Last week’s event had a smaller turnout than the premiere event, but this was expected. #AnotherWay still trended for a significant amount of time worldwide, in the U.S, and many countries, and reappeared at several intervals after initially falling off of the trend charts. Plus, Fringe dominated GetGlue, as normal for Friday nights.

The Twitter events are more than just a trending effort. In the two years that I’ve been part of this online community, I’ve come across people from more countries than I can recall entirely from memory — from almost every continent. There is nothing quite like the reactions to the show, seen in real time. Last week’s horrifying scene in the Science Ministry was something that we all took in together — Simon’s fate a shock to all. We’re experiencing truly social television.

This week’s episode, “The Recordist,” follows the Fringe team’s scavenger-hunt quest to retrieve Walter’s informational tapes. Along the way, they come in contact with a community of people that act as historians and archivists; preserving human history for posterity.

“The preservers of history are as heroic as its makers.”- Pat Neff

Every word that Walter said on the hidden tapes are things that he wanted to be remembered. It is fitting that he preserved the first tape in amber, since amber is a symbol of preservation. (So much so, that we’re organizing a special amber project.)

One might say that the tapes were filmed…

#ForTheRecord

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 #ForTheRecord before the designated time: 1 HOUR before Fringe airs.

The event will take place 1 hour before Fringe airs – 8pm EDT — October 12. 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 #ForTheRecord (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, The Recordist. 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 are in the U.S. and have an iPhone or Android phone, give Viggle a try. Their check-ins are included in the data of several prominent social television analysis companies.