woensdag 14 maart 2012

Community returns: A social media success


The wait is almost over. March 15 marks the return of the beloved sitcom Community, aka the show with that extremely passionate fanbase. It had been put on indefinite hiatus back in November, so the last few months have been excrutiatingly painful for the loyal fans. But there worries have turned into joy, as NBC will start airing episodes come tomorrow. We like to think the various social media campaigns to save Community from cancellation played at least a small part in that.

Not long after the initial shock, social media campaigns designed to save Community surfaced. The largest portion of it took place on Twitter, where hashtags like #SaveCommunity, #SixSeasonsAndAMovie, #OccupyGreendale and #OccupyNBC became trending topics. This also spread to sites like Tumblr and Facebook. The tags became an organized way for the fans’ to voice their discontent and show their support for the show. Also, social media provided an excellent way to share petitions like this

Additionally, a lot of fans started adding black goatees to their profile pictures. This was inspired by the season 3 episode “Remedial Chaos Theory”, where some of the characters put on black felt goatees, because “lifegot dark”. There is even a website that automatically pasts a goatee on yourprofile pic.

Some particularly dedicated fans made Community-themed-graphics, like these classic Save Community posters by JonDefreest, or this Troy and Abed in the Morning poster by Sarah Mulligan. Graphics like these were passed around on social media sites like Tumblr and Twitter, and picked up by Buzzfeed and Reddit for example. 

To make use of the social media-handiness of the fanbase, a poll where people could vote on their favorite Community-related hashtag was opened on Facebook. In the end, the winner was #CoolCoolCool, which is a phrase that is often used by one of the characters. Now fans can tweet their thoughts while watching the episode, and make Community trending once more. 

  • The episode starts at 8pm on NBC.
  • For those interested, here is the trailer for the remaining half of the season: 


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