Why Twitter Is The Best for Award Shows

Last Monday, I sat down to catch the last half of the 58th annual Grammy Awards. This was after I spent about an hour on Twitter staring at tweets, vines, and pictures about the show. Before it began popping up on my timeline, I had honestly forgotten that the show was that night. But as soon as the tweets and pictures from the red carpet started rolling in, I knew I had to get to a TV.

Award shows are some of the best nights to be on Twitter. Whether it be with hilarious pictures, jokes, or videos, it is always an entertaining time to check your timeline and see what's trending during the show. It is like watching the show the with millions of your friends in one room, only if your friends could instantly create hilarious Vines and memes. It starts on the red carpet and continues all night. It is the best.

This year's Grammys gave Twitter users a place to go crazy about a Broadway play about Alexander Hamilton. Think about that! Everybody went nuts over Justin Bieber's mustache, Ciara's dress, Taylor Swift's fake-act-all-surprised-even-though-everybody-knows-you're-going-to-win routine, and Kendrick Lamar's amazing performance. I think I spent more time looking at my phone during the Awards then actually watching the show. I couldn't imagine watching it without Twitter.

When you combine all of the biggest stars in Hollywood on one night in one venue, there is sure to be some great content. Twitter is the perfect place to capture these moments and have everybody react to them. Last Monday's Grammy Awards proved just that. The night was capped off perfectly when Taylor Swift won Album of the Year, and provided the internet with "the worst handshake of all time":

What a time to be alive.

Warner Bros. Using Digital Media to Create Buzz for their Superhero Movies

With "Batman vs. Superman" releasing in March and "Suicide Squad" coming in August of this year, Warner Bros. boasts two of the years most highly anticipated Superhero movies. In fact, according to a recent study done by Variety, WB's superhero films are crushing the competition on social media. Variety places "Batman vs. Superman" and "Suicide Squad" social and digital tracking as 500% stronger than their competitors.

"Suicide Squad" is currently ranked number 1 in Variety's Digital Audience Rankings (DAR) for movies set to be released in 2016. The DAR measures how entertainment content is resonating with audiences across digital and social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, and more.

In a very competitive and crowded field of Superhero movies, Warner Bros. is distinguishing its films and creating buzz. The "Batman v Superman" trailer that debuted last July currently has over 61 million views on WB's official Youtube channel. The trailer for "Suicide Squad," which was just released three weeks ago, already has over 38 million views.

With Marvel also set to release big Superhero movies in 2016, such as "Captain America" and "X-Men," it is clear that they have some catching up to do on digital media. Word-of-mouth and generating buzz is such an important part of promoting movies, and its looks like WB has positioned themselves well for their superhero movies this year.

The Problem With Twitter

I was scrolling through my Twitter timeline recently, as I do a lot, when I came across a very interesting quote from Yishan Wong, the former CEO of Reddit. Wong was discussing the problems with Twitter and why so many of its users go dormant. He offered a very interesting take, one which I had no thought of before. "Using Twitter for long periods of time is a fundamentally unpleasant experience," says Wong, explaining that Twitter's most popular's users are the one's that face the most harassment and abuse from other users. Wong describes Twitter as a "global mob" where people can project their anger at anything they may disagree with. The quote that really stuck with me from Wong was this: "The more successfully you use Twitter, the more likely and more frequently the worst possible thing that can happen to you on Twitter is going to happen to you." As someone who is checking my Twitter account at least ten times a day, I love it. I love being able to get news as soon as it comes out, see what my friends are up to, or see who Kanye West is making fun of. I love Twitter. However, these comments from Wong really got me thinking. In today's society, where everybody is offended by everything, and one slip up will have people online calling for you to get fired, why would someone in the public eye really subject themselves to Twitter? While using Twitter is great promotion and great for your brand, it also opens you up to a world of Internet trolls. Regardless of who it is, any politician, athlete, or celebrity is destined to receive hateful comments and threats after any post. So if having a Twitter is not an essential part of your brand, then who really would need to, or want to, use it? I'm not really sure what, of if there is anything, Twitter can do about this problem, but it certainly is an issue. As Wong said, "Twitter's most valuable users are also the one's that have the most unpleasantness in their experience." You can view all of Wong's comments here.

How Not to Use Social Media

Last week, ALDI Australia learned a lesson in how not to launch a social media campaign. The grocery store chain sent out a tweet from their official twitter account, @ALDIAustralia, asking followers to fill in the blanks of simple sentence: "I became and ALDI lover when I tasted ____________ for the first time." Unfortunately for ALDI's social media team, the replies were not what they were expecting. Responses ranged from crude to disgusting to hilarious.

The internet can be a cruel world, and it seems the people over at ALDI Australia just found that out. The tweet was deleted shortly after. At least a few Twitter users could tell it was a bad idea:

Asking followers to describe when they becames fans of ALDI is a major social media fail. It makes ALDI seem desperate for attention and tone deaf. But I think it is safe to say the folks over at ALDI Australia will stay away from fill-in-the-blank tweets in the future.