WWE News: Monday Night Raw Ranks No. 1 in Social Media Buzz in Fall 2011

Vince McMahon is clearly in love with Twitter. 

Every time you tune into a WWE broadcast—whether it be Monday Night Raw, Friday Night Smackdown or a pay-per-view—you probably notice that Twitter is just about everywhere. Michael Cole won’t stop talking about it, the superstars’ Twitter handles appear when they make their ring entrances and the WWE brags about how many followers the stars have. 

While many have probably felt like we’ve been experiencing a Twitter overload during the last several months, Vince probably has a big smile on his face right now because—guess what?—it worked. 

From PWTorch.com: 

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Marketing publication AdAge.com reports that WWE Raw topped the list of cable TV shows with the most social buzz in Fall 2011. Raw's "Share of Voice" percentage was 7 percent, topping "The Walking Dead," "Jersey Shore," "South Park," and "Project Runway" in the Top 5 on cable. AdAge's commentary on Raw points to WWE's tendency to write segments focused on getting items to trend on Twitter, which can be counter-productive when trying to move people to spend money on the product. 

AdAge writes: "Raw benefits from having a huge number of 'hooks' to chatter about. Any given X Factor or WWE Raw episode tends to be packed with plenty of triumphs, let-downs, drama, controversies and assorted little pleasures and annoyances that motivate fans to react on social media. Both shows also have plenty of brands-within-the-brand -- the celebrity judges and wannabe celebrity contestants on The X Factor and the Superstars of WWE, many of whom have sizable cult followings." 

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The main goal of McMahon’s recent obsession with Twitter seemed to be quite simple, and that's to spread awareness about the WWE product. 

In that aspect, it worked. 

As evidenced by the AdAge.com report, people were talking about Monday Night Raw more than any other TV show this fall and that’s exactly what McMahon wanted to happen. However, I still question whether the WWE’s “social media buzz” really means anything in the long run. 

Sure, the WWE’s tendency to push Twitter throughout episodes of Raw has resulted in more buzz than it likely would have otherwise. However, Twitter is a trend (pun intended) and the cons of pushing it so hard may outweigh the pros. 

If you look at the other shows on that list, none of them push Twitter down our throats quite like Raw does, yet they still generate a ton of buzz on their own. One would assume that those shows generate that buzz because of the quality of the show (or its popularity), not because they promote Twitter every 10 seconds. 

The WWE’s key to getting someone to follow a certain superstar on Twitter isn’t working it into angles and storylines. Rather, it’s producing better storylines and compelling TV that is more likely to get fans to tune into the show. 

Those other shows prove that. 

The WWE can continue to push Twitter mercilessly, but it will increase production costs and interfere with storylines. Meanwhile, those other shows can put Twitter on the backburner and still be almost as successful in the social media buzz department.

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