Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin:
Once upon a time, there was a show called ‘Supernatural’. It was creepy, funny, angsty, dramatic, thrilling, and the best kept secret on the east coast of the USA. But soon after season one started airing, its fame and appeal spread all across the States. Soon it started to creep onto other continents, through such means as we won’t go into for legal reasons, and a cult hit was firmly established.
Although fans were made and fans were broken by various storylines, plot arcs or characters (not to mention choices of actors/actresses), by and large the show’s viewing numbers grew a little each season. Not only was the show unexpectedly picked up for a second season, but another, and another, and another – until season five began to air just a few months ago.
Fans were happy. Fans were pandered to. Some fans appreciated the open love-letteriness of some episodes, and some were shocked and appalled by the bald-faced liberties taken in others. But, by and large, the fans were fed.
But they also noticed that their favourite show was not getting the attention or promotion it deserved. Some fans banded together to rectify this atrocious disregard for a definite hit amongst all the dregs choking the broadband channels around the globe. Minion camps were born, postcard campaigns were waged.
And then people stumbled upon Twitter.
Actors and actresses of the show, real, bona fide people verified as owning their Twitter accounts (such as @mishacollins, @jumblejim – Jim Beaver, @groovegoddess – Traci Dinwiddie, and @ChadLindberg) also tweet their support for the show. The story of Twitter is pretty much already told.
However, the next chapter has not yet been written.
This is where Twitter users come in – namely, the readers of this litany.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use Twitter to send a message about the show, whatever that message may be, and include the tag #FindTheColt – all one the same day, at the same time around the world.
Confused? Let me help you.
Q: Does it matter if I use caps locks?
A. No. You could use #FINDTHECOLT, #findthecolt, #FindTheColt or pretty much any mixture of upper and lower case letters – thankfully, Twitter filters and bean-counters don’t care.
Q: Can I just type #FindTheColt with no message?
A: We would rather you didn’t. To prevent being mistaken for spam or robot accounts, it’s best to actually tweet something about the show to connect the phrase to. Including “Thursday, 9pm, The CW” would be a good way to keep it in the counted tweets.
Q: Can’t I just use #Supernatural or #SPN?
A: We’re still not sure if Twitter is letting those astoundingly Satan-worshipping tags (whoops, sorry, did you step in my sarcasm?) in again, after the whole P Diddy affair of September 2009. DiddyGate pretty much made it impossible for anything remotely supernatural or spiritual to become a trending tag (one of the top ten most widely used tags on Twitter at that moment). Thanks, P Diddy.
Q: I can’t keep typing “I love that show on the CW at 9pm on Thursdays” over and over again. How many times do I have to tweet?
A: Everyone only need tweet the hashtag #FindTheColt once. It’s not about how many times a single person does it (so no need to repeat it in a single message), it’s about how many individual users write it. If everyone who watches the show (according to Nielsen) does it once, we would have close to four and a half million tweets – enough to get us to the number one trending tag (TT) spot, surely. (Yes, it would, and don’t call me Shirley.)
Q: So what do I tweet?
A: Anything and everything to do with the show. Some people tweet their favourite Deanisms, or Samisms, or Winchesterisms (quotes from the show). Some people just mention they’ll be watching the show (without naming it, of course). Personally, I’ll be tweeting my top ten places The Boys would like to be looking for the Colt. I believe @WrathOfKripke will be tweeting his usual ditties including the hashtag du jour.
Q: Why use #FindTheColt anyway?
A: It was an excellent suggestion made by @SuperWiki, in that it does not mention anything censored by Twitter, it isn’t in any way spoilery, and it’s easy to do. And anyone who knows anything about TV will probably recognise it as the Winchester’s charmed Colt Paterson.
Q: When does this happen?
A: @SuperWiki is urging an organised approach – something which is sorely needed, judging by the lack of structure to previous weeks’ Twitter conquering attempts. Tweeting should commence on and close to:
Thursday 19th November, 2009 – 4pm (16:00) Eastern USA time.
For the rest of the world, that will be:
Ankara, Turkey: Thursday 23:00
Athens, Greece: Thursday 23:00
Auckland, New Zealand: Friday 10:00
Bangkok, Thailand: Friday 04:00
Beijing, PRC: Friday 05:00
Berlin, Germany Thursday, 22:00
Brasilia, Brazil: Thursday 19:00
Canberra, Australia: Friday 07:00
Hanoi, Vietnam: Friday 04:00
Hong Kong, S.A.R.: Friday 05:00
Lisbon, Portugal: Thursday 21:00
London, England: Thursday, 21:00
Madrid, Spain: Thursday 22:00
Los Angeles, USA: Thursday 13:00
Moscow, Russia / Russian Federation: Friday 00:00
New Delhi, India: Friday 02:30
Paris, France: Thursday 22:00
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Friday 00:00
Rome, Italy: Thursday 22:00
Seoul, South Korea: Friday 06:00
Shanghai, PRC: Friday 05:00
Tokyo, Japan: Friday 06:00
Toronto, Canada: Thursday 16:00
Vienna, Austria: Thursday 22:00
Zürich, Switzerland: Thursday 22:00
If I have missed anyone out, I apologise. I hope this post finds you close enough to a Twitter client or the internet to just send one message at roughly the allotted time.
We promise if you send one message each, Bill Gates will not get a single cent of anyone’s money from the proceeds.
Now isn’t that a good reason to send just one tweet containing #FindTheColt…?
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Soupdragon has been a reporter since January 2009 and she is a Bucket of the crazy variety. Some call her Hong Kong Phooey. Some call her Empress Mardy, the Crepuscular of Happy Vodkashire. Some call her a Bad Company Wh*re. The wise ones call her 'Mistress'.
Follow her @ http://twitter.com/TozaBoma 
WE MUST SPREAD THE SPN LOVE!!!!
Must must must!!!! It’s remarkable we haven’t made TT much with all the convention tagging too…….
#theboysareback made it to trending topic yesterday and got kicked out by Twitter half way to the top.