The Premiere event for #TheyAreHere wildly exceeded our expectations, with strong trending worldwide, in the United States, and many, many other countries. We dominated Getglue, and trended on Google +. #Fringe also significantly trended, which is a very welcome, rare occurance. There will be an in-depth report from @Fringeship soon.

This week, our reunited Fringe team will pick up where they left off. Although it seemed that all hope was gone, Walter was able to find some mix CDs, and his sheer joy in the synth beats and simple, yearning, vocals of Yazoo’s “Only You,” floored me, only to be topped by the sight of a lone dandelion, emerging in defiance from a crack in the sidewalk. What was first a symbol of a scattered family, is now a yellow beacon of hope. Hope can be found in the smallest of cracks.

Nothing grows in scorched Earth? Oh Windmark, you need a lesson from Joel Wyman.

@goldenmonkey7 Thanks. I chose a dandelion because they are impossible to eradicate, very much like the human spirit.

— JOEL WYMAN (@JWFRINGE) September 29, 2012

Like dandelions, we know how to find the crack.

But hope is only good to those that take action. How will the team fight the Observers now? Will they resort to methods that contradict their moral compasses?

“I got to believe there’s another way. There’s always hope, right?” – Peter

“There must be another way and I promise you I will find it.” – Olivia

Although it may seem that the world has left us with only bad choices, we know that there is always:

#AnotherWay

TWITTER EVENT PROTOCOL

Be sure to make your first tweet of the night a thank you to @FoxBroadcasting and @WarnerBrosEnt for making season five possible.

1) Don’t use #AnotherWay before the designated time: 1 HOUR before Fringe airs.

The event will take place 1 hour before Fringe airs – 8pm EDT — October 5.  As these events become larger, we are gaining more new Fringies in the effort. Gently remind others that use the tag before the event to wait until the right time, and tell them that using the tag too much beforehand will lessen trending impact. This happened when Fringe fans tried to trend #WhereIsPeterBishop for the season four premiere. The # had been used all summer long, was not anything new on the Twitter radar, so it did not trend. Trending happens with terms that are relatively new, and many people tweet about them at the same time. Terms break out onto the scene, but trending becomes more difficult the more they are used. Be nice! We want everyone to feel welcome.

2) One # term per Tweet. Use only #AnotherWay (What Are Hashtags?)

3) Lots of people tweeting matters more than the number of tweets.

Tell everyone Fringie about the event. There is strength in numbers – remember that the more unique tweeters we have, the more likely we are to trend, and for a longer duration of time. Send your tweets out fast – but remember to pace yourself. You want to avoid “Twitter Jail.” We know we can hit worldwide trending now, so sustained tweeting matters. Trending can be a distraction, but we need you to keep those wonderful tweets coming. You may have also noticed that the # will drop off the charts after a while, only to trend again when Fringe airs. This is due to other viewers joining in by tweeting the hashtag on the bottom of the screen.

4) Those with lots of followers help out a lot!

Alternate accounts with few followers do not have as much “influence” towards trending. But tweets from accounts like @JWFringe, @FringeOnFox, @VancityJax and @johnnob58004412 make a big impact. Let’s try to build our Fringe fan follower networks. One easy way is to follow people on fan Twitter lists. Here is my Cortexifan list. Follow some Fringies! Another way is to follow some folks on Twitter “Follow Fridays.” You may have seen tweets that are tagged #FF – followed by a bunch of twitter names. This is because they are recommended people to follow.

5) We want to pique the interest of non-Fringe fans.

This is the key to our trending duration success. It gives a chance to get our message about Fringe out to another audience. Try to construct a list of thoughtful and informative tweets before the event. These can be copied and pasted for easy tweets. Use some witty Fringe sayings – link some of the official promo videos – speculate about what happened to September, or on the fate of Gene the cow. Cool tweets are more likely to earn re-tweets, and this immensely helps trending.

6) We can discuss aspects of the show in our tweets.

TRY to include the word FRINGE (with no #) in your tweet if possible. Talk about the characters and the actors.  Maybe use the episode title, In Absentia. We’ve recently been able to trend Fringe, Broyles, John Noble, and William Bell!

7) Private accounts must have their locked status removed, as the tweets from locked accounts do not count toward the trend tally.

8) Retweets are the easiest way to help out the trending effort.

Just search for the hashtag, and retweet the ones that are interesting to you. If you know how to use a Twitter application suite like TweetDeck or HootSuite, this is made even easier.

9) Remember to check in at GetGlue for cool stickers and so that Fringe will trend there as well.

If you have an iPhone, give Viggle a try. Their check-ins are included in the data of several prominent social television analysis companies.

See you all for “In Absentia” on Friday!