Today BET will launch 106 & Park Connect in conjunction with 106 & Park’s 2,000th episode, the festivities which include special guests will occur sometime tonight around 6pm when the show airs. The site is actually live right now and you can check it out for yourself at 106andPark.com. The social network was built using Flux similar to Think MTV, which we covered last year. My thoughts on the site? Well, it is a basic social network. You know the drill: profile page, friends list, videos, music, the whole gamut. What will be the most compelling offering from this social network that could potentially convert a horde of MySpacers and challenge Interactive One’s social initiatives will be the sites integration into OnAir programming. Now if they integrate user videos into the show and live audience members into the site in real time we might just have a winner here. The 2 could easily feed off each other and help grow the sites user base quickly not to mention totally downplay the basic nature of the site. Since the show is actually tapped in advance I am guessing this won’t fly. However content like this that could be aired live would also help:
Yeah…I would tune in just to see Rocsi natural reaction to this. The same could go for any celebrity not just the hosts of the show (which I tend to find less interesting). It’s not hard to see how something like this could go totally viral especially if full shows (cut into segments) that can be shared will also be featured online. That could be the one missing ingredient that is needed to keep the social network alive when the show is not being aired or recorded and there is no interaction with the “online studio audience”. We’ll see how this whole thing plays out.
August 20th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
This really does need integration with the show. I’d need to see that before I would think it could really be effective and a will bring about a good ROI.
August 21st, 2008 at 10:32 am
I think this is an interesting marketing move. I don’t think they really want to or expect for this social network to go up against the giants but rather build a loyal audience around the show. cell phone and beverage companies have tried this it will be interesting to see how well a social network can do built around a TV show. Fast Company has also seemed to have successfully integrated social networking around their magazine.
August 21st, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Is LisaRaye going to be there? I’m sorry it was right there…
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:58 am
Angela, 106 is live most of the week.
And 106 is already deeply integrated with their website. The daily countdown, Wild-Out Wednesday, Freestyle Friday, Click My Pick - all of these show elements are determined by the fans online.
It’s a good guess that the social network will have this same type of intergration.