Social Entertainment Gold

Social entertainment is a fairly recent concept that has been implemented as a source of engaging consumers via social media platforms.  Engagement includes creating an interactive environment where the consumer, viewer, gamer, etc. can interact with the show, game, music video or other media driven outlet. Social entertainment goes hand-in-hand with the concept of “live Tweeting”.

One TV show that I feel has really been on the forefront of social interaction is ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars, which has broken many Twitter records, including the return of season 4, which generated more Tweets than any other season premier in TV history, pretty impressive! Since becoming such a socially driven show, the show’s producers have begun to promote different hashtags that flash on the screen as the show is on, which prompts viewers to participate in live Tweeting. This in turn fuels conversation and generates more awareness of the show, not that it needs any. Not to harp about Pretty Little Liar’s successful social media strategy, they also have been trailblazers in their tactic of having the show’s starts like Ashley Benson or Shay Mitchell Tweet live during the show and answer fans questions and comments. Shay Mitchell has had a lot of success with this and now encourages her fans to participate in this, calling it #PLLayWithShay.

But enough about Pretty Little Liars. Shall we recall Ellen DeGeneres’ recent hosting of the Oscars when she took what can inarguably be seen as the best selfie of all time? The picture, which was taken by the stunning Bradley Cooper, also included Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Jared Leto, Ellen (obviously), Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Kevin Spacey, Channing Tatum, Lupita Nyong’o and her brother. With a gorgeous and talented group like that, it is no wonder that the Tweet sent out by @TheEllenShow received over 3.4 million retweets and 2 million likes, and almost instantly shut down Twitter for over 20 minutes during the Oscars, yes shutting it down! This interactivity with Ellen and the Oscars viewers is a classic example of social entertainment and also helped to reap benefits by creating even more buzz for the event, again, not that it was needed, but still. This epic selfie not only created attention for the Oscars as an event but also for Samsung, which was the type of phone that Bradley Cooper shot the picture with, major win!

For those of you who havn't seen this epic selfie
(which would honestly be weird since it is EVERYWHERE), here it is!
Photo cred to Ellen's Twitter @TheEllenShow