Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Open Letter: Your MicroBlog Can Turn Into a TV Deal

Still wondering how microblogging can benefit your career? Perhaps your tweets will become a TV show, book deal, or feature film...

Dear Creative Person,

Almost everyday I meet an actor, singer, or small business owner that has big dreams of the small screen. This dream might just be a concept, treatment, or an actual script, but either way the desire is there to see their vision turn into an actual TV show.


What hinders most of them (and most anyone who just has the dream) is money, connections, and lack of an audience. That last one, an audience, can equal money and connections. After all, TV shows, films, endorsements, and book deals are offered everyday to people who have fans or loyal followers that want to hear them, see them, and know more about them. That’s the cornerstone of celebrity.

I, like many of my colleagues, encourage the avenue of free social networks for anyone looking to grow a following. But it’s easy for PR pros and brand geniuses to recognize the endless possibilities of an online audience. So what if I told you that Twitter or Facebook account could be your ticket to a TV show, endorsement deal, book, or film?

Use Justin Halpern as an example. When Justin moved back in with his parents, he began to tweet all the funny and often off-color gems that spilled from his 73 year old father’s mouth such as "Sometimes life leaves a hundred-dollar bill on your dresser, and you don't realize until later that it's because it fucked you," and “You need to flush the toilet more than once... No YOU, YOU specifically need to. You know what, use a different toilet. This is my toilet.”

Justin’s popular @shitmydadsays has acquired over 700,000 twitter followers, sold book rights, and now has a development deal with CBS for a TV show executive produced by Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick. By the way, the account has only been online since August 3, 2009!

Actually, this is the second Twitter account to be picked up for TV. TextsFromLastNight is in development at Sony with Adam Sandler’s team.

Bottom line, TextsFromLastNight and Shit My Dad Says are hilarious. I doubt that they started with the intention of forming ancillary markets, but these possibilities exist because they put something unique out into the world and gathered a following.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the insightful post. Great, useful stuff!

JOY DONNELL said...

Thanks! I hope this post will inspire.