Harmonic Aftershock: The Social TV Polling Trend.

On my last post, I illustrated how TV networks are displaying show-level hashtags on-air. But another trend is emerging that harnesses the instant feedback loop of the social TV era of television thanks in large part to Twitter: Social TV Polling – Done in a way that affects the programming of live shows in real-time.

A couple of months ago Big Brother polled its viewing audience using the hashtags #BBpunish and #BBreward asking viewers whether or not the voted off contestant should be punished or rewarded at the end of the show.

And eight minutes into last night’s The Voice live results show, a branded integration from Starbucks, had host Carson Daly asking viewers to choose which treams/song would be performed at the end of the show.

Viewers who Tweeted using #VoiceBestShot were voting for the remaining contestants of Team Christina + Team Blake to perform Pat Benatar’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

Viewers who Tweeted using #VoiceWantMe were voting for the remaining contestants of Team Adam + Team Celo to perform Cheap Trick’s I Want You To Want Me.

Voting lasted only 15 minutes until the hashtags were counted.

The Results?
I was curious to see just how many people actually participated. Using Radian6, I pulled the following volumes of each showing a total of 15,203 Tweet votes generated.

And indeed, towards the end of the show last night, Hit Me With Your Best Shot was performed by Team Christina + Team Blake.

So What’s in it for TV networks?
It was a very strategic and planned move, by doing this early into the show. NBC was trying to spark trending topics on Twitter in order to drive tune-in which is a correlation that research firms are trying to prove.

Expect to see lots more of this happening as Twitter + TV integrations evolve from a single passive hashtag to a strategy that leverages TV viewers feedback in real-time to affect on-air programming.