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How the Red Wedding Killed It

Now that the dust surrounding Season 3 of Game of Thrones has settled, we have a few things to we’d like to say.

First of all, George R.R. Michael: HOW COULD YOU??!!?!?!?!?!!! Secondly, HBO: Bravo.

There’s nothing we like more here at Spark Growth Partners than a social media success, and HBO sure got one with the explosive “Rain of Castamere” episode, or as it’s called by GoT fans, “The Red Wedding.”

Spoiler alert! Lots of favorite characters died. US News & World Report called it one of the most graphic scenes in television history. It was gory and shocking and made a lot of people react like this:

 

And This:

And also like this:

Via BuzzFeed

Via BuzzFeed

Although Game of Thrones may not go down in television history for having the most regular viewers (13.6 million according to Nielsen), it has the plot twists and turns that keep audiences hooked and creates a great conversation on the internet. “The Red Wedding” allowed new fans to be swept up as people watched the reactions unfold on social media. People wanted to be a part of the community, feel like an insider and join the discussion.

HBO told Mashable that “The Red Wedding” was their most social episode ever. With 700,000 mentions in the 24 hour period after the show on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and news sites, HBO’s social volume increased 44% during the episode compared to the premier.

It also broke internet records by being the most pirated television season with over 5,200,000 downloads. These trends go to show how powerful a social media event can be, as well as its ability to affect behaviors. Although social media doesn’t allow the public decide what will happen next season, it does give them the chance to decide what the cover of the exclusive Best Buy Season 3 box set will look like. Game of Thrones has hooked the internet and is keeping anticipation high with social media engagement and competitions. It makes us wonder about the future. Will social media kill the DVR culture? Will all our entertainment be focused around a social media event?

Either way, you and your small business should take advantage of other’s social media successes. Keep up with the culture of your audience, have fun engaging and put yourself in the middle of it, no matter how relevant it might be. Game of Thrones has 6.5 million likes on Facebook and over 888,750 followers on Twitter. A little retweeting, linking or mentioning can go a long way.

For some inspiration, check out how Foursquare’s “Game of Cones” used GoT’s twitter to find NYC and San Francisco’s best ice cream shops (and gain some serious social media mileage).