Finally, a Facebook Q&A I can get behind. CNN announced that it’s holding a Q&A on Facebook tomorrow with Kyra Philips on infertility.
Instead of just using the platform and social network to promote, it makes perfect sense that the news organization would want to gather their Facebook fans around a topic. It’s an extension of what CNN does anyway, just somewhere else.
More networks should think about Q&A’s as not just a time to gush over a celebrity but something useful. AdWeek, for example, hosts a Twitter chat every week that people actually look forward to and participate in. Finding the audience for a Facebook ‘segment’ is a way to engage viewers and maybe create new ones. If it’s done properly. Which means it should be consistently scheduled, advertised across platforms, and hopefully, moderated by something other than software (a real human works).
Shows like “Talking Dead” or even a “Real Housewives” reunion could all be held on social networks. They’d be even cheaper than they already are to produce. Despite what we all think, social networks aren’t just for advertising. They’re real places where real people want to hang out. You just have to make them that way.