In the past production companies have only had one means by which to access their viewership. Yet recently, the more progressive channels have sought to employ a secondary means by which to engage their viewers – Social Media. While not yet adopted by all channels or programs, a select few TV shows effectively employ the use of social media to maintain access to their viewers.

 

The musical show, Glee, has been able to access a young and progressive demographic using social media. They have used a number of tools, the first of which being twitter. The actors in Glee freequently tweet during the show’s airtime in order to engage their viewers. With this direct access to the opinions and personalities of their favorite characters, the viewers feel a level of connectivity to the actors and the community as a whole.

Pretty Little Liars, is another great example of a TV show that is using social media to its advantage. It is the most tweeted show of all time at the moment also having its actors and producers active users of Twitter. The show has developed its own personal web series that runs off of the original show and attracts a wide range of viewers. The show uses sneak peaks and behind the scene photos and clips to keep the audience engaged and watching from week to week.

Last American Idol a very popular reality singing compitition TV show, uses social media to make the audience feel that they are more a part of the show. They have their viewers call and text their votes on who they believe should win the competition, then their votes lead to the winner of the entire thing. The show also uses Twitter and Facebook to show real peoples thoughts on the performers and how they believe they performed overall.

A strategy that networks are proving to be successful at is having more social media outlets towards the opening and finale of the shows season. Social media not only helps attract more viewers to the show but also helps keep viewers interested from week to week. ANy TV show or network targeting the younger audience should be using these social media tactics if they want their show to be successful.