Pretty Little Liars will invade your heart, and then your twitter feed.

If you have had to scroll through endless tweets, Facebook posts, and other online conversations based on the latest Pretty Little Liars episode, you are absolutely not alone. Perhaps, you have even been apart of these conversations. One can simply hate and scroll through their feeds each premiere night, or join the fandom to see what everyone is crying and screaming about (literally).

Pretty Little Liars is a television series on ABC Family which follows five high school girls as they try to entangle the mystery of "A," a figure who texts them and sends them messages, threatening the disclosure of their secrets. The series has been classified as a teen drama, thriller, and mystery, and is currently in the middle of their sixth season. Pretty Little Liars has conquered something that all other series and networks can learn from; it has been the number one most-tweeted cable television series from 2012 to the present.

The main audience of the series is teenage girls, those who already spend much of their time on the internet and smart phones. Pretty Little Liars used this to their advantage to market their show even further, and ultimately sky-rocketing their success.

One way in which they have done this is through creating online communities. For example, the Pretty Little Liars Facebook page is consistently thriving in the growth of "likes." There are fan-made Twitter accounts, fan-bases on Tumblr, and a community for PLL fans on just about every social media platform. The communities have grown by the series using exclusive content on Facebook and other websites. One could "Like to Unlock" a preview of the next episode. Also, specifically targeted for Twitter, the episodes will show a hashtag during a dramatic scene, so those who are tweeting can track conversations, opinions, or reactions on the scene of reference. This has been substantial for twitter activity, since it makes viewers feel included during the premieres of each episode and like their thoughts important to the series. Everyone wants to be on top of things and "in the know," and the hashtags have helped viewers experience that.

Another way in which Pretty Little Liars has engaged their media-consumed fan-base is by filling the gaps in between seasons. Often, fan-bases die down when there are multiple months until the next season premiere. However, PLL has worked to fill the gaps with interviews or mini-series' that release new information about the show and its characters.

Lastly, a substantial technique used by Pretty Little Liars to capture the hearts of fans is by letting them engage with the actors and actresses of the show. The actors will create hashtags on their twitter accounts to give the fans the ability to tweet in their questions or comments. This created a flood in the twitter-sphere on its own, since every fan dreams of being acknowledged by these actors.

Pretty Little Liars has made its mark on the modern television watching experience. It is no longer a personal hobby that is maybe brought up in small talk, but it has become largely an internet craze. Social media platforms are consumed with hashtags, theories, exclusive content, conversations with actors, interviews, etc. If you are on Facebook or Twitter and want to understand what the hype is about, you best keep up with this series. It is almost like peer pressure in the media world, which is marketing genius for the show. It has even affected the enthusiasm of the show in day-to-day. If one wanted to be apart of the conversation, he or she should have watched the premiered episode the night before.

References

http://www.karanovic.org/courses/mca008/archives/1311

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/29/entertainment/la-et-ct-abc-family-pretty-little-liars-twitter-20130529

https://www.capstrat.com/posts/abc-familys-pretty-little-liars-has-mastered-social-media-game/