Mo Krochmal's Tumblings

Fox, for example, used Twitter voting in the first season of “The X Factor” music competition. This year, it encouraged viewers of “American Idol” to weigh in on certain elements of the show using Twitter hashtags. The results were displayed in real time on the television screen. “It’s a way to seize whatever conversation is already happening on Twitter about a TV show and turn that conversation into money,” Forrester Research media analyst James McQuivey said. “Right now that conversation is already happening on Twitter. Fox would love that conversation to happen on its website or on its app. But it’s not going to. Fox is recognizing that it might as well go where people are.”