Time to let all the characters come out and play in social media
About four years ago there was a firestorm on the blogosphere whether or not a “character” could or should blog. The centre of the storm was “T. Alexander” from the Gourmet Station blog a character who figured prominently in the Gourmet Station newsletter for years previously.
I took a semi-unpopular stance, for the time, that it was just fine to have a “character blog” (I think I coined the term):
[From Let's get real about being "real" on blogs | Blogging | A View from the Isle]
I’m sure there are still people who might disagree with me, that “blogging” needs to be personal, real, authentic to be “true blogging”, but I think we’ve finally reached a point where we see social media for what is it: writing, storytelling, and sharing.
The main argument against character blogs was the lack of authenticity. How could a “character” be real? Hmm, we could ask Stephen King about Richard Bachman, I’d ask Samuel Clemens about Mark Twain, but well he’s dead. Literature and storytelling has a long history of pen names and characters. Sometimes you need to assume a pen name, or alter ego, to have the freedom to write and express what you’d like.
If I write anonymously, or as a character, is that not being true to me or am I just expressing another aspect of my personality more openly?
What got me thinking about this is True Blood. You see recently Sookie, Pam, Eric, and other characters from True Blood have been on Twitter (Bill was on there, but I guess he’s gone into hiding). No one has been up in arms. Fans of True Blood, like me, have been chatting with them. I know I’m not really chatting with Sookie (now if Anna Paquin were chatting with me, that would send a shiver down my spine!), and I don’t care because it’s fun.
I don’t know, or care, who is behind the accounts. Interns at HBO? Dedicated fans? PR group? Doesn’t matter. Not a social media fail, social media coup. Because True Blood is off air right now, and we’re dying for Season Two to start, getting a little reminder of the cast and characters keeps the fans going. Keeps us craving more shows. Reminds us how much we dig the show and how much we miss it.
Maybe now I don’t miss it as much now, because I can chat with Sookie (I’d like to chat with Bill again). I haven’t seen anything like they are going to pimp a DVD set. They are in character. Their world and ours is intersecting so why would we buy a DVD set of Season One of their real lives?
I think social media is growing into a more mature form of media. We are accepting that media, art, writing, literature, has many forms. There are so many ways to express oneself. Maybe I’d like to become a character on a blog. Maybe the escape of being free to be another is healthy. I follow a few “character blogs” and love them. What is even more fun is knowing the people behind the characters. Seeing the different facets of their personalities come out is damn cool.
Now, let’s get some more characters out there telling their stories.
And if you’ll excuse me, there is a tall, pall woman in a cloak at the door…
Well said Tris!
This is one of the things that I loved about Dave Olson’s talk at WordCamp Whistler (aside from how animated he was, of course). He was reminding us that what we are doing as bloggers is telling stories.
It is no secret, that as someone who has worked in Broadcast, that this has been my approach to the technology, new media and social media worlds. I have been experimenting with using these mediums to tell a story and having fun in doing so. I think social media is a terrific vehicle in storytelling as it allows the audience to interact with the characters and as such have an impact on the story.
I too follow Sookie and love how she tweets back and forth with me about life as a waitress. I was also thrilled to discover the characters of Pushing Daisy on twitter. I do tweet with Ned from time to time, but these guys need to tweet a little less about what’s happening at abc. I also enjoy chatting with Janey from showbizzle for the same reason.
I don’t like tweeting with characters that only talk amoungst themselves, however, and only engage with you when they want your votes for Shorty Awards. This is a huge turn off for me.
Love this post and your thoughts! Will add a link to on Bridging Media later today!
Erica
Erica’s last blog post..Women in Film Festival’s New Media Awards
Thank you Erica. That’s exactly it! Sookie and the others, Sookie especially, talk to us. They follow us back and we can converse with them.
Total win, IMHO.
Holy smokes, Tris. . .you got these Bon Temps waitress blushing! Sam’s gonna have to post this by the bar!
You take care!
Sookie Stackhouse’s last blog post..SookieBonTemps: I may not be Taylor Swift, but my butt looks pretty darn good in these jeans.
I hope he does! We love hearing all about the Goings on in Bon Temps and Fangtasia.
We are so serious about ‘character blogging’ at Loving True Blood in Dallas blog that we think we broke ground last night with the first ever live on the radio “twinterview ” of both Eric and Sookie. It was done completly by text on twitter and “voiced ” by readers on air to questions being asked by me ..it was quite fascinating and very hillarious.
Experimental radio at its best …
The podcast is now up on the blog and also avaialble on Itunes !
The lovely SookieBonTemp coined the word “twinterview ” to describe what we did ..
Thanks , Dallas
http://lovingtruebloodindallas.blogspot.com/
Dallas’s last blog post..Time to let all the characters come out and play in social media
We did a radio to twitter interview with the “character bloggers ” Sookie and Eric last night at Loving True Blood in Dallas at Blogtalk Radio .
It was fascinating and hilarious.
Sookie says it was a “twinterview” the podcast can be found at blog or on Itunes
http://lovingtruebloodindallas.blogspot.com/
Thanks, Dallas
Dallas’s last blog post..Time to let all the characters come out and play in social media
This sure is goin up next to the bar. Maybe between the article on the biggest catfish ever caught and the one about the giant alligator? People always read those.
Sam Merlotte’s last blog post..MerlottesBar: Whew. Done unloading another truck. Good thing it didn’t come tomorrow. I hate unloading the truck in the rain.
Love it Sam, perfect place for one of my fish stories. I’ll swing by for a beer sometime.
@Dallas, that’s awesome. I saw you had a show on BTR! Maybe I’ll call in sometime.