NBC‘s spy-nerd-next-door series Chuck is once again on the bubble between renewal and cancellation. This time the show’s fans have decided to shift gears and use the power of social media in their mission to get Chuck picked up for it’s fifth season. This week, the fans have begun a twitter campaign in an effort to become more visible to the show’s advertisers.
Every Monday, according to: We Give a Chuck the fan site which is organizing the campaign, Chuck fans will simply tweet to the advertisers when they see a commercial while the show is airing. The fan site gives a list of guidelines and what to include in each 140 character tweet:
- Include the the twitter handle for both advertiser and NBC
- A mention that the ad was seen on #Chuck. The closer in time between the sent tweet and the commercial’s airing the better.
- The hashtag #NotANielsonFamily.
A sample tweet would be like: “@McDonalds just saw your ad on @NBC’s #Chuck, my reasons to live are Chuck and BigMacs! #NotANielsenFamily”
The last hashtag NotANielsenFamily represents the point the fans are trying to get across. They believe the Nielsen ratings system is faulty and isn’t presenting the fans accurately. In an email to Wired.com, co-founder Kris Schneider said,“The Nielsens are basically just a tool to tell a network and advertisers that people are watching the commercials aired during a show.” The Twitter campaign aims to do the same thing, but with better data.
Organizers have previously targeted Nielsen families in order to get them to watch the show and fans have mailed postcards to advertisers, but the twitter campaign seems to be more direct and already seems to be showing much promise. Honda and Diet Pepsi’s twitter accounts have given a positive response to this past Monday’s efforts.
The campaign’s progress, whether it succeeds or fails, may provide valuable information on social networking’s sway over the real world.
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