WOULD IT HELP TO VOTE VIA FACEBOOK/TWITTER FOR TUSKER PROJECT FAME 5?

Wednesday, 04 April 2012 10:26 , Written by Kevin Oyugi

There are plenty of reasons as to why it's very difficult for most social media platforms today to catch up to Facebook, and many of those include the deeply ingrained level of interactivity as well as the seemingly endless application possibilities.

American broadcasting channel NBC's hit television show 'The Voice' has fully embraced this social media bug by utilising the just introduced voting via Facebook app.

Facebook users begun voting for their favourite artists on The Voice as from Monday, when the app was released. Of course these fans are also able to share their views with Facebook friends, connect with others and track the artists via the app.

The Voice is an extremely popular reality singing contest in the US, having commenced its second season in February 2012.

“This app gives our already socially-savvy fans another way to connect and share,” Vivi Zigler, president of NBC Universal Digital Entertainment, said in a statement to Mashable. “From declaring their favorite artist to discovering friends’ preferences to interacting with more content, the app creates a fully social online voting experience.”

javier colon

Javier Colon, The Voice Season 1 winner

Other leading American TV shows such as X Factor even ventured into accepting votes via direct messages to their twitter handle, which the program coordinators counted as valid.

Now, with Tusker Project Fame just about to debut on our local screens for a 5th successive season, we wonder whether such breakthroughs would be utilized to engage more with the audience that now crosses over 5 East African countries.

Davis

Davis Ntare, TPF Season 4 winner

Radio stations such as Capital FM, Homeboyz Radio and Ghetto Radio already have massive presence on both Twitter and Facebook, as well as actively using the sites for content, feedback and voting, but it remains to be seen whether this trend will transcend into the television industry.

The leading stations of KTN, NTV and Citizen mostly use the avenues as a means of news dissemination, though admittedly the level of interactivity, as witnessed by use of highlighted tweets and comments in broadcasts, is increasing. How well this can be used in the entertainment industry is yet to be fully exploited.

Facebook had announced in January that it would be introducing apps to increase the levels of interactivity on the social site and it would be great to see local brands such as television series, musicians and brands take full advantage of this.