Recently an article questioned how social media could get more people to tune in to TV shows. That’s understandable, as prime time viewers are falling fast. Almost as many people watched the singing marriage proposal on YouTube than watched the season finale of Glee. But trying to drive people from social media back to TV seems like swimming upstream. If more people are engaging in a TV show genre online than via primetime broadcast, why not move the TV show to the social sphere entirely?

Why not create characters that, instead of interacting once a week for 37 minutes, are constantly interacting via social media? That way you could follow your characters in ”real time” as they exchange conversations, interact and have lives that we could follow throughout the day. Most of us keep up with the dramas that unfold in the 24 hour news cycle because we’re interested. How many people would follow the 24 hour cycle of their favorite entertainment story? Maybe more than are currently tuning in once a week. It would blur the lines between books and TV. Game of Thrones would be an ongoing story with full coverage of each character’s story. We could watch some of it. Read about other parts.

Can you do the same for your brand? Can you give people things to engage with on an ongoing basis? Hopefully people interact with your brand more than once a week in their own lives, so why not give them ways to engage a bit more? To update an old advertising adage: People engage in what interests them. Sometimes it’s a brand.

Topics: 24-hour news cycle, game of thrones, Glee, Social media, Twitter, YouTube