Twitter has gotten remarkably well with TV, but, to date, the relationship has been a casual and ad hoc one. Twitter is making it official with a new partnership with hit show The X Factor. Twitter users will be able to vote on their favorite would be star via direct messages, a first for Twitter and a TV show.
"Things are getting even more exciting for Twitter and TV — and more specifically fans of The X Factor USA," Twitter
wrote.
"We've partnered with the show so that starting next week, you can cast votes for your favorite contestants via Twitter," it announced.
"Fans have taken to Twitter during live television events to voice their opinions with Tweets for years. Now you can officially affect the outcome of the show by voting for which contestants should stay and which ones need to go," it explained.
It's relatively easy to vote via Twitter. Once the voting starts, all users have to do is to follow the
@TheXFactorUSA account which will follow them back. They'll then be able to send private messages to account with their votes.
That may not seem like much of an advancement, but Twitter had to develop a system to enable this. Votes will be added automatically, but only those sent via direct message will count.
It's a great move for Twitter which was already seeing a ton of activity related to TV shows. People are voicing their opinions and their 'mini reviews' of anything they see live, so Twitter tapping into that makes sense.
Twitter isn't making any money from the new venture, but it is getting a lot of free promotion via the show, in theory, helping it gain more users who will, eventually, convert into a steady revenue stream for the company.
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