A social media scandal

Over the past few years some television shows have attempted to start some social media buzz by displaying  a hashtag at the bottom corner of the screen during the show to encourage viewers to tweet about funny or poignant moments.  Last spring, one show did this will phenomenal success and now some say the show's success is due to its widely successful social media campaign.  That show is ABC's Scandal. 

Last January during pivotal and dramatic episodes of the series, the show promoted two hashtags and viewers tweeted by the thousands.  These hashtags, #whoshotfitz and #whatthehuck were visibly promoted as part of the shows advertising and both trended worldwide.  Scandal's social media team also created the hashtag #askscandal in which viewers could ask questions about the show, watch live tweeting events, or just connect with other fans.  This hashtag alone has been mentioned in up to 2200 tweets per minute and it is estimated that the show has generated a total of over 4.3 million tweets.

The series has continued its success this fall and many credit the successful social media campaign for the continued high ratings.  Although many television shows gain viewers by word of mouth, the internet and specifically twitter have made it simple for thousands of viewers to promote the show to millions in a matter of seconds.  Reportedly, even media mogul Oprah Winfrey first heard about the show on twitter and has become a devoted viewer.