Even on television, social media is becoming a necessity for bringing young and vibrant viewers to a show. David Letterman recently retired, but he also never made any bones about not being a big fan of participating on social media. At 67, many people don’t want to spend the time to learn the ins and outs of something as vast as the Internet.
Letterman had a great run with over 33 years as a talk-show host – all at a highly successful level. He did it on his terms. His was the longest running night-time talk show on television. During the final week on the air he enjoyed a slew of tweets, pins, and shares from celebrities and fans alike. Yet, he still only managed to squeak by in the 6th spot of most social media interaction on Twitter and 2nd spot on Facebook for talk shows.
There might be many lesser shows that would be thrilled with such numbers, but for a show on Network television that has consistently ranked high with viewers for three decades, what does that say? It says that the fan base is not primarily among younger viewers. Letterman’s level of influence was uncommon. The real question – is yours? And even if you have an amazing product and customer base, will it continue to grow without jumping into social media efforts?
No matter what your age, if you run a business, can you afford to ignore social media as a branding tool? Can you get away without learning how to use social media properly for your company’s benefit? The answer is, NO! Even Late Night with David Letterman was starting to show wear and tear in their ratings because there was little effective engagement happening between the show and potential viewers on the various platforms.
The lesson you should take from this information is to get moving forward now. Do not hesitate any longer on establishing a policy within your firm. Hire an expert to handle it for you if you need to. But pull your head out of the sand and take a good hard look at the opportunities you are missing without an active social media plan in place.
The funny thing is, now that David Letterman no longer has to do social media for his show, the weekend after retiring, he managed to send numerous tweets while sitting at the Indy 500. If you don’t have active accounts or business pages, set them up now. Add the information to your business cards and start creating an online following that has a voice matching your branding style. It’s time to move forward.
Ronn Torossian is the CEO and Founder of NYC based 5WPR.
