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New Girl references Battlestar Galactica. Woooh!

(Source: thisnerdisinanothercastle)

Going viral: Using social media to enhance a show’s popularity

Using tie-ins in order to garner attention and attract new fans to television shows is nothing new. ‘The Monkees’ were doing it in the 60s. But using social media to do this is a trend that is growing in popularity.

Television shows like ‘How I Met Your Mother’ have been doing it for years.

First came Barney’s Blog, part of the CBS website, and then came the release of the Bro Code, a book written by Neil Patrick Harris’ character Barney Stinson. But where the show has really flourished is in website development. Whenever a character on the show mentions a website by name, the creative team behind the scenes builds that website.

For instance, there is  TedMosbyisaJerk.com, CanadianSexActs.org, GradeMyTeacher.net (an obvious tip of the hat to the real RateMyProfessor.com), and LilyandMarshallSellTheirStuff.com, a website that was used on the show to sell Lily’s clothes but was a real auction of show memorabilia where the proceeds went to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

For a time there was a running countdown clock at SlapCountdown.com. The clock ran down to zero during the episode “Slapsiving’ in which Marshall’s own clock hit zero. There is another countdown clock at TheSlapBetCountdown.com that is scheduled to reach zero May 6, 2013 17:27, which coincides with one of the final episodes of season 8. On the show, Marshall also created ItWastheBestNightEver.com, which featured a video he made about a night spent with Lily, Barney and Robin.

To read more about social media and how TV shows like ‘True Blood’ and ‘New Girl’ are using it, click here!