I consider myself to be a “heavy” social media user. Facebook, which is used by over 750 million people worldwide, is old hat for people like me and just one of dozens of social media and social bookmarking platforms in existence.
Because social media is such a big part of my life, I find that I often need to beware of my word choice when speaking to most of my family and friends as most people in my life aren’t accustomed to the acronyms and general lexicon used in social media.
I was catching up on some TV the other night and fast forwarding my DVR when a commercial for an ABC Comedy called “Happy Endings” caught my eye.
What was so interesting that I made a point to watch the commercial instead of continuing on to the next show segment?
The commercial for Happy Endings showed several Twitter hashtags on the bottom of the screen.
Wait. It gets better.
The voiceover in the commercial used the term, “Catch Phrase” to describe those hashtags.
As I stared at the TV, somewhat stunned at the show’s grand attempt to connect the non-tweeting world with Twitter, I was impressed at the move ABC was making. They were urging viewers to tweet with their pre-determined hashtags (disguised as “catch phrases”).
They were hoping their carefully-chosen words would trend.
They were going one step further than the typical Facebook fan page.
They were staking their claim in social media.
They were taking a chance at a new form of advertising.
I applaud you, ABC. Let’s see how quickly other shows follow your lead.