NBC.com - The Social Media Story of the DNC

By: Rob Schreier
schreierama@gmail.com
@rob_schreier

In a new media environment that feasts on immediacy, simplicity, and exclusivity, NBC.com discovered a tool that morphed Tuesday night's opening act of the Democratic National Convention into a Twitter timeline.

An "as it happens" approach to covering all angles of the event, it provides more details and greater intimacy to the parties involved in the DNC to create a more interactive experience on the web.

Credit: Anthony Quintano's Twitter Page

How Does It Work?

The user can follow along with the coverage from multiple NBC.com political corespondents, the candidates and political figures, as well as party followers attending the event. 

Using the hashtag "#nbcpolitics2012," the website creator was able to sort through various avenues of the coverage to get a full political palate. The timeline brings in the viewer at home who consumes two mediums at once.

The one uniform element throughout the conglomeration of stories, pictures, videos, quotes, instant analysis, and critique is the use of NBC political tags and personnel to create a bridge of trust an uniformity.

Credit: Mayor Julian Castro's Twitter Page

This builds a media brand that political consumers can trust going forward, and could potentially be a tool that could provide them an edge in hits over other competing new outlets.

Digging Deeper

Once NBC has captured the initial interest of the audience, there is room for expansion of content marriage with the consumer after the experience.

The beauty of using Twitter primarily for the original sources of the "timeline" is users already using the social media engine to interact during the experience have the chance to engage with the "creators" of the content.

For example, when Chuck Todd tweeted "First major contrast between this keynote and Christie's: Castro mentioned "Obama" 2 mins in. Christie waited over 15 min for "Romney," it allows the reader to click on Todd's profile, which can be used as a tool to further the experience of the reader beyond the single event.

Going Forward

The unfair advantage NBC.com has created is the first social media consumption process that I have witnessed in this form. One can simply pursue the important information from the top political analysts, look at every twitpic that Michelle Obama posts, or simply pick out personal highlights and move on. 

The main objective that NBC.com has created is the universal appeal and simplicity of the medium to communicate with its followers. 

It is also corresponding with simultaneous showing of Twitter usage during the extended post-event coverage on its sister TV station, MSNBC. By showing this on the television, it creates that bridge between digesting any political story with TV and Twitter using one or the other....or both.