Generally, when I’m working at home, I have the news on in the background: MSNBC, PBS, CNN, SportsCenter, whatever. It’s mostly just background noise, but occasionally something catches my attention. Like the other day when the entertainment news reported on Sheryl Crow’s “wardrobe malfunction” at the Country Music Awards. Apparently, she took a more modest cue from Sharon Stone’s famous Basic Instinct scene, but this wasn’t really what got me excited. The more interesting part of the story was what happened afterwards. Here’s what Sheryl had to say:
“O.K. I’m just going to address the elephant in the room because people all over America are tweeting that I was wearing a really short skirt when I sang with Kid Rock and that when I got up off the stool I showed my underwear.”
Why do I find this interesting? Because the conversation in the social space influenced what happened in real-time at the CMAs. You can be sure that the producers of the Awards did not plan for 10 seconds of improv or apology for Ms. Crow, but it happened. All because of a couple hundred (I don’t really know how many) tweets.
I find this incredibly interesting because it is a real-world example of how conversations in the social space are permeating and influencing all aspects of American culture, whether that culture be based on entertainment, business, religious or other. ”Tweeting” and “Facebook” are now part of our daily lexicon, much like “radio” or “television” and cannot be ignored any more than what is reported in other, older media forms.
As we all know, the CMA incident was not unique, nor is it the first of many similar instances. Savvy companies and producers across a full range of media forms are tapping in to these conversations to provide good, relevant content to their consumers. Case and point: later in the same day, which happened to be the day after the Dallas Mavericks beat the favored Miami Heat for the NBA Title, I was watching SportsCenter on ESPN. They had a segment about the “brand called LeBron James” and whether he was a valuable sports personality from a brand perspective. Half of the segment pulled criticism and comments about James from Twitter, mostly negative. The producers did a great job of taking the pulse of NBA fans using tweets as content, and, in the process, no doubt influenced some of the companies that might be on the market for a high-profile sports celebrity.
Both examples above are great lessons for business. First, be flexible and respond to what’s being said about you in the social space. Second, monitor your brand. You might learn something.
