HBO’s wildly popular show ‘Girls’ premiered their third season on Sunday night after extensively using social media to promote the new season. Many brands and television shows have used Facebook and Twitter to reach out to fans and promote themselves, but ‘Girls’ went above and beyond to create a complete social marketing scheme. Companies take note, because ‘Girls’ is doing it right!
Here are five ways ‘Girls’ used social media to promote their new season.
1. Instagram
Hype for the third season began with the release of a YouTube teaser trailer. The show, based on 20-somethings in New York, tailors their trailer to their target audience by simply showing a series of Instagram photos taken during production.
Instagram is a simple way to show behind the scenes aspects of your brand. The pictures can not only show up in follower’s Instagram feed, but can also be tweeted, posted on Facebook, or even used to produce a video. ‘Girls’ helps to show how Instagram pictures can be leveraged through several different social mediums to reach fans and potential customers.
2. Snapchat
The official ‘Girl’s’ twitter account announced the creation of a Snapchat account just over a week before the premiere. Soon Snapchats were sent out giving clues for the next season while also highlighting favorite parts from previous episodes.
Brands can use Snapchat to send out a mass picture to their followers to show a more personalized view of the brand. It also allows fans to tweet screenshots to show how much they are connected to their favorite brand. As a more recent addition to social media, the first brands to leverage Snapchat will be able to show their true understanding of social media.
3. Seemless
Seemless, a food delivery website, sent out a tweet along with an email to their users late Sunday afternoon offering 15% off orders for the ‘Girls’ premiere. The excitement for ordering food during the premiere along with the Golden Globes and the Chargers v. Broncos game actually crashed the website for a portion of the evening.
A great way for brands to reach new fans is to join up with another relevant company on social media. Pairings like a television show and a food delivery website can help both brands expand their audiences. ‘Girls’ demonstrated how if the pairing is done correctly, the results can be overwhelming. Make sure to learn from Seemless and anticipate the possibility of a large response to avoid any kind of backlash for not being able to handle the joint effort.
4. YouTube
Potential viewers of ‘Girls’ can forgo paying for the HBO subscription because the first two episodes are on YouTube for four weeks, which already have 120,511 and 71,513 views respectively. The release on YouTube will not only help to catch the attention of new viewers, but also will allow current viewers to catch up on the season after its premiere on such a popular Sunday night.
Giving away something free to fans can help the popularity of a brand. If the brand doesn’t have television episodes to give away, YouTube can still be effective medium to detail giveaways in a more interesting type of post that can be repurposed for both twitter and Facebook.
5. Twitter
The official HBO ‘Girls’ twitter account is as active as most accounts to publicize a brand. ‘Girls’ uses this account to bring together all of their other social media efforts. Some of the Snapchats sent to fans were tweeted out to followers and a link to the first two episodes on YouTube was also tweeted.
Twitter is a great place to connect all of your social media efforts. If you are trying out a new social medium, make sure all your Twitter followers know and can continue to follow you on the newest platform.
Social media always changes quickly. While Facebook and Twitter are essential, brands should look into new and interesting ways to reach their target audiences. ‘Girls’ effort to promote their third season shows how a creative social media plan can enhance the excitement among your target audience for a new release or product.