If you are anything like us, then
your man crush Mondays constantly consists of one Harvey Specter. As the new
season of Suits is about to air, we thought we’d share with you some tips and tricks
that we learned from the show on how to be successful on social media.
So, what exactly is it that they
do that make them rockstars at social media?
Live Tweet As Much As You Can
This
practice is not only valuable for TV shows like Suits or news, but for all
businesses; from your local farmers’ market to government officials. But, why is
it so important to live tweet? Before going into a complex explanation, let’s
start from the beginning: what is live tweeting? Essentially, live-tweeting can
be summarized as “the action to engage on Twitter for a continuous period of
time with a relevant string of tweets (often times using a specific hashtag)”. Live-tweeting
is an excellent way to engage with your audience. Suits does a fantastic job of not only live tweeting, but replying and engaging with their followers. They will tweet members of their audience asking their opinions on specific situations, and continue to keep the conversation going, not only on the same day; but also connecting with the same person days or even weeks later. Also keep in mind that statistics prove that visuals receive much higher levels of engagement.
Create Your Own Hashtag
Creating
your own hashtag has many valuable advantages; it sets you apart and allows you
to easily monitor the conversation. Of course, you will need to wisely
‘advertise’ your hashtag and get it trending if possible, otherwise nobody will ever know about it. Associate your hashtag
with an existing twitter handle so people can find your content more easily. Suits
did an amazing job at coming up with #suitors and
did an even better job at gaining traction for it. Thousands of followers now identify with
this #hashtag. If you wish to learn more about creating hashtags, Social
Media Today has a great 7 step tutorial. Never forget to use your #hashtag
often, and use it wisely.
Get Your Audience Involved
This
may sound like a broken record, but as social media experts we will never stop
saying: engaging with your audience and involving your audience is an essential
tactic to succeeding on social media. Suits does an amazing job at involving
their audiences. In fact, their audience is an integrated
part of how the show evolves. They do an excellent job of not only hearing their
audience out, but also initiating conversation with them and acknowledging how
valuable their opinions are. People love to feel like their voice is being
heard and that they are contributing to something they trust is valuable; so make
it happen. They also rock at successful campaigns. They consistently hold special viewing events for fans to re-watch episodes, such as "Suits After Hours"where they ingeniously invited you to "suit up and stay up". They also acknowledge who and where their largest audiences are, and just recently completed an extremely popular college tour where students could meet cast members throughout the USA.
Listen To What Your Followers Have To Say
Your
biggest fans are your dedicated audience and they will most likely deliver a
positive message about your brand or service. So listening to what they want is
fundamental on social media. Monitoring what is being said about your brand is
one of the most important aspects of social media interaction, so make should
you listen and act accordingly. Suits always listens to their audience and they
always try to take their suggestions into consideration.
Always Be Alert
Always,
always, always (can we make this any more clear?) be alert on social media; you
may be in for a positive surprise. The USA Suits social media team was alert
when they noticed an
enthusiastic tweet by Michael Phelps (only the biggest Olympian of all time)
about the show. In a jiffy, they responded and next thing you know Phelps was appearing
in a episode. Be alert and react quickly to these opportunities. Being alert
will also allow you to accurately monitor crises when they happen.
Create a Culture
After they've done all of the above, Suits really does excel at creating their very own community. They share tons of behind the scenes photos and experiences, and they are awesome at creating shareable content. They make their own GIFs, memes and clever quotes from notable characters that boast well over tens of thousands of shares.
Suits came out of nowhere and
exploded on the TV drama scene, particularly with post secondary students and
young professionals. Filmed in Toronto, Suits came from modest beginnings. The
success and attention it has garnered could be seen as a surprise to some, but
if you look at their quirky characters, intriguing story line and savvy social
media efforts, their recipe for success is more than apparent.
For all these reasons, and many
more, we are head over heels for Suits. Suits is clearly the little show that
could, and did, and still is.
Are you ready to get Litt up on June 25th?
