Fall premieres: Live-tweeting with #CBSTweetWeek

You don’t need to be part of a celebrity entourage to watch the premiere of Criminal Minds with its star Shemar Moore (@shemarmoore), but you do need to log in to Twitter — and many did.

The evidence: more than 85,000 Tweets (SocialGuide numbers) generated during the premiere of his show Criminal Minds, during which Moore sat with Executive Producer Janine Sherman Barrois (@Jsbarrois) to live-tweet his perspective on the start of the new season.

The conversation on Twitter between Moore, Barrois and fans of Criminal Minds was one of many orchestrated by CBS as part of its premiere week strategy on Twitter — #CBSTweetWeek — where actors, producers and writers gather together to live-tweet their premieres.

It’s not the first time CBS has done this: it was their 5th “Tweet Week”. But this year the network’s approach brought in some big numbers: over 50 percent more Tweets around its September programming compared to last year. CBS generated more Tweets because they created great content, which included photos and videos from their Tweet Week lounge, great Tweets from talent to fans, Vine videos and giveaways of show merchandise on Twitter.

In all, CBS had cast members of 18 shows live-tweeting during premiere “week” which actually occurred over a two-week period starting on September 18. This chart shows the activity on Twitter turning the two-week time frame. Notice how Tweets peak on the days the shows air and the days the stars tweet.

In pictures — from the CBS sofa
Just like many of the viewers at home, the stars shared a couch at CBS and posted photos for their fans during their premieres:

A six second call to action

The actors ask fans via Vine videos to live-tweet along side them:

And when the shows were next to each other in the schedules, the talent was too:

Stars give superfans some extra love

Fans who sent artwork to the cast and writers had their artwork showcased in Tweets and Vine videos on the official show or CBS Tweet account.

And NCISLA’s L.L. Cool J had a special gift for a fan who retweeted his photo:

The mother of all Tweets

The final season of How I Met Your Mother (@HIMYM_CBS) saw the titular ‘mother’, actor Cristin Milioti, tweet live from the CBS couch and engage directly with fans.

Do you know of any other innovative use of Twitter? Contact us at mediablog@twitter.com.