In the early 2000s, NBC Universal acquired then-performing arts programming channel Bravo. Originally known as “the first television service dedicated to film and the performing arts”, Bravo switched its focus after the buyout and began focusing on pop culture, reality tv, and make over shows starting with Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. It’s now mostly known for their multiple Housewives franchises and countless other reality tv spin offs.
Who, What, Where
After going from basic cable to household name, Bravo is now attempting to gain traction on the Internet. The channel has an array of social media accounts, covering the core three of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as well as YouTube and most recently TikTok. Even with this lineup of networks, Bravo is struggling to drive traffic to its site and cultivate viewer engagement. Out of their average 13.5 million page views, only 4.76% comes from social media.
A 2008 study found that Bravo was one of the most recognizable brands among gay consumers. Their target demographic is people aged 18-to-54. Their target consumer is usually an urban professional that is middle- to upper-middle class.
Out of the core three, Facebook is the most popular with Bravo fans. With an average of 66 posts per week, the social network contributes more than 50% of the site’s traffic and engagement.
So why would a television network want to be on social media in the first place?
Social media is a great way for the network to connect with their viewers; reach and appeal to new viewers; and sell products including Peacock subscriptions and tickets to events like Watch What Happens Live and BravoCon.
Let’s take a look at their current social media. Facebook and Twitter are the most popular of the core three networks, with the company posting 60+ post on each site weekly. Yet each post struggles to crack 200 likes and rarely gets more than 30 replies despite both accounts having more than 1.2 million followers. The problem? They’re not posting native content.
More than half their weekly posts are links to articles on their home site. They don’t really facilitate conversation or encourage the reader to offer their opinion. The headlines aren’t particularly salacious and barely even qualify as click bait. They’re easily passed over and forgotten.
The same goes for the company’s Instagram account. Stories, memes, and consistent posting are all utilized and yet engagement is only at a 0.26% engagement rate with an average of 5,000 likes and 180 comments per post. There is exclusive content available on their archived stories, but it’s content that seems more suited for YouTube or even Twitter. It’s easily passed over.
How can this be improved?
One of the best examples of engagement for the Bravo twitter account was this tweet:
0 days since someone asked for #LadiesofLondon to return — Bravo (@BravoTV) July 14, 2021
The company needs to consider the network they’re posting on. Twitter is interactive and transactional in nature; it’s about replies, retweets and quote tweets. Speaking like popular Twitter accounts – more engaging and relatable than normal brand-speak – and mentioning a subject that hardcore fans could relate to resulted in the type of engagement the company should be striving for. The company could utilize discussion forums like Reddit to gauge what the average fan and super fan likes to talk about. One thing that always seems to do well on social media is throwing back to classic episode moments (see: Woman Pointing at Cat). Bravo is currently promoting Peacock as a streaming service with old episodes exclusively found on the service, and it seems there is an opportunity to use content that is popular with fans to gain reach and also encourage fans to sign up for Peacock. This type of tweeting, combined with more video content, would greatly increase engagement and their Twitter reach.
Speaking of reach, Bravo is also missing an opportunity with Instagram. Similar to twitter, besides IG Lives, they could be doing more on Instagram. Looking at popular fan accounts like @thebravobreakdown and @bravohistorian, they may have a significantly lower follower count, but they have about as much if not more engagement compared to the official account. Their posts are more audience-oriented, going live and offering their opinions and then asking readers to offer their opinion. Both post consistent polls in their stories asking what they should talk about next and do IG Live interviews with other fans or “Bravo-lebrities”. Bravo is on the right track by including fan content with #FanFriday but I think they could go a little farther and capitalize on opening up more discussion with their viewers. This is important now more than ever after multiple scandals involving cast members on several different shows lead to viewers feeling betrayed and ignored. The network is risking losing current and potential viewers by not doing more to join the conversation around their universe.
Finally, the easiest (or hardest, depending on how you look at it) fix is to create more native content for TikTok. Right now, the company is just taking clips from shows and captioning them. This is a major missed opportunity seeing as how a clip from an old episode of Real Housewives of New Jersey was used as a viral TikTok meme. Again, this would be a good opportunity to connect with fans using Bravo content to create videos and repost cast members’ own TikToks to the main account. These can then be cross posted to Instagram stories. The whole beauty of having a wide net of personalities and characters at your employ is that when they’re creating content for themselves, they’re also creating it for you. For some reason, Bravo seems to miss this point.
The Bravo network’s main issue is their lack of authenticity in their social media posts. Most of their posts are just links back to their website. While that may do ok through organic reach thanks to their cult following, there is so much more that could be done if they took the time to create content specifically for the platforms they’re posting on.
Cover photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash
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