Twitter’s been aggressively promoting itself as a way for TV in all forms to connect with viewers and amplify messaging. On Thursday, Twitter’s head of TV, Fred Graver, brought that message to PromaxBDA’s Station Summit in Las Vegas.

“You guys have a huge key – you are local. You tell [your community’s] story. Your stars are their stars. Your events are their events,” Graver told the audience of creative service directors and marketers.

“Here’s the good news: People trust local. More than 80% of people surveyed say they trust local TV news over networks, radio, cable, newspapers,” he said. “People watch local. More people watch local TV news than any other source of news on television or media.”

That said, the bad news is audiences “don’t’ necessarily watch it or interact with it when you are on. People want their news all day long. You may have a broadcast that’s scheduled for 6 pm or 7 pm, 10 pm or 11 pm, but that’s not necessarily – particularly for your audience in their teens and 20s—when they are going to interact with you. But you still have to engage them, you still have to drive them to their shows. You can use social media to build a conversation around your brand, your shows and your personalities on social media that lives outside of this strict schedule.”

This was not a new message for attendees, who heard speakers over the prior two days who said similar things, but Graver also offered specific best practices.

Many social media platforms offer marketing benefits, but marketers should know how to use each platform to best accomplish their goals.

 Facebook is the largest platform, with one billion users. On Facebook, users speak to family and friends, so audiences are smaller but highly engaged.

 Twitter offers a real-time public conversation. “There’s no distance between when a Tweet is created and when it’s consumed,” said Graver.

 Instagram is a visual medium that says, “I am HERE and here’s how I’m feeling.” It’s a place to post significant photos and images.

All three of these leading platforms can be useful tools for marketers if used to their best advantage. Here are Graver’s “hard and fast rules” to get the most out of social media to build your brand, your newscast, your TV show or whatever you want to build.

1) It’s called social media.

People love people and people follow people.They want to hear from stars and people on camera, and they want people to tell their own human stories. If your channel has its own social media account, it should tell its own human story.

2) It’s all about Mobile.

“65% of the audience is interacting with your content via social media on mobile while they are watching you on first screen. All day long, they are looking at devices and connecting with people. It’s kind of a great thing to do because it helps you stay connected.

3) Social media is everyone’s job.

” Tweet your beat,” Graver said. “Give your audience proof of why this new show is so great. Proof of why ‘How I Met Your Mother’ is so funny. Tell people why you are so emotionally connected to this content.”

Getting even more specific, Graver even offered guidelines on how often to post on social media.

“On Facebook, you need to be fresh and original with every piece of social media that you put out there,” he said. “On Twitter, whenever you have something to say, go ahead and tweet about it. With Instagram, any time you have a great image to share, that’s a great time to use Instagram.”

“All of you should be posting to social media at least five times a day: two to three times during the day, one time before the show and one time after the show.”

Image of Graver (above) courtesy of Eric Jamison, Studio J Photography.

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