Syfy Haven social media experiment has “troubles”
This weekend, the Syfy series Haven took a bold step by tying its storyline to social media. Specifically, Twitter.
The network sent out a press release last Wednesday and began flooding Twitter with recommendations to follow two characters from the series, @DaveHaven and @VinceHaven, as well as a mysterious @ColdInHaven. In addition, the series made plans to use the hashtag #HavenNews for the show’s Twitter feed.
According to the press release, this would launch a special seven-episode arc, beginning on August 12.
While @DaveHaven and @VinceHaven tweeted back and forth a few hours before the show, the micro-blogging story stopped there.
As the August 12th episode of Haven, “Roots,” began, fans expected live interaction from the show on Twittter.
Instead, viewers were merely introduced to the concept with a couple of amusing Twitter references in the show, as Dave and Vince both posted flyers in the sheriff’s office to entice viewers to follow them on their respective Twitter accounts.
As Twitter-savvy fans of the show turned up on the #HavenNews feed, they made amusing, sometimes snarky comments about the characters and storyline. But none of the characters tweeted during the episode.
One Twitter follower, @OmegaGreenbean summed up fans’ concerns, “They should have tweeted something at the beginning of the show, just to show it’s working. #HavenNews”
In the end, the Haven Twitter event started with a whimper, not a bang.
Viewers can follow the story on Twitter with the hashtag #HavenNews as well as on www.syfy.com/haven.
This first episode was the teaser to get folks onboard to join in and follow, hence the references in the show to follow Dave & Vince. The “experiment”/storyline proper starts next week. You don’t start something before you invite people, but then the Internets has the patience of ADHD goldfish these days, so go figure…
Bee,
Agreed. The “first” episode in the experiment seemed to be only a teaser, not actually part of it. Which makes me question the timing of Syfy’s press release and Twitter blitz. Maybe they should have waited a week, and let the show catch viewer’s attention before broadcasting it to the world.