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IN AN ERA of doom and gloom, audiences are looking for levity on their social media feeds.
In stark contrast to other television channel’s coverage of Brexit or Covid-19, TG4 has taken another approach for their social media presence: have the craic.
The Twitter account for TG4 has gained over 11,000 followers this year, a 20% growth compared to this time last year.
The account is currently on 54,000 followers.
According to Deirdre Ní Choistín, communications manager with TG4, “we quickly realised that TG4 needed to provide a space online that was a Covid-free zone as much as we could.”
“The audience were getting their news and updates about Covid elsewhere and we were not looking to amplify that, but wanted to provide good quality content that took people’s minds off Covid when they were engaging with us online,” she explained.
“We did that through music, campaigns such as #2kónmbaile and through our use of humour on Twitter.”
The account primarily tweets in Irish, but through usage of gifs or memes, the social media strategy has become a hit.
Nuair a deireann daoine TG Four 😬 pic.twitter.com/cvd661T7XN
— TG4TV (@TG4TV) November 30, 2020
“It’s great for us to see the enjoyment people who haven’t spoken Irish since leaving school get from our Twitter account,” Ní Choistín added.
There is a team of up to six people involved in tweeting from the account.
“The tone is consistent because there is freedom within the team to have fun but stay true to TG4,” Ní Choistín said.
Discussing the work that goes into running the account, Ní Choistín said “The team works together to come up with the best ways to have fun on the platforms and to market programmes on TG4 to stand out from the noise and to make people laugh or think as we are doing it.”
“I think TG4 stand out from the crowd because we know who our audience is and what they like from us.”
“Audience is key to everything we do in TG4 from on-air scheduling to our player to social media,” she added.
“The TG4 Intern” has become somewhat of a cult figure among Irish Twitter users who like to guess at the identity of the people behind the account. Ní Choistín said that they are “doing a great job of making us all laugh.”
Time’s Person of the Year is the intern that runs the TG4 twitter account https://t.co/zYsLbr4ep4
— Mystic Megg (@megg_brady) December 12, 2020
Ní Choistín noted her favourite part of working on the TG4 Twitter account is working with this mysterious, elusive intern.
Twitter can be a febrile place at the best of times, but the account gets very little negative feedback, she notes, “especially this year”.
“When we do, it’s usually when there’s a problem with something in our schedule rather than the Twitter account. People are happy to get a bit of light relief from Covid-related stories.”
Ireland’s online community is burgeoning, with the Ireland sub-Reddit boasting 335,000 members and Ireland Simpsons Fans on Facebook recently passing 150,000 members.
When asked about the Irish grá for internet communities, Ní Choistín offered an interesting theory:
”The Irish people have adapted to online content very quickly. From watching live TV shows and the Irish Twitter commenting as though they are friends in a sitting room, creates a great sense of community.”
“Irish people are very quick-witted and the Irish take on life is really quite special. From our long history of storytelling, Irish humour gets us through the darkest of days.”
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Great to see – now lets really tackle packaging waste and force business to make the environmentally correct choice when choosing their packaging – We need to get rid of plastic bottles, plastic wrapping and one off coffee cups and lids
@brian boru:
Bring in another tax…..
@P.J. Nolan: not all taxes are bad – some make sense and others are just greedy – if taxes make it cost effective for a business to do the right thing then it is a good tax in my book. Some are greedy and corrupt like the Irish water plan and need to be fought but smart taxation can be beneficial to society.
All the chocolate bar companies have moved to plastic wrapping because it costs less. Like wise the soft drink companies have moved to plastic bottles because they are prettier. Neither are thinking about the environment and need to be forced to rethink their packaging plans. Taxation is the fastest route to getting these huge companies to change their game plan at the speed we need it to happen.
@brian boru: I would be far more comfortable if chocolate bars once again came in paper and foil. I know they wont recycle the foil but i’m sure it does far less than damage to the environment than plastic.
@Darren Byrne: The plastic gives a longer shelf life so the chocolate companies are using it to give them higher margins at the cost of the environment. Regulatory needs to step in and drive a higher cost to the manufacturer for using the plastic due to the environmental cost. Am sure if the right pressure was applied a solution could be arranged that worked for everyone. The only lever I can think of in this situation is taxation as expecting people to make the change will take generations.
@brian boru: I’m sure it does give longer shelf life, but surely chocolate is a fast-selling item with a high turnover rate? And once bought? I’ve often eaten a square or two and put it away for a week or so, okay, I’m odd, but a lot of people seem to eat bars very quickly once they have some in the house – I’ve even heard of people freezing a bar to keep it for later. I honestly don’t see chocolate as being in any danger of going off before it’s consumed.
It’s fantastic the system works, now let’s solve the plastic bottles ( bottle water ) and the coffee cup problem .
Great and more to be done… especially with plastic
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/plasticpledge/?beta=true
Where are all the reusable items stripped out of the WEEE appliances. Is it Ireland, UK, Europe.
Surely it’s not Africa where all that toxic stuff is released in both the air and the soil/water, by burning all that plastic stuff that covers wires and other components by folks trying to scrape a living together ?
Any answers appreciated. Hope I’m wrong.
Is a dildo a small appliance? Just asking
@Seriously stunned: that all depends on the wife’s choice in style
@Seriously stunned: that all depends on the wife’s choice in style
If domestic appliances were designed and built to last longer than the now average 5 to 10 years lifespan then recycling would be greatly reduced.The average lifespan of some appliances twenty or thirty years ago was averaging ten to twenty years .Most appliances now have built in obsolescence.
Great, but after the specials on Aldi and Lidl this Sunday, we’ll need extra capacity!
You are going to have a great bunch of lads moistening their lips when you talk about that much copper
This just demonstrates the amount of junk we buy throw out and replace. Thats not sustainable
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