brevity of Twitter—where no tweet can be longer than 140 characters—conciseand clear hashtags are essential.
"We always want to make them simple, and make them connected to something that's goingto resonate very, very quickly," said Mohan. For USA's unscripted comedy Chrisley KnowsBest, the network uses #ChrisleyNation, "which becomes a rally cry for fans."
USA will also opt for clear messages like #SuitsFinale or #SuitsPremiere, "so people knowthere's an occurrence, something happening that night," said Mohan. "It reads very clearlywhat it is, so people know what's going on."
One size doesn't fit all.
"Sometimes you lead with your hashtag strategy, and so you put things out there that youwant people to follow, and you do want to trend, [but] sometimes you follow," said Mohan.
That strategy changes with each show. For USA's new anti-establishment drama Mr. Robot,"we use #MrRobot, because anything outside of that that would be kitschy or clever wouldbe off-brand for that show and wouldn't be authentic, so we would never do that," saidMohan. "But then fans came up with #DaBot, and so we follow and we use that oneverything that we can. So things become very organic."
Mohan's team will take a look at the episode in advance and "have things in our back pocket,and feed those in as people go," she said. "But we're always listening, and what the fan saysis going to dictate ultimately what we're using. Wherever the passion is, we go to that."
Late-night talk shows "have a ton of ideas flowing through, whereas a show like NCIS or amore procedural type show is going to have less variation as you go through it," said MarcDeBevoise, evp and gm at CBS Interactive.
For events like the Grammys, the CBS team keeps an eye on what, and which artists, viewersare reacting to most, and adjusts their hashtag efforts accordingly. "We take things from theether and put it up onto the screen," said DeBevoise. "That tends to work better on eventslike the Grammys where we're really trying to play off of the artists."
Don't get too clever.
After going a little hashtag crazy in recent years, attaching many oddly themed hashtags toepisodes, marketers have started to back away from that, in favor of letting fans choose.
"I hate [gimmicky hashtags]. I really do. I don't think it's organic, I don't think it'sspontaneous. And I don't think it's genuine," said Rick Haskins, evp, marketing and digital
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programs, The CW, adding that his network learned back in the Gossip Girl heyday to "letthe viewer be the lead because it is the most genuine, it is how they're talking to theirfriends, and we wanted to talk to them as friends as opposed to talk to them as a studio or asa show."
Another problem with those too-gimmicky hashtags: "They're sometimes too long," saidMohan. "Sometimes short is better—too many letters, all blending together, it doesn't needto be a puzzle! It needs to read and translate quickly."
Let the viewer be your guide.
The CW's marketing and social team doesn't push their own hashtags on viewers, insteadletting audiences decide which ones will dominate the social media conversation.
"That feels the most organic and doesn't feel forced," said Haskins, whose team monitors allsocial media conversation around a particular episode, honing in on hashtags that aregenerating momentum and incorporating those into that week's or the following week'sepisode. "What I don't want to do is put what I think is the perfect hashtag and give it to theviewer because they're the ones that are using them more than we are."
Usually, the most popular fan-generated hashtags revolve around two characters that havebeen "shipped" into a romantic relationship. "They come up with names of the perfectrelationship and those we use all the time," said Haskins.
For example, Arrow's Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and Felicity Smoak (Emily BettRickards) begat #Olicity. "So that what we'll do is we throw it back to them: You made thisup, what do you guys think about it? But the relationship ones tend to be the most fun, andthe ones that gain the biggest ground because people can add onto it or change it or disagreewith it," said Haskins.
Relationship-themed hashtags are among the most popular hashtags at CBS, for couples like#Lenny (The Big Bang Theory's Leonard, played by Johnny Galecki, and Penny, played byKaley Cuoco). For its freshman drama Scorpion last season, CBS asked fans to decidewhether Happy Quinn (Jadyn Wong) and Toby Curtis (Eddie Kaye Thomas) should becalled #Quintis or #Tappy (they chose #Quintis).
Quality always trumps quantity.
Audiences don't want to be overloaded with multiple hashtags during a particular episode."I believe less is more because I think the genuine conversations that build on themselveswork when you only have one or two, and let the consumer take the lead," said Haskins. "Ithink if you have too many conversations going, they stop short and you don't get fulladvantage of them."
Mohan agreed: "I think there's one principal hashtag and there's a couple of sub ones, but Idon't think we ever use more than two or three per episode. And three would be a veryspecial occasion."
Trending isn't everything.
While trending on Twitter is still important to some networks—"We're always out to trend,"said Mohan—others have shifted their focus away from that.
"Now what we're seeing is there may not be a different correlation between trending andratings," said Haskins. "To me, which is more important is that I'm engaging my audienceand getting them to participate in watching this live and making them feel like they're partof the show."
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When coming up with a hashtag, "thematically, you're trying to fit the show, but you're alsotrying to reach out to other fans that are not necessarily watching at that moment. So you'reboth trying to be smart about the content that you're making but making it broad enough tobe able to reach others," said DeBevoise. "That's harder than just coming up with showcharacter names or title of the episode. You're really trying to make it fit there."
Be decisive, yet nimble.
"You have to be very nimble because the dynamics of the audience do change and move, andyou've got to be part of the conversation to keep up with it, or else you're going to be leftbehind and not really be able to take advantage of it," said Haskins, who empowers hissocial media team "to take that leap of faith" and decide which fan-generated hashtags topush out to audiences. "Add if it doesn't work, we'll switch it up until we find something thatdoes."
Use Twitter as your ballot box.
Marketers have also incorporated hashtags into Twitter polls. "We definitely use socialvoting," said DeBevoise. In January 2013, CBS let viewers choose the ending to a HawaiiFive-O episode by voting via hashtag for one of three culprits: #theBoss (chosen by EastCoast viewers), #theStudent (picked by the West Coast) or #theTA.
USA took that one step further for Psych's 100th episode in March 2013, which was clue-themed. Dunkin' Donuts signed on as the episode's social TV sponsor, and USAincorporated the company's name into its "pick the culprit" hashtags: #PsychButlerDDit,#PsychGroupieDDit, #PsychManagerDDit, #PsychAuthorDDit and #PsychHostDDit. "Sothere's lots of clever ways to bring in sponsors, too," said Mohan.
Make sure it looks good.
Finally, a hashtag's appearance can be as important as its content. "It's very important howthey look, too. Uppercase and lowercase are very important," Mohan said. "There'ssimplicity in how easy they are to read because you want people to connect with them, muchlike a headline."
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Topics: Cbs, Colleen Mohan, cross channel marketing, hashtags, Marc DeBevoise, Rick Haskins, The
CW, USA Network
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