The Martha Stewart Tech Show

Martha Stewart opened up her studio audience seats to live-bloggers yesterday in an impressive release of control for the notoriously cautious television talk show circuit. Where audience members are normally forced off the grid during tapings, Martha’s show staff asked us all to bring and use our laptops, smartphones and cameras. As Martha herself posted on Twitter, Facebook and her blog, the show was to be “all about social networking.” The result? Somewhat disappointing and not very social, but a smart move nonetheless.

Informed and prepared, Martha Stewart led a series of fast-paced interviews with a handful of social networking heavyweights including Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. Everybody including Martha seemed excited by the concept of live audience involvement but it was hard not to feel like we were odd visitors in an experiment they weren’t quite ready to handle.

SLIDESHOW: Behind the scenes at the Marth Stewart Tech Show

With 125 users trying to access the wireless network – 126 including Martha – it was slow or inaccessible to many of us. When we were all asked to disconnect so Martha could get a signal, live-blogging activities were quickly downgraded to the occasional smartphone tweet. In all, the experiment generated 452 searchable tweets and retweets using the announced hashtag #theTECHshow and another 99 using the more intuitive identifier #Martha. These are underwhelming numbers from a tech-equipped audience of social influencers like Julia Roy, who has 31,392 followers on Twitter, Idolator editor Maura Johnston and viral-web monitor Urlesque, but it’s all good. The Martha show gets a little extra shot of publicity, and the blogosphere gets some extra attention. And both are excited to be recognized by the other. By allowing us to take and post behind-the-scenes photos we all feel more involved and closer to the show. This was a smart move with zero risk, all reward despite the execution troubles.

The deeper question is why Martha’s advisors – and why the television industry in general – doesn’t integrate social media more frequently into the shows. Allowing people to stay connected and share their experiences directly from their audience seats shouldn’t be a one-time experiment. Successful television shows have always known the importance of social connections and word-of-mouth, yet somehow they’re almost all viewing the internet as a threat rather than a powerful opportunity.

What could the Martha show have done differently yesterday? Rather than treat social networking as a separate technology discussion, they could have prepped the tech guests to discuss how their products and sites enhance the domestic arts. Martha probably wouldn’t bring the head of GE Appliances on the show just to discuss the latest cooktop elements, and she wouldn’t go in-depth on the features of a glue gun without tying it into why her viewers should care. Similarly, Biz Stone should not have mentioned Twitter’s retweet functionality without tying it into how it can benefit the audience. Chris Hughes could have spent less time on Facebook’s privacy options, more time bringing it home to why Martha’s demographic cares. Yahoo’s Heather Cabot added more of a Martha vibe during her photo editing segment but for the most part the links between technology features and how the home viewer can benefit, specifically around the domestic arts, were rarely drawn.

Martha and her staff are to be applauded for their efforts but when the show airs tomorrow, Friday October 2nd, viewers at home will likely wonder what it all has to do with them.

Andrew Cherwenka is VP Biz Dev at Trapeze.com, an interactive marketing agency with offices in New York and Toronto. Find him on Twitter at @cherwenka.

Photo captions by Joe Coscarelli

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.