Swooon launched in October 2024 as a branch of TV Insider to focus on romance across television, film, books, and more. The Instagram (@swooondotcom) was central to the launch plan, with goals of community and shareable content for our growing following. Romance novel adaptations are one of the pillars of Swooon, and The Summer I Turned Pretty was one of the biggest social shows of 2025. We set out to engage with the show week-to-week with content based on key moments in each episode. Our strategy was to drive engagement, impressions, conversation, and community among viewers of The Summer I Turned Pretty online every week.
Each week, when a new episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty dropped, the social team was dedicated to watching in the early hours of the morning and grabbing engaging images from buzzy moments to use for that week’s posts. The team would ideate together on what we thought fans would care about the most from the episode with the goal of creating shareable content. We wanted fans to look at the posts, laugh, and share them with their friends. For the final season, screener access was limited, so we could not plan the posts in advance. We had to work quickly after each episode drop to become some of the first The Summer I Turned Pretty posts viewers would encounter in their post-episode scroll. We focused on fast, community-geared content.
The Summer I Turned Pretty revolves around a love triangle between a girl (Belly) and two brothers (Jeremiah and Conrad). Swooon took a side in the triangle, standing firmly on Team Conrad. By choosing a team, we were able to engage with the fandom on a more specific and humorous level, just as if we were one of them — and many members of our team were! Swooon’s social voice is the voice of the team — snarky, funny, friendly, and, most importantly, Team Conrad. Swooon was a part of your groupchat that live-texted every episode.
We consider this effort to be a great success. Swooon was under a year old when The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 premiered, and we saw engagement numbers comparable to much more established brands. This approach has informed the way Swooon social covers all major romance shows and book adaptations.
