Social Media Lessons From Breaking Bad Story Sync

Last night the premiere of the second half of Breaking Bad’s season 5 aired on AMC. If you aren’t caught up, don’t worry, we won’t spoil anything. The interesting thing about last night’s show is that AMC gave viewers the option to interact on a second screen. By visiting breakingbadstorysync.com from a computer, tablet or mobile device, viewers were treated to a live feed of photos, polls and trivia. It was a pretty cool interactive experience. Even if you’re not promoting a TV show, there are a few great marketing takeaways from this engagement tactic:

Give fans insider scoop: Through the Breaking Bad Story Sync, viewers were shown flashback photos that tied in with what was happening in the new episode, as well as closer looks at items actually in the show. No matter how many people were also seeing the same thing, it felt exclusive. In this vein, offer your fans some exclusivity – behind the scenes looks. Maybe a blog or some Facebook posts about the inspiration behind a product or service, how it’s made or how you suggest using it. You could also offer some tidbits about yourself.

Ask fans’ opinions: Breaking Bad trivia questions and polls appeared on the Story Sync during the episode. Questions like “What would you do if…” and “What did you think when he did …” Blog posts or social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter are perfect opportunities to ask questions of your own fans. Demonstrate that you want to know their opinion, they’ll feel connected, heard and known. And isn’t that something everyone wants?

A bit of selling is ok: AMC is still a business, and so is your company. At various times during the episode, promotional images for the other shows appeared on the Story Sync. It seemed to be just the right amount of promotional material in the midst of cool and informative things about Breaking Bad, and wasn’t a turn off. You hear a lot about not selling too much on social media, and it’s true, no one wants to be bombarded. But if you keep most of your content useful and informative to your fans, they’ll be receptive to necessary promotional messages.