Months have passed. Winter has come and gone. But this past Sunday, April 24th, Game of Throne finally aired its Season 6 premiere.
Is Jon Snow alive? Is Arya really blind? Did Khaleesi reunite with Tyrion to work their way towards Westeros? These are all questions for the showrunners, but here at Engagement Labs, we’re interested in how the show ruled the kingdom of social media marketing.
Putting fans through an excruciating hiatus, did Game of Thrones manage to keep the speculation and excitement high with the help of social media?
The Iron Throne was not far out of the TV show’s reach on Facebook, as its eValue score on he channel gradually increased through the first part of 2016 as the premiere date approached.
Peaks in the show’s Facebook eValue score corresponded with exciting new content being posted on their channel:
- The announcement of the season premiere date took place on January 7th, which was followed by an increase in eValue score to 81.44
- Posting behind-the-scenes pictures of the new season in mid-February, the eValue score once again soared, peaking at 87.41 in mid-February
- Releasing the season’s first trailer on March 8th, the channel saw its eValue score rise to 89.46 in the days following
The week leading up to the premiere saw the channel’s’ eValue score rise to 95.68 as the channel released more trailers and promotional materials that encouraged fans to translate their itching anticipation into likes, shares and comments.
Similar to the Stark family, the TV show’s Twitter channel couldn’t always catch a break with its eValue score fluctuating significantly throughout the hiatus.
Posting similar content on Twitter as they did on Facebook, peaks in the Twitter eValue score correlated to new content that spiked engagement on the channel:
- The announcement of the premiere date on January 7th saw the Twitter score peak to 90.84 that same weekend
- Behind-the-scenes images tagging the stars in the tweets saw the eValue score jump up to 95.69 in mid and late-February
- The trailer release on March 8th, was the most engaged post on the channel, resulting in the channel’s eValue score rising to 90.05
While tempted to blame the dips in eValue score on the Lannisters, these changes can be attributed to the real-time nature of the channel. Fans on Twitter tend to interact immediately, as Twitter content easily gets lost in news feeds, whereas content on other channels such as Facebook have much longer shelf-life
Within recent weeks though, the show’s eValue score had begun to dip, indicating that the show was losing its grip on its social media crown.
1 more day. #GoTSeason6 pic.twitter.com/fXadUKFYRf
— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) April 23, 2016
As the premiere date approached, the show took advantage of the channel’s real-time nature to post new promotional material counting down to the premiere that amplified fan engagement and drove the score upwards.
The show’s Instagram channel was the underdog in the battle for the social media throne, showcasing the largest growth in eValue score over the course of 2016, by beginning the year at 48.61 and rising to 81.77 as the premiere date loomed.
Due to Instagram’s visual nature, the TV show’s content strategy on the channel had been different, with the channel’s posts centered around the Game of Thrones’ Funko toy line; less focus was placed on promotional materials such as trailers and behind-the-scenes looks.
While the show experienced increased engagement and fan activity as the hiatus progressed, once the premiere approached, the channel’s eValue score dropped.
To avoid such drops in scores, especially at critical times as the season premiere, the channel should consider posting more promotional material and non-toy related content so as to ensure anticipation is at a high when the show is both on and off the airwaves.
The Closing Coronation
As we saw with Game of Thrones, maintaining your hold on the social media crown is a much bigger battle, especially during off-seasons.
Developing and creating fresh content to push out regularly will ensure your brand stays top of mind for fans even during a hiatus. Invested fans love teasers and an opportunity to showcase their support online, so play on that willingness.
After all, when you play the game of social media, your fans’ responses to your content can ultimately determine whether you’ll claim the throne. The last thing anyone wants is a social media Red Wedding...
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About eValue™:
The eValue™ score measures the effectiveness of a brand’s overall social media performance on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram and provides a score from 0 - 100. It’s the aggregate of the three subscores including Engagement, Impact, and Responsiveness that work together to create one top-level KPI. Our subscores are calculated by using hundreds of sub metrics which are then benchmarked against a hand-picked database of 75,000 verified brand accounts on each channel.
Engagement: Measures the level of interaction generated by your content and how well your community reacts to it.
Impact: Measures how many unique users have potentially been exposed to a piece of content posted by the channel’s admin through organic, viral and paid reach.
Responsiveness: Measures the rate, speed and quality of your responses to fans.
