Twitter Solves Its First Murder
By Alex Judd on Sunday, January 20, 2013
TV series’ thrive off the classic “whodunnit” story line structure. Think about how captivated people were in the shooting of J.R. in Dallas (so I heard anyway) or Phil Mitchell in Eastenders. As audiences are teased with clues, engagement vastly increases as the debate rages on between viewers – so it’s always a winner.
Well Hawaii Five-O have taken all of this and given it a twenty first century facelift: by giving the public a real voice as to who they thought the murderer should be.
Using the hashtags #theBoss, #theTA and #theStudent on twitter – or by voting on the CBS website – it was the audience who had the final say on this story line twist.
Whilst script writers shouldn’t worry about their jobs just yet, it’s a great stunt to encourage digital engagement and spread awareness of the show via social channels.
In the end the twitter votes reached around 9,000 – but it lays a good foundation for things to come as the growth of social marches on.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, viewers voted for the boss on the West Coast and the student on the East Coast – the TA just looks too nice!