Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, November 11th, 2022

The challenges for brands on Mastodon.

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, November 11th, 2022.

It's not your imagination, there wasn't a newsletter yesterday. Despite having received his various shots, my teenage son has had COVID and now the Flu in the last month. So I've been busy with Dad stuff.

TWITTER'S COLLAPSE AND THE MARKETING OF TELEVISION
I'm not going to recap all of the craziness that has hit Twitter since being acquired by Elon Musk. But the past few days have been a difficult time for various brands, as "verified" fake accounts have promised that Eli Lilly is no longer charging for insulin or that Netflix has abandoned the binge release method. A fake Apple TV+ account has been sending unwitting Twitter users to a Crypto site run by Eastern European hackers and various companies have discovered that impersonator accounts have been DM'ing unwitting users who complain about service or a product, seeking credit card info to "make it right."

Aside from all of those very real challenges, this all opens up the question of how various streamers and networks will deal with Twitter's collapse. And even more importantly, what's the next social media site to use as a way to connect with fans?

For all of its flaws, Twitter was custom built for companies to easily engage with fans. It's easy to post video, retweeting and quote retweeting along with the use of hashtags can push posts into a level of virality that makes it much easier to get out the marketing message of the day. Sure, all of those features made it easy to harass people and it encouraged the worst behavior in trolls. But for most companies, the net result was more positive than not.

The truth is that there isn't a great alternative to Twitter. At least not if your main goal is marketing. Like a number of other people, I have become very fond of Mastodon and while it can seem pretty intimidating when you first sign up, it has a lot of features that make it a much more pleasant place to hang out. 

Unfortunately for brands, those features also make it much more difficult to directly reach customers. Because it's a volunteer-run, decentralized platform, there's a natural resistance to anyone - particularly brands - who come onto Mastodon and are obviously trying to sell or promote something. 

But the infrastructure of Mastodon also discourages a mass, viral connection. Users can't search by word or phrase, only by hashtag. So if someone posts something about Fox's Monarch, the only way someone who isn't following that person (or maybe someone who is following them), is if they included a hashtag such as #FoxTV or #Monarch. It means that a brand like Comcast can't reach out to unhappy customers by searching for the word "Comcast." Which is inconvenient. On the other hand, it also means that trolls can't jump into your posts by searching for mentions of "Star Wars" or "Trump." Which makes the user experience on Mastodon much more pleasant.

Another design decision with big consequences is to not allow people to quote tweet in the same way you can on Twitter. You can "boost" a post, which has the same effect as retweeting on Twitter. But by restricting comments, the net result is that there is a lot less dunking on people and a lot less arguing. But that also lessens the ways in which a brand account can interact with fans or highlight an appropriate review or comment.

Mastodon is set up in a way which allows a user to never see a post that doesn't come from someone they follow. Although they are not limited to that. And it's also very easy for an individual server to block specific accounts or even an entire server. So brands run the risk of inadvertently breaking one of the established (and mostly unwritten) rules of behavior that governs acceptable user behavior on Mastodon.

So what should a network or streamer do in response to Mastodon? Put plans to launch big brand accounts on hold. Encourage employees who are already on Mastodon to talk conversationally about their work (and you have plenty of current Mastodon users working for you, you just might not know it). Have them use images that aren't just standard, press-approved cast photos. Post behind-the-scenes things, posts that talk about things which seem trivial "Hey, I was just on the set for this new show. Look who I got a selfie with." The non-sales conversation is everything on Mastodon.

You can also take some slightly more aggressive, albeit also slightly more risky moves. If I was at Netflix, I would propose offering $500, no questions asked grants for people running Mastodon servers. Run a campaign that says, "Hey, we're big now, but when we started out, we were counting pennies. We know what it's like to deal with bandwidth costs and we want to help. So you can apply for a $500 grant to be used to help defray the costs you've been dealing with. You don't have to mention us in any way. We just want to be good neighbors and give back a little."

And for not much more than the cost of a few billboards or pop-up experiences, you garner some good will. And also make the point that not all brands are scary and evil.

The post-Twitter social media universe is going to look different. But if you start planning now, it can also eventually become very useful.

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT'S NEW FOR FRIDAY:

Here's a quick rundown of all the new stuff premiering today on TV and streaming:

A Christmas Open House (Discovery+)
A Gingerbread Christmas (Discovery+)
All Saints Street (Crunchyroll)
Ancient Apocalypse Series Premiere (Netflix)
Art In Bloom With Helen Dealtry Season Premiere (Magnolia)
Bar Fight! (AMC+)
Capturing The Killer Nurse (Netflix)
Circuit Breakers (Apple TV+)
Designing Christmas (Discovery+) 
Dive (La Caída) (Prime Video)
Don't Leave (Netflix)
Down To Earth With Zac Efron Season Premiere (Netflix)
For The Love Of Kitchens Season Premiere (Discovery+/HBO Max/Magnolia)
From the Top of My Lungs (A Grito Herido) (Prime Video)
Gold Rush: White Water Season Premiere (Discovery)
Hi, I'm Season Premiere (Discovery+/HBO Max/Magnolia)
Ian Lara: Romantic Comedy (HBO Max)
In Merry Measure (Hallmark)
Is That Black Enough For You? (Netflix)
Mammals Series Premiere (Apple TV+)
Monica, O My Darling (Netflix)
Mother's Deadly Sin (Lifetime)
My Father's Dragon (Netflix)
Mythic Quest Season Three Premiere (Apple TV+)
One Delicious Christmas (Discovery+)
Play-Doh Squished (Freevee)
The Craftsman Season Premiere (Discovery+/Magnolia)
The Christmas Retreat (UP tv)
The Dirt Season Premiere (Discovery)
The Dog Days Of Christmas (Lifetime)
The English (Prime Video)
Transformers: EarthSpark (Paramount+)
Warrior Nun Season Two Premiere (Netflix)

Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.

SEE YOU MONDAY!

If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.