Twitter holds court in March Madness Live’s Social Arena

March Madness Live, the web and mobile application streaming the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, has more than just video of the games.

Turner Sports partnered with Mass Relevance and SnappyTV to power the social aspects of the application, including several components exclusive to Twitter.

Web app

After clicking on a game from the schedule on the left sidebar, you’ll see the Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena below the video screen.

Image used with permission of Turner

Beneath the video screen is a game timeline, which displays Tweets interspersed with game clips and photos.

On the right side under “fan chat” is a stream of Tweets and other social media content from fans, with data around the number of Tweets per minute and total Tweets.

To the left is a box with three different Twitter options:

1. A social activity map gives a communal feel, showing a map of the U.S. with dots over the locations where a high volume of game-specific Tweets are coming from. Scroll over the dot and a Tweet pops up.
2. The “hot topics” leaderboard ranks the top keywords on Twitter pertaining to that particular game.
3. The last of the three features, shown in the example above, compares the number of Twitter mentions for the two teams in the game you’re watching.

Mobile app

On mobile, you can get to the Social Arena by clicking on a game and then the social tab at the top of the screen. Here is how the social arena looks on an iPad:

Image used with permission of Turner

Join the conversation by tweeting with the hashtag #marchmadness.

“The March Madness Live app integrates the most relevant and compelling social content from Twitter into a single destination for fans,” said Jesse Redniss, Mass Relevance’s Chief Strategy Officer. “The social experience goes beyond simple streams to create dynamic, real-time visualizations that encourage participation and engagement — and brings the March Madness tournament to life in a new way.”

Do you know of other innovative uses of Twitter? Write to [email protected].