#TrueBlood on Twitter

HBO recognizes the value of fan participation “a key means of securing audience loyalty,” and they encourage audiences to fully engage with the alternate reality (Ytreberg 469). Even though the television platform draws the largest audience, web platforms are growing quickly in relative importance since they facilitate fan participation. Twitter is one of the most important web platforms for True Blood.

@TrueBloodHBO uses Twitter in a few different ways:

• They promote and advertise True Blood products in a more traditional way by tweeting about new products and merchandise, sales, and related events.
  • TrueBloodHBO: Pre-order #TrueBlood Season 3 from the HBO Shop by 5/31 and get a FREE bonus disc shipped right away. SHOP: http://itch.bo/hFsWWY
  • TrueBloodHBO: Contaminated Tru Blood wreaks havoc in #TrueBlood Tainted Blood Comic Book Issue 1, a new series. ORDER: http://itsh.bo/gpwAlj

• During Season 2, HBO took part in the Twitter roleplay via the voice of @bontempsgossip: a gossipy character in BonTemps commenting on the story as the episodes air and offering some spoilers for followers
  • BonTempsGossip: Friend of a friend = receptionist at vet office. Said Laf. Called asking for an appt. Did he get Swine Flu wherever he went?
  • BonTempsGossip: Dirt from bday party still comin out: New waitress and Sam got down. Tara and Eggs disappeared early from party. Guess they're going strong.

• @TrueBloodHBO uses Twitter to engage fans by encouraging participation and interacting with the community.
  • Their use of True Blood hashtags encourages fans to tweet in a similar way e.g. #waitingsucks #tbwithdrawal #secretlyavampire #fangfriday (like #followfriday #fanfriday or #ff)
  • Memorable #TrueBloodQuotes are tweeted for entertainment. This also encourages fans to tweet other favourite quotes from the show.
  • By linking to spoilers, polls, videos, interviews, and their new blog (inside the production of Season 4), they are collaborating distributing news with the fans.
  • They facilitate Twitter contests and givaways, and as they retweet, they comment on fan tweets.
    • TrueBloodHBO: Because #waitingsucks. Your WEDNESDAY WORD OF THE DAY is: amnesia. Use it in a sentence, tag #trueblood. If we RT, you = swagged.
  • They tweet using trending tags but add a True Blood spin. For example, on Justin Beiber's birthday, #happy17thbdaybiebs was trending.
    •  TrueBloodHBO: You haven't aged a bit. Perhaps you're #secretlyavampire? #happy17thbdaybiebs

TrueBlood Fans on Twitter

Twitter is one point of entry into the virtual True Blood fan community. With new media forms like Twitter, True Blood becomes part of fans' daily lives and creates “a cross-over between the real world and an imaginary or fictional world” (Roig et al 93). For many fans, following a few characters and spoiler tweets is enough to satisfy their interests. For others, it's the first step leading to a RP account and group affiliation.

The True Blood fan communities on Twitter certainly fit Jenkins' description of a participatory culture (listed in my previous post). It's free to sign up for Twitter, and it's easy to learn. People are welcome to simply follow others and read their tweets, but there's incentive to become a more active member of the virtual community. Participation is socially rewarded in the fan community as users acknowledge each other's contributions by following, retweeting, replying, and direct messaging. This interaction and acknowledgement makes users feel their contributions matter. In addition, these interactions provide and opportunity for a form of informal mentorship for newbies (although this is more predominant in the smaller fan communities on forums etc.).

On Twitter, I've noticed a few main forms or fan participation:

• Twitter as a promotional vehicle for fan affiliations and expressions: links to websites, forums, blogs, fanfiction etc.  
• Twitter as a tool for collaborative spoiling: sharing links to new interviews, videos, and photos that hint at the upcoming season four.
• Twitter as a stage for roleplayers: fans acting out the role of a True Blood character by tweeting in character to other roleplayers and their followers.

Twitter has been praised as a effective new media marketing tool, a vehicle for citizen journalism, and a creative expression of fandom. The capabilities and limitations of a technology influence user behaviour, but everyone uses it in ways that suit them. @TrueBloodHBO and its fans are no exception.

 

 Follow my tweets @becomingtruebie

Roig, A. et al. “Videogame as Media Practice: An Exploration of the Intersections Between Play and Audiovisual Culture.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 15.1 (2009): 89-103. Web.  

Ytreberg, Espen. “Extended liveness and eventfulness in multi-platform reality formats.” New Media and Society 11.4 (2009): 467-485. Web.