Twitter

From Super-wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

History

It is ironic that given the very thing that brought Twitter broad public notice during 2008 was the ability of people to follow the Tweets of celebrities – that is, to be fans. Stargate Atlantis fandom arguably had the earliest presence back in 2007 when actor David Hewlett began tweeting.

In 2008, a number of Supernatural fans began getting Twitter accounts. They often translocated with them the fannish relationships they had from other social network sites, and the first presence of Supernatural fandom on Twitter was primarily through these pre-established circles.

Over the first months of 2009, Twitter became a reproduction in miniature of the broader fannish netscape: some Twitter accounts set up like fan sites (@_supernatural_), or by media companies (@buddytv). The success of celebrity twitters was mirrored in a form of role-playing twitters both of the show characters (like @deanwinchester & @IAmCastiel) as well as the actors. These were more like LARP (live-action role playing) games than the traditional internet roleplayers because of the interaction with people outside of the game. In the case of faux celebrity twitters, however, many Twitter followers assumed them to be the real thing, thus resulting in the line between role playing and impersonation being blurred. (See "Beware of Imitations"below for deliberate impersonators)

The immediacy of Twitter combined with the ability to tag posts with a subject was exploited in a new way for Supernatural fandom when, in March 2009, a few fans tweeted reports of events at the Salute to Supernatural L.A. 2009. As news of this spread across fan sites, people started following their updates and tweeting in response.

For the next Con, All Hell Breaks Loose (held in Sydney, Australia in April 2009), the Supernatural Wiki asked for people who may be tweeting from the Con to list their Twitter name at the Con page on the SuperWiki. In addition, it was suggested that a tag (#ahbl) was to be used in Tweets, which meant people didn't have to “follow” every individual tweeting, they could just search for tweets containing the tag. It was hugely successful, even though in Australia at the time Twitter accounts could not be updated via SMS from phones, only directly via the internet.

Tweeting has now become usual practice at Cons. By using the tag, fans can not only follow events live from the Con, by using the tag, the search stream also acts as a virtual chat room. At Asylum 2009, the tag #asylum was so popular it hit the trending topics list for Twitter a number of times over the weekend.

Fandom is now well established on Twitter. It was an important part of the efforts in November 2010 that saw fans voting to win Supernatural the cover of TV Guide.

Jim Beaver was the first Supernatural actor on Twitter - not surprisingly as Jim had long been active on both MySpace and Facebook. His followers are now commonly referred to as "Twidgits."

In May 2009, Misha Collins started using Twitter and this drew many more Supernatural fans to the site. Misha has used his Twitter as a form of role playing by creating an on-line persona whose followers are known as "Misha's Minions." This was parodied in Supernatural episode 6.15 The French Mistake, where a twitter-happy Misha referred to his followers as "Mishamigos." See also Misha on Twitter

Other cast members have also nicknamed their follows - Traci Dinwiddie (@GrooveGoddess) calls her's Tweedlebugs. Richard Speight Jr. who joined twitter in December, 2010 dubbed his followers "Twicksters."

Jared joined twitter in June 2011. He has dubbed his followers Moosekateers. See also Jared on Twitter.

Trending Topics

September 7th, 2009
In the lead up to the start of Season 5, @SuperWiki started ending tweets with #luciferiscoming and suggested fans to do the same as a mischievous way to get attention for the show. In the 24 hours leading up to the premiere of Season 5, thanks to some insomniac and Antipodean fans, the tag started trending as general traffic on Twitter died down, as midnight passed on the West Coast of the US and Europe had yet to wake up. Passionate fans tweeted tirelessly, & the tags #luciferiscoming and #supernatural got to first and second position on the trending topics list.

 
Supernatural Fandom pwns Twitter

However, despite fans posting links to Supernatural sites, many other Tweeters were unaware of the reason for the #luciferiscoming tag and thinking Satanists were at work, started responding with messages about Jesus & God.

A full blown religious conflict broke out when Rapper Puff Daddy (@iamdiddy, who has over a million followers), unaware of the context of #luciferiscoming made up a #Godishere tag in retaliation.

Then, Twitter stopped posts with tags including both #luciferiscoming & #Godishere from appearing in trending topics. Fans continued to use #supernatural and #inkripkewetrust and both also reached high on the list.

Just before the season premiere aired, Misha Collins joined the game & suggested fans another tag : #PDIDDYISSCAREDOFHISTV. He also posted a manip mocking P.Diddy & Twitter's reactions.

 
manip posted by Misha Collins on Twitter of P.Diddy & Mr Twitter

Traci Dinwiddie tweeted after the premiere to say:

Kripke and all were blown away by the SPN fandom's "tweeter take-over"! It was the buzz of the evening! Well done, #Supernatural! xoxo

The next day, Twitter (coincidentally) released new Terms of Service.



January 21, 2010
Following the end of year hiatus, fans from the CW Lounge had chosen a tag celebrating Supernatural's return : #theboysareback. Word was spread through Twitter & #theboysareback started trending early on the morning of 21st, and rose as high as #5. #hellodeath, an alternative tag used mainly by members of ONTD SPNParty from LJ also registered but didn't trend. Following the episode airing, #pudding was also popular for a short time.

 

February 17th, 2010
Following the announcement of Supernatural's renewal for a sixth season, fans' excited response saw #Supernatural trend to #5 on Twitter.

November 19th, 2010
On the night 6.09 Clap Your Hands If You Believe... aired, #FightTheFairies trended on Twitter. Similar to when #LuciferIsComing trended and caused much confusion, some on Twitter thought the hashtag was a homophobic slur. Ben Edlund who wrote the episode, mentioned the incident at Paleyfest in March 2011. video of Ben talking about Fight the Fairies.

 

February 25, 2011
The night of the airing of 6.15 The French Mistake Misha, Kripke and #MetaMadness trended on Twitter.



 

March 1, 2011
On Jensen Ackles's birthday, his name trended for almost the entire day. Friend Steve Carlson commented on his Twitter "Wow, Jensen Ackles is a worldwide trend?! Trying to convince him he needs an account now. Pretty sure he'll respond 2 peer pressure :)" Source


April 29 2011 After 6.19 Mommy Dearest aired, Jefferson Starships trended on Twitter.


May 6, 2011
On the night 6.20 The Man Who Would Be King aired, Castiel trended on Twitter.

May 20, 2011
On the night 6.21 Let It Bleed and 6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much aired, Supernatural trended worldwide, while Castiel trended in the US, UK and Canada. Balthazar also appeared on the US trending list briefly.

June 5, 2011
Jared Padalecki trended after he announced he had joined Twitter at Salute to Supernatural Nashville 2011‎.

September 30, 2011
On the night 7.02 Hello, Cruel World aired, watch Supernatural trended on Twitter.
January 6, 2012
On the night the midseason premiere 7.11 Adventures in Babysitting aired several Supernatural related topics trended worldwide.

Watch And Tweet Week

May 3rd to 7th, 2010
The CW introduced Watch And Tweet Week. Television viewers were offered a chance to tweet with cast members of their favorite CW show during the week’s episode.

Misha Collins tweeted from 9:00-10:00pm ET. on May 6 during Supernatural’s 5.21 Two Minutes to Midnight. See Misha on Twitter for a transcript of his tweets.

Beware of imitations

There have been a number of Twitter accounts claiming to be Jensen Ackles & Jared Padalecki, ever since Twitter has been around. Although most seem quite obviously fake, they collect many thousands of followers. In August 2009, the two major accounts "impersonating" Jensen and Jared were suspended from Twitter, although new versions pop up periodically.

Since late 2009, Twitter has a system whereby celebrities can have their accounts "verified" to confirm their identity.

In January 2010, Jensen & Jared's bodyguard Clif Kosterman joined the Twitterverse as @bodyguard4JandJ and started working to expose frauds.

Later that month, Jared & Jensen posted a video via Winchesterbros.com, confirming they are not on any online social media. This was prompted by stories of fans being lured into meeting with people posing as them through Twitter. (Due to the quality and style of the video it became colloquially known as "the hostage video" in fandom). Later Genevieve Padalecki released a similar video also through Winchesterbros.com.

As of June 2011, Jared is on Twitter. See also Jared on Twitter. As of August 2014, Jensen is on Twitter.


Twitter in Supernatural

  • 6.15 The French Mistake: Misha Collins spent a lot of time on Twitter in the episode, and at one point he tweets "Ola mishamigos! J2 got me good. Really starting to feel like one of the guys." Just to really mess with our mind, the real Misha actually sent that tweet as the line aired in the US east coast run of the episode (Source). Misha Collins and Misha also both tweeted "IMHO j&j had a late one last night. Rotflmfao!" (Source). After both these tweets, Misha then relates, "My phone was stolen and apparently cast into a parallel universe devoid of magic. I've retrieved it. I promise it won't happen again" (Source). All three tweets were retweeted by over 100 people in a matter of hours and then vanished from Misha's twitter feed. A few hours later, they were reposted, but the direct links to the original tweets still work.

The words: #Misha, #metamadness and #kripke all made it into the Top Ten Trending Topics as the episode went to air.

Supernatural Tweeters

The following Twitter accounts are ones of interest to Supernatural fans.

  • @SuperWiki - Supernatural Wiki: news, trivia, pics & still spoiler free!

Check the Convention pages for hashtags used during Cons. See also Twitter Role Playing Accounts.

See Nicknames for the names given to followers of various Twitter accounts.

Actors

We've included only actors with a recurring role, Con attendees or with a significant connection to the fandom, rather than every actor who's appeared on Supernatural.

Musicians

Writers & Crew



Supernatural Fan sites

Media sites, TV critics, bloggers and publicists

There are a seemingly endless number of media blogs and sites, these are writers and sites with a particular interest in Supernatural

Retrieved from "http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=Twitter&oldid=177366"