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How do Drama shows use Twitter?

"What should Toadie do?" It's the right question to spur social media interactivity, says Twitter.

While Reality TV shows have harnessed use of Twitter extremely well, different strategies may need to be employed for other genres.

One Drama show using Twitter creatively is ELEVEN’s Neighbours.

According to Twitter itself, Drama fans check into Twitter before a show starts, then may interact during a commercial break and return after the show ends.

Tony Broderick Head of TV Partnerships says Neighbours has adapted well to this trend.

“This is a first for any Australian drama. It’s an impressive innovation from a TV series in its 30th season on air, and shows that the residents of Ramsay Street can still teach the television industry some new tricks,” he writes.

“During the broadcast of each episode, a conversation-starter question with the #Neighbours hashtag is posed to viewers at each of the three commercial breaks. The same question is also Tweeted during the broadcast from the @Neighbours Twitter account, accompanied by a relevant photo from the storyline.”

“By focusing the Twitter conversation on a particular plot point, @Neighbours is successfully increasing discussion and engagement around the most interesting stories and characters.”

According to Broderick’s own Twitter handle, he is a ‘FremantleMedia alumni,’ (so there could be a hint of favouritism), but it’s still a good insight into the challenges and solutions available to drama shows in harnessing social media activity.

And just in case anyone was thinking about it, I dare say we are all agreed we don’t want Twitter comments popping up through our drama shows. Let’s not go there!

7 Responses

  1. I like when an actor or actress live tweets a drama show. Best example I know is Virginia Gay who live tweets every weeks Winners and Losers. Although I can’t join in live, living in Perth, she usually hangs around to answer Perth ppls tweets. Its a lot of fun!

  2. Tying Twitter into real-time broadcast of TV shows is great but if you’re not in Eastern Standard Time it’s probably not much fun. And this applies to all networks Twitter feeds, they’re mostly all centred around Sydney and/or Melbourne. Sure they are the largest markets but they are not the only ones.

    I assume most of these tweets are pre-programmed in advance so just put in a duplicate set for each timezone and just preface them with “EST”, “CST” or “WST” or something like that. Let all the country engage in the social media conversation.

  3. Talking about Twitter Usage….. Was that poll on Sunday Night actually Live?
    Chris Bath never actually referred to the figures. She just said the vote was “roughly split down the middle”. Looked a bit suss to me

  4. Neighbours is setting new trends for Aussie shows. First the Twitter questions during the ad breaks then the Hulu deal. I bet other Aussie dramas will do something similar.

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