The State of the Union (SOTU) was the ninth most-tweeted about special last year (2.09 million tweets seen by an average audience of 8.8 million people). This year’s SOTU has a good chance to break that mark, largely because networks such as CNN, C-Span, and Fusion – among others – will be using Snappy TV to complement its usual coverage on social.
Snappy TV, acquired by Twitter in the first half of 2014, allows broadcasters to create instant video clips directly after they air, and then share them across their social channels (including Facebook and YouTube).
An example pulled from Snappy TV’s homepage is when the US Open tweeted a video of Rafael Nadal winning the 2013 U.S. Open seconds after he won:
Match point! @RafaelNadal overcome w/ emotion after winning the 2013 #USOpen. Presented by @Heineken_US: – http://t.co/0j6BqF0bml
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 10, 2013
For the broadcasters using Snappy TV for its SOTU coverage tonight, they will be able to share particularly compelling moments from the address.
Just as it is for Facebook, video is becoming an increasingly important part of Twitter’s strategy – and we will likely see a native video player from them in the near future. The potential is certainly there – if you watch the U.S. Open clip above, you will be greeted with a four-second pre-roll, which can be split between the United States Tennis Association and Twitter.