Social networking is quickly evolving as a powerful marketing tool for brand managers, though the math is still fuzzy when it comes to metrics, monetization and explaining to the chief financial officer why you have a social network like Twitter in the first place. SciFi Channel saw past some of these challenges and activated a Twitter site in July, several weeks before the third season premiere of Eureka, an original series set in a fictional town inhabited by geniuses. SciFi Channel's ad agency, Fallon, Minneapolis, discovered that Twitter users were talking about the show, and enlisted one of Eureka's characters, S.A.R.A.H., to talk to fans. S.A.R.A.H., which stands for Self Activated Residential Automated Habitat, is an artificially intelligent physical house that is able to communicate. As of Sept. 23, Twitteer.com/S.A.R.A.H. garnered 3,210 fans. Fallon's planning director, Aki Spicer, recently talked with Brandweek senior reporter Mike Beirne about whether the Twitter experience has produced any marketing eureka moments.


Brandweek: What are the objectives for the Eureka/Twitter site?
Aki Spicer: There are two objectives. One is to participate in a social network that is growing and trying to find a role in that whole area. Another aspect is promote the show in a way that is engaging and gives value back to viewers. What led us to this result is these are fans of a show who want nothing more than to talk to their favorite characters on the show. So we're trying to have a conversation with fans.

BW: Who is actually writing on the site?
AS: SciFi is very involved in it. A lot of it is queuing up content and queuing up episodes that don't exactly fit in an hour-long episode. So SciFi writers are very involved in shaping the content, and we are involved in making sure the voice [of S.A.R.A.H.] stays true. We're keeping track of the conversation and trying to peel out what people are giving us feedback on from product placements to depth of characters on the show. We're trying to decipher meaning along the way. I'm not going to lie to you. This is an experiment. We're all trying to figure it out.

BW: Why wouldn't blogging be enough?
AS: Two things. Twitter is right for our customer in a couple ways. The show is openly 'geek.' We suspected that many of our viewers would be ahead with participating in this medium. So before we even jumped in, we did an extensive sweep of Twitter to harvest conversations around the show. We found there were thousands of conversations that already existed.

Another pattern we saw is with TV shows in general, there are many fake characters already out there engaged and participating—from fake Steve Jobs, fake Borat, to all the characters in Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. People want to connect to these fictional characters.

Suddenly social media arises and should it be so surprising that people want to bring these desires to this new technology? They want to live in this world with these characters that to them are real people. If we're not participating, they will do it without us . . . We want to lead that conversation.

BW:  Within the world of Twitter, 3,000 followers for Eureka is outstanding. But in the world of marketing, which is about selling volume and monetizing, 3,000 people sounds like it's not worth the time. Why should other networks or brands be interested in Twitter?
AS: Scale is the big question of our day, and metrics is the second question. Let's talk about scale for a second. It's a broadcast network that wants millions of people to watch their show. We've never recommended not doing the commercials and viral outreaches to YouTube and connecting to bloggers that SciFi has done. All of that is still happening. One question we had in the beginning is: What way can we connect deeper? You can't connect deep with a million. You have to connect deep with less, so what is the value of connecting with 3,000 super fans who co-promote with you . . . We're not spending a huge budget, so the risks are low.

BW: What do you need to figure out?
AS: We're watching the Mad Men Chronicles and trying to get our heads around that kind of [fan] passion. We're watching Home Depot. It has a Twitter feed that is adding value to customers. They're talking about a hurricane coming up and there are some tips that [they] want to provide customers instead of talking about the sale next week. Comcast Cares is harvesting all the conversations where Comcast appears and meets problems where they happen. [Comcast] not waiting for people to come to them with complaint. H&R Block is doing the same thing. They are not connecting with millions. They are connecting with thousands, but they're connecting deeper.

BW: Are your other entertainment clients interested in developing a Twitter site?
AS: Now we have to almost stop the floodgates as clients start to say 'I want that for my show too.' The first thing we have to say is it's not right for everybody or every product. We have to really align with what our goals and objectives are first. If we say we are a customer service brand that happens to sell TV shows, shoes, cars or whatever, then let's align how we can serve customers with a medium. Maybe it's a phone bank. Maybe it's Twitter. I'm a little afraid of not beating this big opportunity. It wouldn't be the first time advertisers jumped too fast and killed something—think spam.