Yeah, It Was Me

Several people have asked me if the text message (via Twitter) displayed during NBC4’s election coverage in Columbus, Ohio was indeed THE “dontheideaguy.” I’ve only ever heard of one person willing to claim the name so… yeah, it was me.

The folks at NBC4i.com (Jason_WCMH, Denise_WCMH, and NBCSquire in particular) have done a really phenomenal job in embracing and utilizing Twitter as a way to connect with their audience. On election day, they created a special Twitter account specifically to collect voter’s experiences. They sent a tweet to their other followers (NBC4i allows their producers and on-air talent to create their own Twitter accounts) inviting them to share their experiences with twitter.com/decision2008 and see their tweets during the election results that evening. Mine was one of approximately 20-25 tweets featured in rotation, but once results started coming in the tweets disappeared.

Kudos to NBC4i.com for even attempting this merging of traditional and new media. It was reasonably successful, but I don’t think they took it far enough. Here are four ideas on how they could have further improved on their efforts.
1. More is More
There really weren’t that many tweets featured (I saw mine rotate at least six times.) Perhaps that means re-tweeting the invite and asking your followers to pass it along, or maybe seeking the follower’s opinions earlier in the process, or making the question broader — but I think it would have been better to have more voices heard and opinions shared.

2. Extend The Feature
The Twitters were really only running across the bottom of the screen for a short period of time. Once the election results started filtering in, the tweets were replaced by poll results. A better design of the screen layout would have allowed a single scroll feed of tweets to accompany the voting results. Having both elements side-by-side would have further engaged the conversation of Twitterers. I know my group tweeted through the entire election coverage and through President-elect Obama’s speech.

3. Complete The Circuit
The two elements (on-air and Twitter) did not seem integrated enough. The Decision2008 tweets should have led people to the tv coverage and the tv coverage should have further involved the viewers through Twitter. I think adding the Decision2008 Twitter feed to the NBC4i election coverage website would have strengthened the connection between media elements.

4. Keep It Going
The election page on the NBC4i website could continue to stay lively by inviting Twitterers to contribute their AFTER election thoughts during this historic time. There has been incredibly intelligent discourse from all political parties (not just the ‘sour grapes’ being covered by some/most media) about how, in hindsight, the election will seem like the “easy part.” All the really hard work will begin in just a couple months. Discussions on what the President-elect’s strategy should be in preparation for taking over our nation’s highest office are everywhere, and everyone has an equally valid opinion on what that strategy should be. Be the catalyst for these conversation to continue.

Keep encouraging and spreading these discussions, and the traffic to the politics page on NBC4i will continue to populate with an excited and engaged audience who knows their voice is being heard. And they’ll credit NBC4i with helping that to happen.