My new favorite TV show has gone 100% social. The Showtime production has a website with social bookmarking (mixx, digg, reddit, etc.) built in to add a viral punch along with a well structured Facebook page to pool in fans and fanatics. The characters Tara (played by Toni Collette) morphs into are hilarious. Tara, a loving wife and mother of two kids,  suffers from multiple personality disorder. She transitions into these “personalities” when she becomes stressed by everyday life events that we all deal with. In her case she just leaves another side of her to handle her issues. The show has taken on a following that has been built very much online thru the social network Facebook. As of today the number of Facebook page members are over 12,000 and that’s only a month after it’s first airing.  This is a trend that is growing in popularity lately.

TV Shows Have Gone Social

From Psych to Burn Notice you can see a shift in the way these studios are marketing their new lineups. USA Network as well as Showtime has a sorta template-based Facebook module that is very informative for fans of their shows. It shows clips, upcoming show info, TV times, interviews from cast and staff and much more that are updated daily. It gives a more in-depth experience than you could ever get from your standard 1 hr show from yesteryear. My parents don’t understand it and neither do most 25+ year olds who did not grow up with anything of the sort. But it is definitely the future. What can be better than giving loyal, hooked, and even sometimes rabid fans a platform that they are used to and comfortable navigating thru to connect themselves better with their favorite TV show?  And it also makes the possibility of an episode or scene to become viral very fast with the help of social bookmarking.

A Trend We Will Only See More of

On the official UnitedStatesofTara homepage, you can see the stretch cable networks have to go to push their lineups. They don’t have nearly the advertising opportunities -  especially the pay channels - because of just that.  So to go the more viral route it basically insures over 12,000+ paying viewers will watch the show weekly and its growing because of the buzz its social networking has created.  I highly recommend checking this show out, it’s as funny as any comedy currently on the air. Then head over and check out their Facebook page. You can find me there…