Telling Stories with Twitter
by Mari Basson on 2010/05/20
Twories – telling stories with Twitter. Yup, I just made that word up. It’s a portmanteau (not a word I made up) for Twitter Stories (I also like Tweries, Twoap Opera or Twitcom). But let’s put the issue of naming things aside for now. Why should you care about so-called Twories? Because it’s slowly but surely making it’s way into your Twitter stream, and often for marketing purposes (which is why I like it – of course). It seems rather obvious that a medium for large scale conversation would be ideal for telling stories, and the blurred line between advertising and entertainment has been nothing new for ages – especially not when it comes to the online industry. You’ve probably heard of the MadMen tweets and if you haven’t been following any of them, here’s a break down of what you’ve been missing:
Peep Show
The Peep Show is a TV series which has been gracing British screens since 2003. But, more recently, the Peep Show came to fans via Twitter. This was used to promote the latest season. Basically the creators of the show created a Twitter handle for each of the main characters, Jez , Mark, SuperHans, Johnson and Sophie. These characters constantly interacted with each other with the usual banter you can expect from the Peep Show.
Nurse Jackie
With Nurse Jackie’s return to TV for a second season, the clever writer behind the hit show bridged the gap between TV and Internet, posting Dr Cooper’s real time comments to Twitter.
Choose your own Twitter Adventure
This concept is by far my favourite – but admittedly the execution is terribly bland. Twitter user Peretti allows his followers to choose their own adventure. This is like Goosebumps all over again. With a simple click, followers choose between two actions. Ultimately you either fail or accomplish your mission.
The Big Bang Theory
To increase the visibility of the popular sitcom, the characters from Big Bang Theory all had a Twitter handle from which “they” tweeted their usual antics.
One of the characters from the Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper, is active on Twitter.
Zac16 Tweets
On top of the popularity of Tampax’s conceptual blog, Zac16, a well established Twitter profile for the character has also been added to the campaign. Through Twitter and his blog a young boy tells his tale of turning into a girl and the daily challenges he’s faced with.
And a few others: The TwitLitters
My guess is that people you follow purely for entertainment purposes make up a substantial amount of the people you follow. And it’s no surprise – we want to be entertained and writers immediately saw the potential. I found a few so-called TwitLitters who aren’t intimidated by 140 characters. So pop these into your followers list – it’s sure to make your stream a bit more entertaining.
- SixWordStories – stories told in six words as inspired by Hemingway’s challenge.
- Matt Richtel’s Twiller - author of the novel Hooked and NY Times business and technology journalist tells a thriller with Twitter.
- MyLifein140 - Nikki Katz, a fictional sixteen-year-old, learns that she can change her world by editing photos in the school’s Yearbook room.
- Fuel Dump - Monk screenwriter, Tom Scharpling just began this microblogging book in December. He also tags his tweets with #FD.
- David Miller. A senior editor with Matador, an interactive travel magazine and online community, David began his Twitter novel in December.
- Who Dunit 140 - A Twitter Mystery novel.
- The Twitter of Oz - “What if the main characters in the Wizard of Oz were on Twitter?” Here all the main Wizard of Oz characters tweet their experiences in real time.
- Adrift calls itself “serialised micro-fiction”, and presents “the story of a father trying to find his daughter”.
- Mr. Harder offers an attempt to collaboratively tweet a story (I get the impression that Adrift involves only one author). Those who wish to collaborate on the story are instructed to “just reply at @storytweeting via Twitter, and their part of the story is added!” At the time I put together this post, the story had 27 writers and 32 entries.
- The Story So Far - a collaborative story writing project using Twitter. Simply tweet @storysofar to suggest the next line, and you can vote for the line you like best. At the end of the day the votes are tallied and the winning line is retweeted.
Story So Far is a collaborative story writing project based on Twitter messages.
All a bit gimmicky – yes, but I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of these pop up. Imagine what great stories can be found and told behind our favourite brands. And even if we don’t, twories illustrate a few basics in Social Media marketing – especially on Twitter. Be short, sweet and interesting.
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