Eric Cedo - Getting Social

Social Media + Oscars = And The Winner Is..."James Franco"

About 70% of Oscar viewers tune in annually to see what the stars are wearing. About 20% view to see who actually wins the Oscar for "Best Cinematographer", "Best Visual Effects" and "Best Animated Short". The other 10% watch because they are married to someone from the first two categories of viewers.

Regardless the reason for watching the 83rd Annual Academy Awards one thing is clear, viewers were tweeting in masses. Social media chatter and the Oscars now go together like Charlie Sheen and Coke induced diatribes.

And the most buzzed about celebrity? James Franco, followed by Anne Hathaway according to Mashable. In total it is estimated the Oscars were mentioned in nearly 1.27 million tweets and 1.9 million Facebook status posts.

And the Oscar for highest trending movie during the Oscars goes to 'The "F"ighter':

 

 

Social Media + Movie + Oscar Buzz = "The Social Network" copy-cats

I usually post about movie marketers using social media in their campaigns. BUT, the Oscar-nominated movie "The Social Network" flips the script - a movie ABOUT social media. FastCompany has this funny article on other Tech/Social Media movies that should follow this trend.

Hollywood's version of "viral video" errrr "audio" - Christian Bale rant opens up door for movie viral campaigns

Whether or not Christian Bales' recent rant captured in audio form and posted on youtube (warning: this audio contains about 1,000 occurances of the f-bomb) was authentic or staged the fact still remains that, as reported by Adam Ostrow on Mashable.com, the video..errrr...audio caused a great deal of buzz in social media circles and especially amongst the twitterati.

What this also means is we can fully expect similar "leaks" from hollywood sets to hit YouTube soon as production companies, already struggling to keep budgets under control and cutting back on marketing spend, try to generate early buzz for their movies through social media.

In the past movies like Cloverfield used online buzz to generate box office sales. However, the tactics used were a combination of virtual reality gaming, online ads and social media pr. This may be the first case of an unauthorized leak of on-the-set goings ons that resulted in a nice traffic boost for the upcoming Transformers movie.

So for those movie marketers considering not so "accidental" viral tirades at an attempt to boost buzz, beware: the line between cool viral video and really pathetic attempts to con people is a fine one indeed. Don't forget that social media is rooted in authenticity. "Fool me once..." well you know the rest.

Shaq tweets = Shaqueets - Athletes getting into the Social Media game...during the game

NBA stars Charlie Villanueva and Shaquille O'Neal are making headlines this week...but not for making the Sportscenter's Top 10 for amazing dunks or making half court shots at the buzzer. Both are trend setters amongst athletes in an unexpected domain: social media participation during a game.

According to this ESPN article, Charlie Villanueva (@CV31) is addicted to twitter and has been asked by the Milwaukee Bucks to not tweet during games. Shaquille O'Neal (@THE_REAL_SHAQ) made headlines for a third quarter tweet during last Saturday's game against Washington. According to the article unlike Villanueava's coach, Scott Skiles, Shaq's coach Alvin Gentry didn't mind the mid-game tweet. 

"As long as he gets 25 (points) and 11 (rebounds), he can do whatever he wants. He can Twitter, Facebook, Myspace," said Gentry, who also has a Twitter account set up by his daughter.

This opens the door for athletes, teams and sponsors to capitalize on utilizing social media tools such as twitter and facebook for marketing and promotion opportunities. Many sports purists will complain that the practice is a distraction and can take an athlete's mind out of the game focusing instead on self-promotion. I offer a different opinion. 

During just about every halftime, sideline reporters interview athletes courtside. It's also a frequent occurance for managers to talk to broadcasters during the game such as baseball coaches in-between innings. The practice of using social media tools to communicate what's taking place on the field is social media for the sports masses. It's peer to peer, in a sense, from the athletes to the fans without a traditional broadcaster (ESPN, NBC Sports, etc.) as the medium.

Clever marketers will find a way to sponsor Shaq's tweets at halftime and gain valuable exposure to Shaq's audience. How big is Shaq's twitter "channel" you ask...oh just a mere 391,000 followers at the time of this posting.