The big brother naija reality TV show organizers do not only use social to create awareness for their shows but also to get feedbacks, opinions and reactions, targeted at creating deeper audience engagement.
A lot of times information gotten by viewers from their friends online serve as reviews of a TV show. Thus some of the choices they make are influenced by such second hand information.
The big brother naija reality TV started her first season in 2006 and did not continue until 2017. Since the comeback of the show. Social media has played a very crucial role in ensuring the show remains relevant and continue to be engraved in the hearts of social media users and viewers of the show.
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I have written ways in which social media has contributed to the relevance and enhancement of the reality TV show.
Increased talkability
For the past three months since the big brother naija reality TV show seasons four “pepperdem” started airing on National TV. There is not a day that goes by without social media users and bloggers talking about the show on various social media platforms.
A social media user who doesn’t watch the show will definitely come across a post about the big brother naija show. They would want to watch it even if it is a video clip, then join in the bandwagon of people talking about the show.
Social media users do not just talk about the show, they talk about the housemates. This in turn makes the reality show relevant to people. Sometimes you go on social media and what you’ll see will be fans of different housemates trolling on each other.
Celebrities and social media influencers talk about big brother naija and housemates who they support. Some of them even go as far as contributing money for people to vote for their favourite housemates to remain in the house.
For quite a number of times, big brother naija trended on twitter. Sometimes housemates trend for longer days. This shows that social media has a lot of impact on the show and the organizers of the show.
Increased viewership
Without social media the big brother naija reality show may not have gained much viewers. But with social media and how much people talked about the show. A lot of people especially the millennials and generation Z with other older generations were viewers of the show.
It is no doubt that some chosen housemates are the ones who are very popular on social media or may have been pictured with some notable celebrities prior to selection to participate in the show.
This could be a smart business move because the show actually relies on viewership to be profitable as the sponsors are mostly interested in putting their funds into programs that would give their brand more exposure as well as generate more funds.
Also, due to the fact that celebrities from the entertainment industry visit the big brother naija house from time to chat with the housemates. A lot of people tune in to watch the reality TV show thereby increasing viewership of the TV show.
Increased fame for housemates and Big brother
Due to increased viewership and talkability of the big brother naija show. A lot of social media users go on different social media platforms to follow their best housemates. People also follow big brother naija to get updates on happening in the house. As big brother also has social media handles across social media platforms.
Going into the Big Brother house after just one day in the house (12 noon July 1, 2019), Housemate Tacha was the most followed among the 21 housemates with 351 thousand followers.
Next in line was Kim Oprah with 108 thousand followers. In third place was Mike with 43.5 thousand followers, followed by Mercy at 29.5 thousand followers. Surprisingly, evicted Avala stood at 18.2 thousand while Omashola was 13.3 thousand, same as Ike also at 13.3 thousand.
Khafi had 7.898, Diane 7,295, Tuoyo 7,212, Ella 6,998, Frodd 5,368, Seyi 5,015, Esther 4,018, Nelson 3,940, Gedoni 3,300, Sir Dee 3,055, Isilomo 3,015, Thelma 2,901 and Jeff 2,464. There was no recognizable Instagram handle for Jackye as at the time of compilation.
Recently, their instagram followers have skyrocketed to unimaginable number, some of them have even become verified instagram users.
According to Ebuka Obi-Uchendu who is the host of the show, the show social media pages have won over 420,000 Facebook fans, 320,000 followers on Instagram, and 160,000 followers on Twitter.
You can see how much social media has had an effect on big brother naija reality TV show.
Increased audience participation
Much of the audience participation in the show revolves around the massive use of social media. The show partnered with some media houses probably to stay relevant and ensure that they don’t lose viewers.
For this reason each time a housemate is evicted they go on media tours. You will also notice that it is always the same media houses that host them. A lot of these media houses are the ones with huge social media following.
Also, social media contributed immensely to audience participation my allowing them vote for their favourite housemates. They made it easier by providing two platforms on which people can vote. Voting either by SMS or through the big brother naija website. They also made it possible that people could vote without limits.
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A lot of celebrities from the entertainment industry gave out funds and recharge cards for people to vote for housemates. Just during the 2019 Finale show. The big brother naija host revealed that there were over 200 million vote during the show and over 50 million votes on the final week of the show.
This is as a result of the attention the show generated on social media.
Conclusion
The use of social media cannot be over emphasized and the role it plays in businesses is simply overwhelming. The big brother naija reality TV show is not just a show it also business for the organizers and social media played a very magnanimous role in making sure their strategies were on point.
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