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TV Show-Social Media Engagement

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Post  vwlphb Mon Oct 07, 2013 1:04 am

So this might be a weird topic, but I find it fascinating how shows are engaging in social media in an official capacity. It's not quite transmedia storytelling, but it is transmedia engagement, getting the audience to follow content from TV to the internet. Some do it well, and some are awful.

Breaking Bad put out an official podcast after every episode starting Season Two with commentary from Vince Gilligan, the showrunner, Kelly Dixon, an editor, and a variety of guests from directors to actors to producers to writers. It's like getting a DVD commentary directly after the episode airs. This is actually what made me want to start this topic, because I can't think of anywhere else you get so much insight into a showrunner's thought process while the show is still going on.

Teen Wolf impressed me when I first started watching it by having a social media staff that seems to understand social media beyond just starting a facebook and twitter account. They are all over Tumblr, even posting gifsets that were made purely for the purpose of being gifsets - they never post the related video. They also do a question and answer with Jeff Davis, the showrunner, every Sunday during the season where they pull the questions out of the tumblr ask box. They also had a ustream/spreecast with the actress Holland Rolan called Lydia After Dark where she interacts with fans for an hour right after the show airs, answering questions from the chat window. They also have actors live-tweet during the show on the official twitter account rather than their own.

America's Next Top Model, on the other hand, does it wrong. So, so wrong. The past two seasons they've added a "social media score" to their scoring of the models, but it inherently doesn't make any difference. A) At least the first time they did it, they kept encouraging the audience to vote for their favorites, even though the show has already obviously already been entirely filmed, because they have the full set of photos from each week on their site already. It's not like they go back in time and change who was voted off, it is already prescribed. (It looks like they've done specific time periods for voting now, but still you don't know who was voted off so "keep voting for your favorite to bring them back" makes no sense.) B) It removes a lot of the stakes from the show. Who gives a shit who is voted off when they all still do the photoshoot? Why do we care about who gets to go on the trip when we know that all the contestants do because we saw their pictures there?  

Anyway, what other shows have you all seen that engage in this way? It's interesting how it's easy to miss if you're not looking for it, but they (usually) makes it a richer experience.

(Sorry for the clunky title!)

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Post  whatthedeuce Mon Oct 07, 2013 1:17 am

I kinda miss the days when we didn't have writers and showrunners explaining every single thing that happens on a show. I understand wanting people to understand the intentions behind your work and to clarify certain audience questions, but it also seems to me like it's not necessarily a bad thing to have a divide between the audience and the people running a series.


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Post  Binky Mon Oct 07, 2013 1:23 am

I agree, whatthedeuce. I try not to listen to dvd commentary-esque stuff while a show I like is still airing. I feel like the only possible outcomes are demystification wherein I become hyper aware I'm watching a fake made up thing and/or the creators/writers/others prove themselves to be dickwads.

Like, I love The West Wing. But, even though the show is over, the Aaron Sorkin commentaries make me want to punch him in the face and stop liking the show. I don't want that to happen with a show that's producing new episodes.

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Post  particle_person Mon Oct 07, 2013 1:29 am

I liked NBC's Tumblr for Hannibal with all the amusing tags and fannish references. They have a really good relationship with fans.
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Post  xyzzy Mon Oct 07, 2013 1:41 am

Ronald D. Moore ran an extremely frank podcast while working on Battlestar Galactica. (This podcast might have later become the commentary track on the DVDs, but I've never checked.) He'd get drunk and talk about the writing process, mostly. My favorite episode of the podcast was the one where he just completely trashed the worst episode in the series, Black Market. He placed the blame squarely on himself as the head bitch in charge of the writer's room, iirc.

What was interesting to me is that it confirmed a few things that I'd already noticed on my own--for instance, if you compare the look and feel of Deep Space 9 to Battlestar Galactica, they're quite similar. Visually, DS9, taking place on a Cardassian space station, was the "darkest" of all the Trek series. Lots of deep shadows and patterned lighting, particularly in later seasons.

I don't usually give two figs about "authorial intent", so listening to a writer's opinion on something doesn't generally alter my opinion of show--I just find the writing and production process interesting. Occasionally I would find myself a bit disappointed to learn that a cool idea was shelved due to budgetary concerns or whatnot, but I'm able to separate that from canon.
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Post  Arabella Mon Oct 07, 2013 1:58 am

The cast and crew of Scandal openly credit the show's surge in popularity to Twitter and several cast members live tweet during the show. ABC has been advertising it as an "event" that you have to watch live to experience the social media element. You can still enjoy the show perfectly well without engaging that way, though.

As for showrunners and writers blogging/podcasting/etc., some writers really impress you with their insights and others...should just stick to screenplays. After being burned a time or two, building up writers into something greater than they were, I find it helpful to know if a writer comes off as overly impressed with him/herself, is too dismissive of major issues, in commentaries/blogs/etc. Eventually those attitudes are reflected in the writing for the show itself, so knowing how a writer is like overall helps keep my expectations of a show grounded, more often than not.


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Post  Raised by wolves Mon Oct 07, 2013 2:01 am

Preach, Whatthedeuce. I hate it but that is an opinion of someone who has never used it. I don't appreciate being told that I don't participate/sign in/tweet/download webisodes I'm somehow "missing" the full experience of shutting off my brain to watch a mindless TV show. I spend enough time devoted to TV, I don't want homework. Get off my lawn you rotten kids.

Anyway, what other shows have you all seen that engage in this way?
SyFy has a sync app for their shows.


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Post  vwlphb Mon Oct 07, 2013 2:15 am

Raised by wolves wrote:Preach, Whatthedeuce.  I hate it but that is an opinion of someone who has never used it. I don't appreciate being told that I don't participate/sign in/tweet/download webisodes I'm somehow "missing" the full experience of shutting off my brain to watch a mindless TV show.  I spend enough time devoted to TV, I don't want homework.  Get off my lawn you rotten kids.
For me, a lot of that stuff comes down to how they do it - mentioning the live tweeting in a promo? Great. Stupid hash tags in the corner of the screen? Go fuck yourself.

Switched at Birth (and I'm guessing the other abc family shows) was especially bad about that - like Bey and Emmett have a scene together and the throw up the tag #bemmett4ever at the start of the scene and #forgiveemmett at the end. It's like they're constantly overtly telling you how you should feel during a scene.

For the access to show runners and commentaries, I have always loved the commentary tracks on dvds and stuff, because I find it interesting how stories develop and production solves problems. Sometimes they turn out to all be dicks, in which case I stop listening. But unlike the hash tags it's not shoved in your face, so if you don't want to listen to the official breaking bad podcast it doesn't impact your viewing experience.

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Post  punkysdilemma Mon Oct 07, 2013 2:37 am

Has anyone ever used one of those sync apps, like, more than once?  Any point to it?

I think the Project Runway live polling stuff is an interesting idea, but it's not gonna make me stop watching on TiVo.  That show has like 5-minute long commercial breaks.
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Post  sagitare Mon Oct 07, 2013 3:42 am

It's funny but I was just thinking of this the other week as I contemplated creating a new list on twitter for various television show/writer related feeds I've got on the go. I've always liked dvd commentaries and discussions of what went on in order to bring a show or film to the screen, so I find the live twitter streams during episodes kind of nifty, but I'm usually reading them after the fact as I don't often watch a show as its airing.
I haven't come across staff who've disappointed me or pissed me off (...yet...) and so far I've been really enjoying the comments and vibe of the ones I am following: the Elementary writers are pretty cool, as are the Hannibal crew. I've just added a few from Sleepy Hollow so we'll see how that goes.

I definitely agree with vwlphb that promotion is one thing, but not giving the viewer any choice in matter is something else entirely. I also think that when the social media element is integrated to the point that you'll miss parts of the show if you don't go to a particular website and do something or send a text somewhere to get a sooper sekrit code for something else, that sort of thing, that's when I get pissed off. As an optional thing that enhances and adds some fun and informative layers to a show, I'm all for it. But not when it can't be separated from the viewing experience, or when I'm asked to download a bunch of apps or whatnot, because then I get annoyed.
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Post  Raised by wolves Mon Oct 07, 2013 3:54 am

For me, a lot of that stuff comes down to how they do it - mentioning the live tweeting in a promo? Great. Stupid hash tags in the corner of the screen? Go fuck yourself.
Great point. Hashtags and bugs bad. Mentioning live Tweeting so those who want to participate can, good.

For the access to show runners and commentaries, I have always loved the commentary tracks on dvds and stuff, because I find it interesting how stories develop and production solves problems.
Commentary tracks have it right. First, they're not disruptive of first time viewing and second, people listen to commentary for things they care enough to watch a second time and invest time in. I love stuff like Pop Up Video or Talking Dead but those are things I chose to participate in. They're not forced on me.

Killer truthiness re: Switched at Birth hashtagging. Stop telling me what to think. I watch that show in Netflix and they leave in the tags. So I'm supposed to tweet random Go Bemmett or TY4EVA tweets months later? Who would even understand what I'm talking about?

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Post  PrincessCleo Mon Oct 07, 2013 11:25 am

sagitare wrote:I haven't come across staff who've disappointed me or pissed me off (...yet...) and so far I've been really enjoying the comments and vibe of the ones I am following: the Elementary writers are pretty cool, as are the Hannibal crew. I've just added a few from Sleepy Hollow so we'll see how that goes.
Oh my God, the Sleepy Hollow people are out of control, it's fantastic. Orlando Jones got an actual Tumblr, and demands that people write him fanfic (and gets it). He actually started trying to get an Ichabod Crane/Frank Irving ship going (I think he tagged it "Irvabod" and "Craving"). I can't figure out if Fox asked him to get on Tumblr or if he's just gone rogue.

Speaking of Hannibal, what's really funny is when the NBC show tumblrs start reblogging each other. Also, that Bryan Fuller totally ran with the flower crown thing and has been getting everyone on the show to wear one and then he posts pictures on Twitter. You can tell when people genuinely enjoy the social media aspect, as opposed to the obligatory onscreen hashtag that just pisses people off.

I'm really curious to see if the NBC Dracula tumblr is going to be as awesome as the Hannibal one; you can tell it's trying but hasn't really picked up steam yet. One of the showrunners already popped up in a Twitter conversation I was having with someone else, so it seems like they're pretty excited and trying to get involved. When people do it right, a lot of the in-jokes and engagement just happen organically and they just run with it, the way fans started doing the Dire Ravenstag and Winston Graham twitter accounts (I know who runs Winston; no idea on the Ravenstag), and the Hannibal people just totally started talking back to them. Like, David Slade actually started talking plot points with the Winston twitter. So I have no idea what's going to happen with Dracula, if there's going to be some fan-favorite character or in-joke that takes on a life of its own. Inventor Dracula's Favorite Lightbulb or something. But the social media fan engagement basically kept Hannibal alive while the ratings sucked wind; Dracula's a much easier sell in terms of getting an audience, but you have to think the showrunners were taking notes on that.
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Post  QueenSix Mon Oct 07, 2013 11:40 am

I've been noticing this too, especially with shows like Beauty and the Beast, Hannibal, and now Sleepy Hollow. With Beauty and the Beast, they got the executive producers on Twitter and some of the cast are too and they'll post behind the scenes photos and the title pages of new scripts as well as doing
Q&A's with not only some of the cast but the producers, some of the writers, and the costume and make up people. And what they're posting is actually interesting because you're getting to find out some of what goes on to make the episodes in question so it's not all WATCH THIS EPISODE BECAUSE IT IS GREAT I AM ON TWITTER NOW type stuff.

I think it was a savvy move on their part because it helped develop a kind of brand loyalty to a show that people didn't expect to make it to the end of season 1 but less get a season 2. I agree that if it's done right it can help a show get a huge foothold with an audience but it needs to be done by people who understand what they're doing and who understand that the audience is smart enough to know when a company is trying to force it.

I'm not really pushed about downloading podcasts and webisodes. It depends on the show and the episode in question and really it depends on the people involved. I don't like shows that make it seem as though you are really missing out if you don't go to the site to find more content especially as a lot of the time, that content won't be easy to be viewed outside the US or will be taken down by the time the episode airs here.

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Post  Carrie Ann Mon Oct 07, 2013 11:55 am

I really hate the forced hashtag thing too. The best thing I've seen to come out of TV creators on social media is a photoset Rian Johnson tweeted from the shooting of the Ozymandias episode of Breaking Bad. Partly because he's a great director, so the photos are beautiful. But that's the kind of thing that is so cool to see, and you would never have seen something like that (aside, maybe, from DVD extras) prior to the rise of social media.

ETA: Or, ditto what QueenSix said, basically. I'm really only interested in "engaging" with writers/directors/actors from my favorite shows if they have something interesting to say or share, and behind the scenes photos or stories about shooting are that kind of thing. (Also, of course, if they're entertaining in general. Like Rian Johnson, Steven Amell, Daniel Gillies, Joss Whedon, etc.)
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Post  Instant Monkeys Mon Oct 07, 2013 12:34 pm

Even WHOSE LINE IS IS ANYWAY does the hashtags onscreen during the show thing (because of being on ABC Family I guess). I find it RIDICULOUS, but I find it EVEN MORE ridiculous when it's a show like Whose Line. At least Switched at Birth or whatever sort of has a teen-ish audience. Whose Line is guys in their 50s doing corny boob jokes. Come on, guys.

I enjoy behind-the-scenes stuff, and I like the creators/showrunners getting into the fandom (e.g. flower crowns) -- as long as you don't HAVE to follow all that to watch the show. That's what I don't like, feeling as if I have to do internet research in order to fully understand a show. There are shows I will be into doing internet research for, and shows I will not.
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Post  TiffanyNichelle Mon Oct 07, 2013 1:33 pm

The official hashtags for Twisted and how they are usually about only one of the three leads tend to drive me nuts.

I'm not a fan of the after show podcast that the producers of Once Upon A Time does because it's usually "this is what we really meant". No, show it on screen instead of having to explain it after the fact. If you want to expound further on what we just saw, great. But if I have to listen to the podcast to actually know what was happening that sucks.
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Post  vwlphb Mon Oct 07, 2013 2:06 pm

I wonder if part of the rise of podcasts and such is not just the ease of reaching the audience, but also a response to the fact that people are less likely to buy DVDs anymore. It's a chance to get their thoughts out there to those that only watch the show on Netflix or Hulu.

I am also surprised that the lawyers haven't shut a lot of these things down. I know at my company, if anyone tries to give you an idea for any branch of the company, even ones that you aren't in, you have to stop them and also report it to the lawyers. They want to be protected even if what they end up doing is the same thing by coincidence. With showrunners and actors and writers discussing reading forums and fanfic and fan theories and listening to other podcasts, it seems like only a matter of time before someone sues them for "stealing" their idea. Though perhaps the act of putting it online in a way it can be universally accessed could be argued as giving up your rights to it?

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Post  sagitare Mon Oct 07, 2013 4:30 pm

PrincessCleo wrote:When people do it right, a lot of the in-jokes and engagement just happen organically and they just run with it, the way fans started doing the Dire Ravenstag and Winston Graham twitter accounts (I know who runs Winston; no idea on the Ravenstag), and the Hannibal people just totally started talking back to them.
While obviously there's no doubt a mandated PR component to all of this, the vibe I'm getting is that many of the people involved - showrunners, writers, and actors - actually enjoy the interaction and discussion. Like, they're the same as the rest of us: we all like to chat about creative stuff that we enjoy. I think it's fun when they go on about the shows *they* like and are fans of, like Breaking Bad. So I think that has elevated social media efforts beyond the obligatory and canned stuff penned by marketing and PR people. It is, as Cleo notes, very organic and energetic. That makes for great reading and a great experience overall for everyone involved.

I am curious as to how this will affect the studio/executive process in the coming years. Certainly there's that legal aspect of course, but I'm thinking of how the showrunners etc. who are out there really engaging with the people who watch *while* they're watching will incorporate that into how they conceive and present their product. I don't mean, "Oh, no one liked this character this week so we'll dump him right away!" (although that's a possibility of course) but more...it's like historically there's been such a distance between what gets made and the people who watch it/give feedback. Now we're all in the same pool, kind of on the same level basically, so with a lot of intelligent discussion happening from both sides, how will viewing trends/quirks/insights filter through to the next showrunner coming up with an idea and pitching it to a studio, and how creating that product might change from how it's done traditionally?
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Post  Putli Bai Mon Oct 07, 2013 5:57 pm

I have zero interest in the social media aspect of television shows, which didn't strike me as odd until I read this thread. Mostly because I LOVE a good DVD commentary, and in the past have purchased movies specifically to get at the commentary track. But at the same time, I just want to watch television, you know? I don't need homework. One of the reasons I bailed on LOST was because of all the extra non-show material I was expected to hunt for.
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Post  sagitare Tue Oct 08, 2013 1:44 pm

On point for this discussion: Twitter plays TV card in bid to jolt revenue. The article talks about the engagement between viewers/content creators, and there's a really interesting bit in there about Nielsen using Twitter data to compile "Twitter TV Ratings".
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Post  Arabella Tue Oct 08, 2013 8:30 pm

Nielsen's released their first week of Twitter TV Ratings already. They're separate from the TV viewing figures. The metrics are:

  • Tweets - Tweets ascribed to a linear TV episode.
  • Unique Authors – Unique Twitter accounts that have sent at least one Tweet ascribed to a specific TV episode.
  • Impressions - The number of times any Tweets ascribed to a TV episode were seen.
  • Unique Audience – The total number of distinct Twitter accounts accruing at least one impression of one or more different Tweets ascribed to a TV episode.


The Top 5 for last week (Monday-Sunday) are:

1. Scandal
2. Miley: The Movement
3. Saturday Night Live
4. The Voice (Tuesday)
5. The Voice (Monday)

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Post  vwlphb Mon Nov 04, 2013 8:41 pm

Orlando Jones continues to be amazing on tumblr. I think it helps that he's a comedian, so his posts are genuinely funny. He seems to tread the line between a purely personal tumblr and a quasi-official tumblr - it seems to just be something he does to amuse himself, but he still provides the occasional cast photo, promo, etc.

But he linked to a post about whether Teen Wolf Social Media has lost its edge, which I thought was really interesting and relevant to this thread. I agree with the article that social media works when the people who run it are genuinely fans, because that rings through, but that it needs to evolve. Along those lines, I'm not sure we've talked about Agent M Loves Tacos, who is basically the Official Marvel Fanboy.

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Post  RiverThames Wed Nov 13, 2013 4:18 pm

Over on the AVClub, in the reviews for Awkward., Lauren Iungerich is in the comments section constantly with thoughts and comments and squeeing, and you get the impression she would be the biggest, dorkiest Tumblr-and-Fanfic-Postingest fangirl of the show EVER, were it not for the fact that she's the executive producer.

It's oddly refreshing to see a complete lack of the usual PR-filtered interaction, and just someone talking about the show that they love.
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