Sports fans are social. Whether they are watching a game at a stadium or a bar, fans chat about players and stats, high-five each other and cheer together when the momentum swings. To bring these “real-world” activities online, Turner Sports implemented Gigya’s Live Chat Widget to make it easy for fans to engage with friends from the top three social networks while watching the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on TNT.tv.
Using Gigya’s Live Chat Widget, Turner became the first TV network to take an agnostic approach, letting users sign into any or all of the top three social networks: Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. "We were going to allow the Facebook guy to chat with the MySpace guy to chat with the Twitter guy," said Matthew Hong, VP-general manager of digital at Turner Sports. Fan messages about the game drove engagement on the TNT.tv site, and were also published to the newsfeeds of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter users, effectively promoting the event real-time to their networks of friends and driving traffic back to TNT.com.
The results clearly demonstrate the value of making social features accessible to a broad spectrum of users. According to Turner, “We were pleased with the better user experience and higher engagement. The early return is it gives people an opportunity to participate in our content.”
Unique Users by Network MySpace: 40% Facebook: 48% Twitter: 12%
Messages by Network MySpace: 53% Facebook: 35% Twitter: 12%