Star Running Back Arian Foster Quitting Twitter

 

             Arian Foster, the Houston Texans star running back has announced on Monday that he will be shutting down his twitter account. In his first four years of work Foster has been extremely impressive. Rushing for 4,521 yards and 44 touchdowns. This type of production is unbelievable for the undrafted Tennessee native. 
 Since day one in the NFL Foster has raised eye brows on and off the field. He is one of the most active athletes in the social media realm. According to NBC Sports Foster is best known for his trash talk, and crazy odd personality. His most famous tweet came when he posted an image of his MRI and described the injury in his hamstring by writing that the “white stuff surrounding the muscle is known in the medical world as anti-awesomeness.” Foster also made it known that he was a Vegan by announcing it via twitter.

           It is a sad day for a lot of followers of Foster. Hopefully we will see a comeback from Foster in social media. But could you blame him? Twitter is a great tool to connect with fans and friends but it only takes one bad tweet and you can damage your image. I think that there will be a trend with big name athletes shutting down there social media out of the simple fact that it protects them from scrutiny through the media.

 

Justin Dorow



Pretty Little Liars Knows the Secret to a Great Social Media Strategy

 In February, ABC Family’s hit Drama, Pretty Little Liars became Tuesdays most social TV program. The question is why? What tactics does this entertaining TV program use and why does it have such success?

One of the obvious reasons for the programs social media success is it’s constant activity on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to promote the series. It’s difficult to keep an audience engaged in between episodes and seasons of a TV series, but Pretty Little Liars excels at doing just that.

On Facebook Pretty Little Liars has 10,128,729 likes and they keep their fans engaged by releasing a new album each week with photos from the upcoming episode. This creates a ton of engagement; fans comment and speculate on what’s happening in the photos and what is going to happen in the next episode. Videos are also posted with previews to what’s coming next. The conversations that spawn from these posts are on a broad range of topics, from what an actress was wearing, to information on a new character. Facebook tabs are also used in an ingenious way. One of the Facebook tabs you have to “like to unlock” which unlocks a special sneak peak of the next episode if you like the Pretty Little Liars Facebook page.   

Pretty Little Liars also has fun and creative Twitter campaigns. In one instance the show launched a Twitter-based scavenger hunt, during which one of the characters tweeted – in real time from her fictional Twitter account @MonaVanderwall. She tweeted clues for discovering a video that won’t be seen in any on-air episode.

ABC Family realized there was a lag between seasons in their social media interaction. They fixed this by creating an eight-part web series that plays between seasons and will give hints of what’s to come for the following season. During the summer break of season three they launched the first web series and it was a hit, with over 3 million video views.

This may be just another teen drama, but I think this is a great example of what can be achieved with social media and is something we can learn from. Linking a television show to interaction through social media is something I believe almost every television show should practice. Why not create a space online where your audience can interact with the show itself and each other? If other television shows don’t catch on to the connection between television and social media, they will fall behind. 

-Leah Drayer 

Mumford and Sons Stopover in St. Augustine

The world famous band, Mumford and Sons, recently announced St. Augustine as one of just three U.S. stopovers for their 2013 world tour. On September 13th through the 14th, the Gentlemen of the Road tour will make their first-ever appearance in Florida for the two-day music festival.

According to Mumford and Sons, a stopover is “in towns not usually heavily toured by bands, and [to] celebrate the people, food and music that inhabit them. We’re keen to promote the town’s local businesses, and we’ll be using the local bars and venues for aftershow parties, whilst working closely with the local people to get everyone involved in making these shows spectacular.”

In addition to Mumford and Sons, the band announced Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros will be performing at the festival as well as Fun, The Vaccines, Half Moon Run, Willy Mason, Those Darlins and Bear’s Den. 

The event will be held on the Francis Field, located next to the St. Augustine parking garage. Tickets went on sale Friday, February 7th, selling at $109 a piece, and within 72 hours, the concert was completely sold out.

According to First Coast News, City Manager, John Ragan said “a task force is already in place to accommodate the 25,000 people who will descend upon a city of only 13,000+ residents.” It is estimated that all hotels in the area will be fully booked during this weekend long event.

Formed in 2007, Mumford and Sons are an English folk-rock band. The four-member all male group is composed of lead singer and guitarist, Marcus Mumford; drummer, Ben Lovett; banjo player, "Country" Winston Marshall; and guitarist, Ted Dwane.

For more information on Mumford and Sons, go to www.gentlemenoftheroad.com.

- Kelcee Mader