What was the aim?
To make social media from athletes and prominent figures involved in London 2012 an integral part of the conversation with our audiences.
Originally this was proposed with the emphasis on BBC Three with its younger audience more attuned to social media, in particular programmes presented by Jake Humphrey. Once we started developing the proposition, it became obvious that we could make this work as part of output across all timeslots and networks.
How did we reflect this in presentation?
By using it as a natural part of the script and flow of programmes. As far as possible it was treated as part of a conversation within the programme rather than something from outside the programme.
We applied some simple rules which we felt would enhance the audience experience and awareness of social media during the Olympics:
1. It should never get in the way of the action
2. It should to add something to the editorial output and should never be used for the sake of showing social media
3. Make best use of the strongest points of engagement – on air calls to action and engaged presenters on the home platform (in this case Twitter)
What we wanted to avoid was the jumping out of narrative experience where the social media is presented as “here’s the social media bit!” as if the conversation is entirely disconnected from what is happening onscreen.
We also looked to use new technology such as Kinetrak, Splashtop and iPads to offer innovative ways of presenting the information onscreen.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzsCMXJ-Q77MOTNlMmRrRUhnLXc/edit
With Kinetrak, the feature was the presenter-controlled graphics, not the content – we used it for medal tables, stills and not just social media.
Who we worked with
The backend was an iteration of IMI Mobile‘s platform, better known to BBC staff as the MMC or WIN Multimedia Console. This console pulls in social media feeds from a variety of sources and allows the producer to output them, via selected feeds, to assigned destinations (eg graphics, presenter device).
The Olympics iteration took advantage of a broad range of functions that I knew existed in different parts of the BBC but which hadn’t necessarily been used together in the same iteration.
Each user was given a unique login, allowing me to track and audit usage, and training on how to make best use of the functionality for their output.
IMI also supplied functionality which allowed social media to be pushed to presenters on an iPad by the producer/gallery and skins to brand them with.
For onscreen, Mammoth Graphics handled presentation and worked with Kenziko to pass the output feeds from console to Viz RT graphics machines. They also delivered the Kinetrak solution for gesture-based presentation which you can see on their website.
Keep it simple and consistent
#bbc2012 was used across all platforms (broadcast and social) as the single point around which the audience could engage
#bbcthree2012 was unique to BBC Three and used specifically for the points where we wanted the audience to be part of the programme
#bbcmoment was about reflecting the biggest moments during the games and the inspiration it fostered among the audience
The power of the presenter and pundit
The key to making it stick in programmes is the presenter. If they feel comfortable and engaged then everything else can flow from that.
We were lucky to have a group of presenters who, across the board, felt able to discuss and involve themselves in how and when we could use social media in their presentation.
Jake Humphrey was probably the presenter who delivered the highest profile engagement. His track record with engaging audiences through twitter from F1 proved invaluable in driving the usage of social media in programmes he was presenting.
Even when faced with the logistical challenges of the Velodrome which meant he simply didn’t have space or time to use the iPad, Jake could be seen using his smartphone to find material and use it in the programming. His on and off air engagement certainly benefited the programmes he was presenting, opening them up to an audience who really appreciated him.
Clare Balding built a very strong engagement, not just in the studio but everywhere she went, through her calls to engage with #BBCMoment, rallying thanks for the Gamesmakers and in the way in which her dialogue with the athletes and celebrities around the games enhanced the BBC’s reputation on social media.
As a pundit, Ian Thorpe shows how strong a growth trajectory a considered and well-thought out attitude to social media can develop. From a standing start during the Games, he grew into an easily recognisable and engaged personality on twitter.
On BBC Three, Sonali Shah, Rishi Persad and Manish Bhasin were all genuinely engaged. It wasn’t uncommon for them to be requesting material to use in programmes rather than wait for it to be provided.
BBC One were more restrained in their use by the nature of output but they were receptive and willing to use content where they could. The use of it during the big interviews in Gary Lineker’s peak-time show worked well and allowed it to be woven in without having to explicitly refer to it on air.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzsCMXJ-Q77MdGU1aGhmdlY0Q1U/edit
Matt Baker and Jake Humphrey were both comfortable with using material and even more ‘traditional’ presenters warmed to the possibilities. For me the proof of this comes from a moment that happened in the studio, unseen by the audience: Sue Barker reading tweets off an iPad and then dropping them into her script on air as casually and naturally as Jake.
Secondary influencers
Output producers and editors are just as valuable in the process. The ones who made best use were the ones were most receptive and made the effort to figure out how and when to include material.
The BBC Three teams had more of a remit to do so, but I was really happy that the output editors all took the time to learn how to use to console and were willing to suggest ways of making it work for their particular programme.
Production teams, including the Multimedia Broadcast Journalists/TV Sub-editors, who engaged with the console and learned how to benefit from it inevitably gained the most in terms of reflecting the conversation onscreen.
Having support for what we were trying from all parts of the organisation, top to bottom, was also really valuable to me on a professional level, as it allowed me the confidence to try methods of working without the fear of what the reaction would be from senior management.
Missed opportunities or managed experience?
In some programmes we used less social media because it failed to pass muster with our rules.
For example, during Super Saturday on BBC One where there was so much happening that it simply made no sense to be trying to get the reaction from athletes into the programme because the action just kept coming.
On Olympics Tonight we had conceived there would be social media but given its late timeslot and that the action would be some distance from the time of the tweets, we questioned what it would add.
This was in the sense of asking what a tweet from mid-afternoon would add to an interview or discussion at nearly 11pm. We didn’t exclude material and it informed the programme where relevant, but we felt that featuring it would look dated given how moods change on social media and that the aim was to reflect the conversation happening relatively concurrently, not conversations that happened in the past.
My main disappointment was that I was not able to better support morning programmes as well as daytime and evenings. If I could have cloned myself, I think we could have made much greater impact by covering the beginning of the day when there’s the opportunities to use social media to talk up the upcoming action.
Mishal Husain was keen to engage and use her audience and experience from working across BBC News output and there were certainly opportunities to do a mix of review/preview of the day’s action.
The flipside to this is that on BBC Three, the morning gallery team were trained on the console and found ways to use it to deliver content unsupported by a social media producer.
Sonali Shah’s interview with Laura Trott was done entirely by the production team and presenter working with graphics and entirely on their own initiative.
Where does a social media producer fit into the production workflow?
Positioning of the social media producer is key. At London 2012, the role was new and so much of my experience was discovering what could be considered best practice and then trying to apply it.
Over the course of the fortnight, we established that the most effective way for the role to work is for it to be part of the output gallery so that they can gauge the programme demands and adapt to changes in live output accordingly.
With two live galleries running at the same time, this raised the question of whether one person is enough. My experience was that given the nature of live sport, it was rare that both BBC One and Three would be looking for social media output at the same time.
Part of the role is clearly identifying opportunities in the schedule for social media content, which requires knowledge of the schedule of live events and liaising with output editors to establish requirements and to offer content as appropriate. This is more straightforward at either end of the day when there are fewer major events to choose from, but it can be complicated during the peak hours when the number of events mean that programme running orders are much more fluid.
Given the ad hoc nature of live schedules during peak, this makes it challenging to work across the two galleries’ output simultaneously. Being mobile helped but I did feel there were times when it was impossible to be in two places at once. This would be best mitigated by having backup in the form of training for output editors and production co-ordinators so that they aren’t reliant on the Social Media Producer.
Where we think it worked well
#bbcmoment used unprompted by Clare Balding – which led to gallery and feature across platforms. This came from Clare, not from our prompting, showing that a simple proposition can be effective in moving the conversation from an off-air space towards broadcast.
Suggested by Clare Balding https://twitter.com/clarebalding1/status/232054191969951744
became gallery from BBC 2012 team: https://twitter.com/bbc2012/status/232118091595800578
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19136815
The pictures in the gallery represent a fraction of the engagement we got from the audience (a rought estimate says we received over 300 different pictures relating to this CTA)
Jake Humphrey punts out for questions for Brad Wiggins and gets hundreds.
This shows how a combination of presenter-led effort with a nice clear CTA and the support of the programme team to get it on air can really lead the editorial in a way that delivers something fresh and different from the standard interview. You can also see how Jake is using the iPad functionality to script the interview questions as part of his range of presenting options.
Connectivity
In the studio environment we experienced almost no issues in delivering a workable connection for the presenter to receive social media at their presentation point. This was done over a dedicated wireless connection. As much of what we delivered was text based, it was relatively low bandwidth.
We did not make any significant use of the technology for presenters on location due to lack of guaranteed bandwidth. This is an area we should explore for future events with the possibilities of 3g/4g or our own wireless provision.
Summary
So we used it, there were no major disasters or emergencies, and most people appreciated it. I’d say it’s worth doing it again. See you in Rio 2016, or maybe sooner?