Big Brother never ended, we’re the new contestants

When the final series of Big Brother aired earlier this year, it marked the end of an era for reality TV.  But it wasn’t the end of anything, just the start of many new, and even more up close and personal fly on the wall type docu-soap entertainment shows.

As Alison Kirkham, the new BBC features boss settles in to her big comfy chair (maybe it’s the ex diary room chair), she’s already thinking of other ‘features that resonate with people’s lives’ that she can schedule in.  She’s already nabbed Sarah Beeny and Property Ladder from Channel 4, and if she has her way there will be a load more real people, real lives type stuffing on our screens soon.

The reason reality TV hasn’t died a death is because we’re doing the researchers and creatives job for them.  We’re adding the fuel to the fire.

On Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and all the lovely lesser known platforms we like to hang out on – we’re playing out our lives.  And, as all this takes place, brands are having a field day because we’re selling their products for them, as you tour our homes, see us drive to work, watch us do our weekly shop.  Marvellous.

I just put a random first and second name into Twitter search and found out that over the past 24 hours said person was stuck in traffic on the way to work, has enjoyed watching Dexter and Waking the Dead, was very excited about going to see the new Harry Potter film, thinks cats are awesome and has celebrated the birthday of her five-year old niece.

Ok so maybe not quite reality TV material, but this is where it’s coming from.  I know that some great media opportunities have come up from my personal Twitter stream, so I aint knocking it.  If you like to eat good food, visit nice places and see nice things, why not tell the world?!

And as more and more of us sit with laptops where they were designed to be (on our laps), in front of the box, tweeting about the shows we’re watching, the line between the two continues to disappear.  Twitter feedback for example helped to convince the BBC to run another series of Giles and Sue Live the Good Life.

Maybe we’re seeing a culture change – we only used to speak up when we were fed up, but now that we have a platform for positive feedback, maybe we’ll chirp up more frequently when we have good things to say.  We can hope.

You only have to look at new shows like The Family and The Only Way is Essex

 

 

 

 

Even the Queen is on Facebook…wonder if she’ll start a Royal blog?

Yesterday, within the first hour of launching, 40,000 people scrambled onto their Facebook accounts to ‘like’ the Queen’s new page.  Complete with photo albums, YouTube content, and a tab dedicated to the goings on near to you, even the Royals are fully fledged social media folk.

As reported in The Telegraph, the official @BritishMonarchy account on Twitter already has 70,148 followers and they also have a YouTube channel TheRoyalChannel, which has 32,418 subscribers and whose films have been watched 8.3million times over the past three years.

Each of us have our influencers - ‘if it’s ok for Richard Branson, it’s ok with me’.  ‘Well if Supernanny is doing it then we should be too’. Whoever it is, we all base our decisions on what others are doing.  We don’t like to be left behind.  So I wonder which people The Queen will influence to step up their social media activities.  I would dearly love to see her capturing Royal engagements on her iPhone and tweeting them.

So from the most famous family in the UK, to the most influential families – the mummy bloggers – and the announcement that the second UK mummy blogger event, CyberMummy will return in 2011 on June 25th.

This is exciting news for the social media world – the clout of the mummy blogger continues to hold fast, with brands continuing to develop their awareness and understanding of how to (and how not to) engage with bloggers and bring social media into PR strategies.

Like the Royals, bloggers aren’t just blogging; they’re tweeting, Digging, Stumbling, vlogging, posting on forums, appearing in the press – as well as starting up Fan Pages on Facebook like the queen.

Because Facebook pages are visible to everyone who you are friends with, the viral potential is fantastic.  So it’s a great way to extend the reach of your blog, especially with a tool like NetworkedBlogs.

Social media for me is about joining the dots and finding the best ways to reach people.  The Royals are doing that and engaging in ways that suit different audiences.  Ok so we may not be able to get 40,000 likes in an hour but hey, think big.