Twitter chats are the bane of my existence and if you’re trying to market a television show, they should be yours, too. They are messy, hard to follow, and usually not that interesting at best. At the very least, the show or star should ask the questions, not the other way around.
Like Monday night’s Twitter chat with Gwen Stefani, promoted by Twitter, “The Voice” judge was taking questions and promoting her new album. The chat was supposed to be moderated with the hashtags #BabyDontLie, the name of her new single, and #AskGwenStefani.
No one expects a Twitter chat with a primetime celebrity and musician to be deep. But what could be good publicity — like a Reddit AMA — ends up in the social media ether on Twitter. Like this:
.@Brittany_714 Yes! We are already. Are you wearing your invisible friendship bracelet I sent you? 🙂
— Gwen Stefani (@gwenstefani) October 21, 2014
Or this:
.@FinsUp1372 Hopefully if all goes well, sometime in Dec.
— Gwen Stefani (@gwenstefani) October 21, 2014
In all, she answered about 20 questions in the half hour block after the “The Voice” on Monday night, sifting through abuse and nonsense. Once upon a time, a Twitter chat was a good idea, a way to see how much you could engage with your followers. These days? There has to be a better way.