When NBC’s The Voice airs tonight (Monday), viewers will be able to vote for their favorite contestants via a new Facebook Timeline app, which also works on Facebook’s mobile apps. As they vote, their selection will be shared with their friends, adding another social angle to one of the most social shows on TV. The app also lets users track their favorite artists and view additional content, such as performance video and blog posts.
“This app gives our already socially savvy fans another way to connect and share,” said Vivi Zigler, President, NBC Universal Digital Entertainment. “From declaring their favorite artist to discovering friends’ preferences to interacting with more content, the app creates a fully social online voting experience.”
This is Facebook’s first social TV integration of its Timeline apps (that we’ve seen) that goes beyond simply sharing content. “We’ve always watched and talked about TV shows with friends and family,” said Justin Osofsky, who heads up partnerships for Facebook. “The Voice’s timeline app for Facebook will make it easy for people to do this online, enabling fans to vote for their favorite singers and share their votes with friends.”
Last year, Twitter partnered with FOX’s X Factor to power voting via direct messages. Twitter opened up X Factor’s official account, @thexfactorusa, to accept DMs from anyone without following them first. The show opted for DMs over @ messages is because of government regulations protecting the fairness of voting: if everyone knew which way the votes were skewing, they may be influenced to vote otherwise.
In the case of The Voice’s Facebook Timeline app, votes are shared with friends, but not publicly. A third party, then, would be unable to count up Facebook votes in real-time. While voting may be skewed by your friends’ selections (which it would anyway), you wouldn’t know how overall votes are trending.
Beyond reality show contests, voting along with television — amplified through Facebook Timeline apps and Twitter hashtags — will become much more popular in the near future. By sharing votes to your social graph, you’re promoting the show. These are early efforts, with many more to come.