The goal of the Community Management aspect of the Gossip Girl campaign was to make fans feel as though the online entity portrayed on television was behind the handle liking and commenting with them online. Emulating the voice, writing style, and higher than thou energy, we made sure to upkeep the illusion of a Upper East Side vigilante by entering conversations that were relevant to that elite group, both inside and outside of the show.
In the pre-season our community management style began by re-invigorating the Gossip Girl pages that had existed since the first rendition of the series. Twitter and Facebook were home base to over a million fans worldwide each. After years of silence, we began to comment on happenings across the web from the Gossip Girl handle on things that we knew she, and those like her would care about. For example, New York Fashion week headlines, Paris Hilton’s engagement, to name a few. This caught the eye of many and spread the word that Gossip Girl was back. As the season got underway the Community Management plan became more robust by implementing the following:
Voice: To achieve the Gossip Girl voice online that was developed on the show we had to study how the entity spoke in the reboot version of the show as well as in the original. We had to incorporate her air of moral superiority, balance her disgust as well as fascination for the upper class, and extend that to something we have never seen Gossip Girl do in the past– interact directly with her fans. Which made getting a response from Gossip Girl, something of a badge of honor amongst the audience.
Text Gossip Girl: Who is Gossip Girl without her infamous blasts? Utilizing the Community app, we set up a phone number where fans can text Gossip Girl. She could send out juicy blasts, ask questions, and drop hints on upcoming episodes. These worked to further immerse the audience in the show.
Close Friends: In order to execute our vision for who belonged on the Close Friends list for Gossip Girl we had to first ascertain who was talking about the cannon online, including the reboot, before the premiere– and had the following. After gathering a list of people who emulated an “NYC elite” air, as well as relevant authorities on the subject, including editors who followed the GG beat, we began to feed them all tidbits of information about the forthcoming series. As suspected, articles, group chats, tweets, and story reposts began sprouting up with “leaks” of the information that was only meant for our “inner circle”, but Gossip Girl knows the best kept secret is one that everyone eventually finds out.
The result of extending the television entity of Gossip Girl’s voice onto our social campaign resulted in a lot of buzz from news outlets. The general consensus from the public was that the reboot feels like a genuine attempt to extend the greatness of the original into the reboot. As the revival of Gossip Girl pages was one the first indications that something in the world of New York City’s elite was being reborn. It left a great impression on fans that the ethos of the new gossip girl- however questionable- will still be intact. Furthermore it created something for fans to look forward to, because GG was with them in real time giving them the inside scoop of New York’s elites. Paying close attention to her real time comments may give fans just the slightest bit more insight above the rest.
