Don't Be a Social Media Zombie During Your Off-Season

by Kim Niemi

Every business has a busy season – or a few. It’s easy to promote what’s going on during peak times, but keeping your brand top-of-mind during the off-season can be challenging, but it can be done. Need an example? 

AMC’s mega-hit series The Walking Dead returns this Sunday for its fifth season after a 28-week hiatus (not that anyone’s counting). How have they kept even their most obsessed fans from jonesing? A savvy marketing plan that continues to keep everyone up to their decaying eyeballs in content about the cult favorite. 

And they're not doing anything you can't do. 

​Whether an official partnership or not, there’s clearly a symbiotic relationship between the AMC show and EW.com, which has posted daily stories about The Walking Dead (sometimes more than one) for the past three weeks. 

Over the past three months they’ve written 61 total pieces about the show (excluding unrelated pieces where the show was merely mentioned, which would bring the tally up to 182 according to EW.com’s own count).

But there has been a steady stream of content from the show’s website as well. The PR and social media teams for The Walking Dead have not let fans forget about their favorite obsession for a moment by posting:

• Videos – everything from previews, behind-the-scenes,  and “in memoriams” of characters who have died, to webisodes featuring new characters living in the same world (laying ground for the upcoming companion show), and full episodes of this past season
• Blogs – Q&As with producers, cast members and writers, as well as press releases about goings on (like the giant hands in NY and LA counting down to the new season by losing a finger each day) and cast appearances on talk shows and the like
• Games, Quizzes, Contests – see yourself as a zombie with the Dead Yourself app, find out how well you know your Walker history, and enter to win a trip to meet the cast in San Diego

And it’s working. According to the show’s blog:

• “Social media activity and interest around The Walking Dead is up significantly from the same period a year ago. For several weeks leading up to the season five premiere, the show has been No. 1 in digital engagement of all returning fall cable series, as measured by the ListenFirst Digital Audience Rating. The show’s social media following and fan engagement are at an all-time high with more than 30 million Facebook fans and 2.7 million Twitter followers, while video views of scenes and trailers for the upcoming season are well outpacing last year’s results.”

And the new season hasn’t even aired yet! Imagine how those numbers will skyrocket when it does?

So what are the lessons here?

• It’s possible to build engagement even during “down” time
• Creating content yourself is paramount, but finding a partner who can also benefit from talking about you is even better
• It’s never too early to prep for the next busy season

The Walking Dead team started by recapping/polling on favorite episodes from season 4 as soon as it ended, and then switched to looking forward to the upcoming season 5, keeping people connected the entire time.  

Which just goes to show that finding ways to talk about your brand even when nothing much is happening can create interest that will pay off when your seasonal events or promotions finally take place. If The Walking Dead can do it, so can you.

We’re counting down the ways we scare up traffic for your business. If you need us, reach out and #SayBoo!


IMAGE CREDIT: KIM NIEMI VIA DEAD YOURSELF APP