Yes. We’ve done this before. But Outlander deserves it. And, what’s even more important is that some countries still don’t have a channel that will air Outlander. Yes, I know. That’s unbelievable. A total shock.
So we have to come together as a community and make some noise. That’s why the amazing people over at have come up with the event for this Thursday June 10th.
I’ll quote their post with the Guidelines for the event, cuz I wanna help spread the word. Click to see the original post.
We have two goals this time:
To spark interest in people who are not yet aware of Outlander, causing them to seek more information and subscribe to Starz/Showcase/SoHo.
To continue to stress to networks in Outlander-orphan countries that fans will watch and support the show.
Basic trending guidelines:
Tweets from “locked” accounts (tweets are protected or private) will not count in the effort. Go to your Twitter settings, then the privacy option and uncheck the “Protect my tweets” box before the event. You can go back afterward and check the box again.
Only tweets from accounts with more than 10 followers will count toward the trend. If your need more followers, send a tweet to @Reader_DG at least 24 hours in advance and we’ll help you get that many followers.
The hash-tag is #OutlanderCountdown. Use this in all of your tweets during the event and only ONCE in each tweet. Don’t include any other hash-tags in your tweets. If you are tweeting networks in your own country in your native language, please keep the hash-tag in English for trending and searching purposes.
Don’t use the “retweet” button. Retweets do NOT count in trending. You CAN retweet by copying someone else’s tweet and adding RT to the beginning of the tweet. This is a very good idea.
In the time leading up to the event, please reserve this hash-tag for those who are organizing the event. Bloggers, Twitter accounts representing national and international groups and others who are recruiting should use it, but sparingly. If it is over-used prior to the event, it will be harder to get it to trend.
Don’t include the word “trend” in your tweets. There is a rumor that Twitter has a way to prevent overt trending efforts.
We cannot stress enough: Do NOT “spam” the networks. Four tweets spread out during the event to each network from each of us is PLENTY. Long reply threads will annoy the networks. If you reply to a tweet, make your tweet easy to understand without clicking on the tweet before it.
Twitter Jail – Please read!
If you exceed 100 tweets in an hour or 200 tweets in 3-4 hours, you will get a message at the top of your feed (in a black box – that can’t be good, right?), saying “You have exceeded your daily limit of tweets. Please try again in a few hours.” You have just gone to Twitter Jail and cannot help the effort any further.
If you tweet the same text to too many different handles in a short period of time, you run the risk of getting your account suspended. This is more serious, so mix your tweets up. (Do a few to UK networks, then a couple to Germany, then a different tweet to Italian networks, then a few to New Zealand, etc.) For added safety, follow the networks we are targeting at the rate of about 10 per day for several days before the event and unfollow them at about the same rate after the event.
About 10 minutes before the event, use the grey “Search” window on Twitter to search #OutlanderCountdown. Hit enter and it will take you to the real-time feed. Click “All” to see everyone tweeting the hash-tag. This is the best part of trend efforts – connecting in real time to fans from around the world.
The other reason to watch the feed is to use it to find tweets to use. If the sample tweets do not inspire you and you are not feeling creative, you can copy and paste tweets from the feed and then tweet them as your own. Find a tweet you like, and copy it (highlight, right-click and “copy” in Windows or highlight, hold Command and tap the letter “c” in iOS) then click on the blue “box with a quill in it” icon. That will open a “Compose New Tweet” window. Paste the copied tweet there (right-click and “paste” in Windows, Command and the letter “v” in iOS), check to make sure the tweet is right (nothing missing and nothing extra) and then click “Tweet.” Repeat.
One last note: Before the event, go to your “Me” tab, click the “gear” (settings) icon, and select “Notifications.” Uncheck every box there to avoid spamming your e-mail. You can go back afterward and check the boxes again.
The event is scheduled for July 10 from 1-3 pm Pacific Daylight Time. For time zones not covered above, you can check this site:
