Saved By The Bell, 90210, Melrose Place, Dawson’s Creek, The O.C., One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl and now Pretty Little Liars, (a show about four teens who are in a bit of a “I know what you did last summer,” scenario), has captured teens, tweens and more by fulfilling that addictive urge for a good, fun, corny, juicy teen drama. A few years ago, I began writing about television in college when an obsession with Gossip Girl caused me to compare the inaccuracies of the Girl’s NYU depiction. Now that we’re living in a world with a social web that’s more mature, and widespread passion is very easy to hear.
A quick glance at Twitter’s very own 2011 Year In Review ranks ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars in the top television spot proving that their fans simply can’t stop talking about the show that has over 322,000 followers on Twitter and almost 7 million Facebook likes. ABCFamily.com recently launched a web series called “Inside ABC Family,” to give fans of their popular shows more content when the show’s not airing. We spoke with Beth Johnson, VP of Digital Media for ABCFamily.com about the new series.
Lost Remote: What are the goals with this show?
Beth Johnson: In a lot of ways Inside ABC Family is an evolution of the conversation already taking place on ABCFamily.com, Twitter and Facebook. We’re building on that by pulling together all the elements our fans love most – insider perspectives, exclusive content, sneak peeks and spoilers — plus the latest social media interaction – into one video series. We are also really excited to offer the insider perspective for our Millennial fans from our Millennial network team.
LR: Will it be promoted at all on-air?
Johnson: There are certainly a lot of interesting possibilities but for now we want to really nail the fan engagement online. The series itself will live on abcfamily.com, YouTube and our smartphone-optimized mobile site.
LR: Will Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue, anything else be incorporated into the run-of-show for the episodes?
Johnson: Absolutely, each show has a social media roundup where staffers pull topics that are trending on Facebook and Twitter and speak to those. They address fans questions and offer key insights based on what the fans are talking about in the social space and on abcfamily.com.