The X Factor Voting Is About To Get Tweetier

Hey X Factor fans out there – you’re about to have one more way to vote in the upcoming live rounds.

The show has announced a partnership with Twitter, enabling fans to vote for their favorite contestants using the social media service. When the live shows begin on Wednesday, November 2nd, fans will be able to cast their votes by sending a direct message on Twitter.

Here’s how it will work:

You can vote by sending a Direct Message containing the number of the act for whom you wish to vote via Twitter if you follow @TheXFactorUSA. Tweets do NOT count. The number assigned to each act is based on order in the performance show each week, much like the toll-free and SMS voting methods. So, if you wish to vote for act number 1, send a Twitter Direct Message containing the number 1 to @TheXFactorUSA.

You’ll have to follow @TheXFactorUSA on Twitter in order to vote. And it is important that the votes be cast via direct message, as it is a private communication. They are discouraging @ mention tweets containing votes in order to “not spoil the results.”

Of course, you’ll still be able to vote in the more traditional ways, like by phone, text or mobile app (Verizon only).

Twitter and TV have formed a rather logical relationship over the past couple of years, with more and more shows promoting discussion on the site. Examples of this include passive campaigns like including a hashtag during an on-air broadcast (which can be seen on dozens of shows nowadays), or more active campaigns like we saw with NBC’s The Voice, which had contestants and judges live tweeting during the show and required strong fan interaction from the stars on Twitter.

The X Factor is also hitting the social media angle pretty hard, and enabling voting via Twitter is another step in this process.

Do you like to interact with your favorite shows via Twitter? Let us know in the comments.