Social Media Week: MTV and Text 100 Give Tips on How Brands Can Rise Above Social Media Clutter

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Today, Text 100’s VP Tara O’Donnell (@Taranyc) and MTV execs Chris Ficarra, SVP of Integrated Marketing (@chrisjamesf) and Thomas Fishman, MTV Social Media Manager (@Tom_Fishman) shared their experiences and learning’s working on some kickass social media campaigns that have helped brands rise above the noise. The social media week panel, moderator by Mashable’s Brenna Ehrlich (@Brenna_E) shed light on how brands can leverage social media, from the MTV and ZYNC from American Express partnership to find the first-ever MTV TJ ‘Twitter Jockey’ to the Starburst ‘Juicy Contradiction’ Unplugged campaign, to connect with consumers.

Here are some takeaways from the panel followed by our video recap, but you can also check out the social media conversation #smwmtvtips here.

• Social media has flipped the way MTV promotes and engages fans around shows (just take what they did with Skins for example). You don’t need to wait for something to premiere to promote it or be completely reliant on the media to drive awareness. Social media lets consumers be the tastemakers.
• All companies – whether it’s an entertainment brand or strictly B2B – can benefit from social media campaigns that involve artists and/or talent. MTV’s POSTED campaign with AT&T was able to expose consumers to the product in a way that wasn’t overly commercial and British Airways was able to extend the reach of its Face to Face Campaign by tapping Bethany Frankel as an advocate for the program.
• However, it’s consumers themselves that can be your best brand advocates. MTV and Starburst are selecting artists “Superfans” to give a behind-the-scenes Unplugged experience to. As this iconic series continues to evolve, Superfans will help tease out content through social media to get the groundswell going before an artist’s Unplugged premiere.

Lastly, it’s important – actually critical – to recognize that no department owns social media, entire organizations should be taking advantage of the medium to reach goals collectively. From senior executives to interns, social media is engrained in the fabric of the entire MTV HQ building and everyone is encouraged to participate.