EastEnders character Twitter accounts:
Are they a natural extension of the soap, one that the
EastEnders social media team should permanently adopt?
Francesca Trotman
BA Hons Public Relations
2016
Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................ 2
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 4
Methodology .................................................................................................................... 6
Ethics ............................................................................................................................. 6
Primary Research .......................................................................................................... 7
Secondary Research ..................................................................................................... 9
Literature review ............................................................................................................ 10
Findings ......................................................................................................................... 14
Twitter content produced by fans ................................................................................. 14
Creation of own sub culture.......................................................................................... 16
Explicit Content ............................................................................................................ 18
Tamwar Tweets ........................................................................................................... 20
EastEnders part of the BBC ......................................................................................... 23
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 25
Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 27
Appendix ........................................................................................................................ 30
1.0 Ethics Form ............................................................................................................ 30
2.0 Initial interaction with fan accounts ......................................................................... 33
2.1 Questions to the fan account holders ..................................................................... 33
2.2 @_IanBeale_ answers ........................................................................................... 34
2.3 @TheDavidWicks answers .................................................................................... 35
2.4 @TraceytheBarmaid questions and answers ......................................................... 36
3.0 Stephen Saul questions for interview ..................................................................... 37
3.1 Stephen Saul answers ........................................................................................... 38
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Abstract
This dissertation looks at fan social media and the content it produces. The aim of this
dissertation is to find out if the character based Twitter accounts fans have created is a
natural extension of the soap, one in which the EastEnders social media should adopt
permanently.
Observations of EastEnders fans’ Twitter accounts were conducted in order to see what
content was produced during the 30th anniversary week (original research question). This
led to the awareness of character based Twitter accounts, which prompted the research and
development of this question for this dissertation.
Additional primary research methods used come in the form of interviews. Interviews that
were conducted, included one with Stephen Saul who is part of the EastEnders social media
team. Saul gives an insight into the planning behind the social media output produced for the
EastEnders’ 30th anniversary, which includes the Tamwar Tweets. In addition to this, he
gives his opinion on existing fan made character accounts. Most importantly, he gives his
view of whether character based Twitter accounts will be used in the future. He states that
they could be adopted but needs a “great reason” for doing them i.e. a pivotal storyline such
as the climax to “Who Killed Lucy Beale?”.
Further interviews were conducted with the creators of some of the many EastEnders’
parody accounts in order to find out more about the creation of these sites.
Alongside primary research, secondary research was also conducted in the form of reading
key texts such as Baym (2000) and Bell and Deller (forthcoming).
Findings from the research show that successful fan made character based Twitter
accounts, are often spontaneous with the content they produce. They also try to encapsulate
the character’s personality as accurately as possible.
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The Tamwar Tweets, which could be seen as the soap’s way of temporarily adopting the
character based Twitter accounts, was successful by gaining high interaction level with fans
(with a single tweet gaining over five thousand retweets and over eight thousand likes (BBC
EastEnders, 2015b)). This could be due to the spontaneous appearance of them and the
encapsulation of the chapter’s personality within them.
The conclusion that has been reached through the findings, is that more research needs to
be conducted in this area of study in order to come up with a fully conclusive decision.
However, the research that has been conducted for this dissertation heavily suggests that it
would be appropriate for the EastEnders social media team to adopt character based Twitter
accounts, in order to gain more interaction and to extend the text of the soap into fan’s
everyday lives.
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Introduction
Last year saw the long running TV soap EastEnders turn thirty. Since the last major
anniversary five years ago, social media has become more integrated within everyday
society. It is also now increasingly used in mainstream TV programmes, as the marketing
communication teams behind these programmes know the importance of social media
(particularly Twitter). They therefore encourage discussion by displaying an applicable
hashtag at the start of the show (Deller, 2011) and even at the beginning and end of
advertisement breaks.
EastEnders adopted this approach during a week of live episodes. By embracing this
approach, it encouraged viewers to watch the soap live, in order to create a shared moment
between them (Couldry, 2003). With more than 10 million viewers tuning in to discover who
murdered Lucy Beale, EastEnders also became the most-tweeted about in soap history by
eliciting more than a million Twitter posts (Battersby, 2015).
In addition, with this anniversary came a variety of content that was produced on Twitter.
Along with general social media engagement that you would expect when being a viewer of
a soap (such as general discussion), there was also a strong trend in satirical posts. This
ranged in many forms.
One of the main forms of satirical social media that was produced (which gained a lot of
attention through other media forms) were the use of memes. From people creating memes
for when actress Jo Joyner messed up her lines on a live episode, calling one of her
colleagues by their real name instead of their character’s name (Mapstone,2015 and Rigler,
2015). To a collection of satirical memes that were created for the elderly character Dot
Branning when she was arrested over the death of her son Nick Cotton, which contained the
equally amusing #FreeDot hashtag (Harris,2015). One of the notable collection of memes,
were ones that were produced for the character Bobby Beale. This character was at the
heart of the climax of the long running ‘whodunnit’ storyline that lasted for approximately ten
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months. The young Bobby Beale was revealed to be his sister’s (Lucy Beale) killer. This then
led to the creation of many satirical memes (Independent,2015).
Not only did the character Bobby Beale gain a lot of memes but Twitter users also tried to
Tweet the fictional character, in order to make their feelings heard. So much so, that a young
American girl who was not previously aware of the climax to this long running storyline, was
made aware. Her name is Bobbie Beale and she received a barrage of tweets relating to the
storyline. She even engaged with the Twitter users and eventually tweeted a selfie with the
hashtag “#IdidntKillLucy” (Boyle,2015).
However, the anniversary live week is not the only time that EastEnders fans engaged in
social media. Fans have been engaging in Twitter in more creative ways, way before the
EElive hashtag was presented to viewers during the live week of episodes.
This dissertation looks at fan social media and the content it produces. The aim of this
dissertation is to find out if the character based Twitter accounts fans have created is a
natural extension of the soap, one in which the EastEnders social media should adopt
permanently.
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Methodology
Ethics
Before research could commence, ethical considerations had to be met. In addition to this
chapter on ethics, there is also an ethics form which was completed in order to ensure that
the ethical issues were considered.
Social media is a relatively new area in terms of academic research, Bore and Hickman
state, that observing of online fan activity remains a contentious issue in academic debates
around the ethics of studying and citing online fan posts without asking permission (2013).
This dissertation relies on the identification of named role play Twitter accounts. Without
being able to name such accounts within this dissertation, it would make the research and
findings almost impossible to discuss.
"Twitter conversations (excluding protected accounts) are public to anyone who looks” (Yardi
and Boyd, 2010). Thus, the decision for this dissertation is not to ask permission from those
who are posting on Twitter.
However, more stringent ethical considerations have taken place when conducting
interviews with various contributors:
•
Participant's real names will not be stated unless given permission.
•
Any interviews that are conducted using a recording device ensure the interviewee is
aware that the recording is taking place. Anything that they do not wish to share they
should ensure this is stated clearly
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Primary Research
In order to meet the aims and objectives of this dissertation, a variety of methodology were
used (primary and secondary research). Primary research took place in the following ways:
Interviews with parody Twitter account holders
Interviews with some of the creators of some of the many EastEnders’ parody accounts were
conducted. This was to find out what determines the content they chose to tweet and if it is a
true extension of the on screen character they are trying to portray accurately, or if it is a
method of anonymity in which they can post what they wish.
In order to secure an interview with some of these account holders, I followed them on
Twitter in the hope that the majority would follow back. When these accounts were obtained
as followers to my Twitter account, it then gave the opportunity for me to Direct Message
(DM) them [see appendix 2.0]. If they replied to this initial interaction I would then ask them
to answer the questions I had prepared beforehand [see appendix 2.1]. I kindly asked if this
could be completed within a couple of weeks, in order to get the responses within a selected
time frame and not at a time that would be irrelevant i.e. after this dissertation has been
written. Nevertheless, I was considerate of the fact that the majority of these account holders
have jobs and other commitments alongside tweeting through their parody accounts, thus a
two week time frame was given. However, the majority of respondents replied within 24
hours.
In order for users to keep their identities anonymous, questions were asked and answered
through their online pseudonyms by using DM on Twitter. This was so the research would
remain within ethical guidelines. In addition, this method was the easiest and quickest for
both parties as it did not result in unnecessary travelling or expense.
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Interview with Stephen Saul from EastEnders social media team
An interview with Stephen Saul from the EastEnders social media team was conducted, to
see what he thinks of these parody accounts. In addition to this, the interview was conducted
to find out if he believes that character based Twitter accounts create an extension to the
character and if it is an idea that EastEnders would permanently adopt. Furthermore, within
the interview he provides an insight of how the social media team work within a corporate
environment.
In order to secure the interview, I enlisted the help of my academic tutor, Ruth Deller. Deller
had previously done some research into EastEnders and therefore had created a connection
with a member of the EastEnders team. The team member passed on the details of Stephen
Saul, who is a member of the social media team at EastEnders. This resulted in being able
to contact him by email to confirm if he would be willing to answer a few questions [see
appendix 3.0] for this dissertation.
Saul agreed and the interview was conducted via email due to the practicalities of this and to
fit in with Saul’s schedule and to not incur any unnecessary travel expenses.
Researching Twitter accounts and their content
In order to investigate this subject area, it was necessary to search for different EastEnders
parody accounts and the content that they produced. This was performed in a variety of
ways. One of the ways in which this was done, was through the “advanced search” tool on
the Twitter desktop website. By using this, it enabled me to narrow down the tweets that
were posted and by whom. In order to obtain the necessary information for this dissertation,
this was often done by searching for tweets that contained certain hashtags. Hashtags such
as; #EastEnders or #EELive. These search results can be refined further by selecting a date
range. This successfully resulted in a range of tweets that were useful for this dissertation, in
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addition to finding parody accounts, as often the parody account holders would often use
these hashtags within their tweets.
Secondary Research
Secondary research within this dissertation has took the form of reading relevant text. This
came in many forms. Text included academic text that has been peer reviewed, online
newspaper articles and academic books that support the points raised and discussed within
this dissertation.
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Literature review
For this dissertation a variety of literature was used. In order to establish whether character
Twitter accounts should be adopted by EastEnders social media team, we need to gain a
comprehensive understanding of audience first. The book by Baym (2000) helped to
establish and understand the audience as a community.
There are various anecdotes told by actors who have played in soaps over years of them
being mistaken for their character when out and about, thus implying that people find it hard
to separate this fictional soap world from reality. (Baym, 2000). With Twitter being part of
everyday life for many in today’s society, it seems inevitable that fans will create accounts for
these fictional characters.
Baym heavily focuses on the soap opera’s appeal of being “interpersonal” (2000, p119). This
point is important if we are going to look at the interactions and discussions which take place
on Twitter.
As well as looking at the audience as a community and the interactions which take place,
Baym also looks into the content of these discussions. It is stated within this text that even
though soap operas are known for their high drama and their characters “wrapped in
constant melodrama, crisis and emotional torment” (2000, p30) which rarely evoke humour
(2000). Interactions which take place when discussing these soaps are “repeatedly
described as funny”. Not only are these online contributors adorned on because of the funny
content they produce, but they are also referred to as “’creative’ and ‘imaginative’” (2000,
p31). These qualities of a successful online contributor can certainly be applied to the
modern day uses of Twitter and the successful EastEnders role play accounts that exist.
Elements within Baym (2000) has significantly helped the understanding if the soap opera
audience along with the communities that form around them. This also further helped the
understanding what makes an online post within these communities successful.
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Moreover, the elements within this book have been very useful creating primary research
questions, especially questions that were aimed at the EastEnders parody account holders.
However, the book lacks in temporal validity as it does not talk about online communities in
depth or about modern day social media platforms such as Twitter.
Therefore, it has led to the reading of a book that contains more up to date knowledge about
social media. One of the texts that can obtain the required theory and knowledge behind
social media is Bore and Hickman (2013). This text provides in depth knowledge of fan
behaviours and communities which take place on Twitter. In addition to the ethical
considerations that need to be taken when researching a social media platform such as
Twitter.
Bore and Hickman (2013, p2) clearly state that observing discussions and posts on Twitter is
a “contentious issue”. However, it is then stated that if a user is posting something onto
Twitter then the user should be prepared for such tweets to be observed by anybody. Bore
and Hickman succinctly mention this point by quoting Yardi and Boyd (2010, p1) “Twitter
conversations (excluding protected accounts) are public to anyone who looks”.
This text also delves into the how these fans interact on Twitter using their role play account.
One of Bore and Hickman’s key interests was to see how was to explore how fans
“approached the creative task of figuring out how they thought their character would use
Twitter, and how they would come across” (2013, p8). This aspect of using Twitter in role
play, backs up the notion of character extension through the medium of Twitter.
One of the most suitable texts for this dissertation is Bell and Deller (forthcoming). This text
is the most up to date out of all the reading. Furthermore, it also talks about EastEnders and
the 30th Anniversary with some focus on “the Pleasures of Fan Talk”. The text states that,
the “humorous appeal of soap is something producers are keenly aware of, particularly in the
way they use social media. Television programmes use social media as a form of “‘paratextual play’ (Deller 2014 :97)” (Bell and Deller forthcoming, p3). This shows that producers
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are aware of such interactions on social media and often encourage this through their own
use of social media. This text further states that the official EastEnders social media account
“legitimise certain fan accounts” (Bell and Deller, forthcoming, p3) by often retweeting such
messages. Thus, indicating that fan accounts such as the character based accounts are
seen as worthy extension and contribution to the soap.
This text starts to explore the world of “para-textual” within social media, however the text
mainly focuses on “Endings within Soap Operas” (forthcoming, p1). Therefore, within this
dissertation it aims continue some of the ideas brought forward in the chapter “the Pleasures
of Fan Talk” (forthcoming, p3), one that delves into para- textual play and the soap
characters’ extension through the use of Twitter.
In order to try and establish if it would be beneficial for the EastEnders official to adopt the
notion of character based tweeting permanently, a suitable text was read in order to
establish if the use of social media is an effective PR strategy.
A text that was read was Breakenridge (2012). This book talks about “audience profiling”
(2012, p89) and engagement strategies. By creating an audience profile, it effectively
provides information that can be useful to create relationships and figure out what is the
most effective content for social media. This book was extremely beneficial when trying to
establish the techniques used by EastEnders social media team and to see if they have
been carried out in textbook fashion or if they underwent an alternative method.
Even though this book provides a good basis for social media practice for PR practitioners it
will not be used heavily within this dissertation as it gives very vague guidelines between the
relationship between social media and PR. It is merely a how to guide of what PR
practitioners should be doing to effectively incorporate social media within their organisation.
For a book to be more useful within this dissertation, it needs to have more theory into how
PR and social media are connected, not just the practical elements of what the
communications/ PR department should be doing for their company.
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Some books that overcome this issue are Chris Frill (2013) and Hunsinger and Senft (2013).
Frill looks into the dynamics of online public relations and how and why it is used within
organisations. While Hunsinger and Senft look into the uses of how social media is used
within culture and communities rather than the technical aspects of how social media it
works.
In summary all of the books chosen will be included within the dissertation as all contribute
to a point that could be within the dissertation, albeit not all will be used within equal weight.
In order to gain a comprehensive view of soap fandom Baym (2000) will be used. However,
it will have to be used alongside a more recent text or scholarly articles such as Bell and
Deller (2016). Later on in this dissertation, books and texts that relate to the role of social
media within the marketing communications strategy will be used to determine if adopting
Twitter accounts for their characters will help their overall communications objectives and
their brand image.
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Findings
Twitter content produced by fans
One of the key areas being looked at for this dissertation is the content produced by fans on
Twitter.
While conducting secondary based research into EastEnders’ fan based activity on social
media platforms for a different objective (the PR and social media behind EastEnders’ 30th
anniversary week). It was soon apparent that individuals were creating a lot of satirical
based posts on social media, particularly on Twitter, with users tweeting from EastEnders
character based names. As during the 30th anniversary storyline reveal, the most retweeted
message came not from an official BBC account, but from a parody account in the name of
Jane Beale. The message, reading “Bobby you little cunt get to bed now you little shit” was
retweeted 4212 times on the night of the 19th February 2015 (Bell and Deller, forthcoming).
The use of parody accounts is a clear trend and in some cases successful with one of the
users @_IanBeale_ gaining approximately 158K followers (10/12/15). Due to the success of
an account holder, an interview was conducted with them to find out more.
When @_IanBeale_ was asked why he created their account this was the reply:
One day I was bored and I thought I'd make a Twitter account to post a few harmless
jokes and Ian Beale seemed a random character to base an account on. At the time I
don't think there was many soap parody accounts on Twitter, if I recall there was just
a Roy Cropper account from Coronation Street but once I made the Ian Beale page a
Phil Mitchell account soon appeared so perhaps I inspired more people to make
EastEnders accounts.
This prompted further research within the parody accounts that take place on Twitter. This
research led to an online community that was not initially predicted when starting this
dissertation. When researching the following characters were found and could be grouped
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accordingly. (This list of the characters which have parody accounts is not an exhaustive
one. However, they are the most prominent on the social media platform.)
Characters who are
deceased with
active parody
Twitter
 Pauline Fowler
(@MrsArthurFowl
er)

Characters who have
left the soap

Grant Mitchell
(@Grant_Mitch)

David Wicks
(@TheDavidWicks)
Lucy Beale
(@LucyBealeee)


Carl White
@carl__white

Heather Trott
(@_HeatherTrott)

Pat Butcher
(@OhShitItsPat)

Peggy Mitchell
(@peggymitchell_x)
Minor Characters

Tracey (long serving
barmaid in The
Queen Victoria Pub)
@TracytheBarmaid

Winston (owns
reggae stall on the
local market)
@Winston_Eastend
Max Branning
(@Max_BranningE2
0)
Child characters

Bobby Beale
(@_BOBBY_BEALE
_)

Denny Rickman
(@GetDennied)

Lily Slater
(@LilySlater_EE)

Rebecca Fowler
(@rebeccafowler86)

Ollie Carter
(@QueenVicOllie)
By having Twitter accounts and followers for minor and child characters it acts as an
extension to the soap and gives characters a voice who are given few if any dialogue. This
therefore shows that there is a demand to extend characters’ dialogues and to hear their
personality and thoughts through Twitter.
The account holder of @TraceytheBarmaid states that they chose a character with little
dialogue “because so little is really known about her that that leaves me with more room for
expression.”
With these parody accounts gaining so much attention particularly during momentous
moments during the soap. It leads us to the question if these tweets are pre- prepared in
order to tweet the most effective tweet and thus the most retweeted.
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@_IanBeale_:
I can't remember too much regarding the EastEnders live episodes if I am honest,
what I do remember though during those live episodes I did get a lot more retweets
than usual and I think I gained 4 thousand new followers from using the #EELive
hashtag, did I prepare some tweets? I don't think I did because nobody knew who
killed Lucy Beale so everyone was in suspense so I think most of my tweets from that
time were more or less posted during the live episodes.
@TraceytheBarmaid also seemed to take this approach when it came to the subject of prepreparing tweets by saying:
I tend to tweet as the show is being broadcast & at random times if I think of anything
funny that's related to Tracey or EastEnders in general.
This was also echoed by @TheDavidWicks:
I tend to go 'off the cuff' I just hope people like it.
Looking at the responses that these parody account holders have given it is clear that both
the creation and the content produced from these accounts are spontaneous. Nonetheless,
even though the actions of these account holders are spontaneous and have not been
planned they get a huge following from EastEnders fans. If such idea of character based
accounts were to be adopted by the soap’s social media team. It leaves the question of
whether it would be accepted by the fans, due to the potential lack of spontaneity
Creation of own sub culture
With this approach to content that is produced on Twitter by these parody account holders,
this leads us to the subject of what the account holders chose to post and the subject areas
they chose to post.
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Some of these parody accounts really get into character and interact via Twitter with their
onscreen friends and family. The accounts that stay close to their onscreen character roots
by portraying a similar personality in their Tweets are often the more successful ones.
Examples of accounts who have gained a massive following are @Baldy_bastard (Phil
Mitchell) who has 29.4k followers. @_IanBeale_ who had 158K followers before voluntarily
deactivating the account on January 13th 2016 with a tweet:
“My dear #Bealeibers, I shall never tweet again. I have decided to deactivate my account. I
haven’t been banned etc, it’s 100% my decision.”
This simple tweet shows that there is a subculture and fandom behind this parody account
and that the user recognises this. Not only has the user publically announced the decision to
deactivating account, thus showing that followers will notice the absence and it needed to be
explained. The account holder has also made reference to musical pop "fandom" (Coppa,
2013, p76) with his pun, by calling his followers Bealeibers, which is in reference to the pop
star Justin Bieber’s fans Beliebers.
The reaction to this showed how much of a sub culture this fan user created with reactive
tweets such as:
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Stephen Saul who is part of the official EastEnders social media team backed up the notion
of why some of these parody accounts are so successful by stating:
They're great as unofficial naughty asides generally. To make social character
accounts work you need total conceptual buy-in from the start of a project.
Therefore, reinforcing the idea that in order for these accounts to be viewed as a successful
unofficial extension of the soap, account holders need to stay true to their character and
have a strong concept from the start.
Explicit Content
The statement that Saul gave regarding the "unofficial naughty" side of EastEnders social
media fandom, prompted the research of content produced by other EastEnders role play
accounts. In addition, it also prompted the question of if the BBC ever imposes boundaries to
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these individuals who set up these accounts to protect the image and thee reputation of the
long serving soap.
@_IanBeale_
I've never been contacted by EastEnders or the BBC, I have it in my Twitter bio that
my tweets are in no way shape or form affiliated with @bbceastenders so I'd hope
people understand I do not work for EastEnders or the BBC and that my tweets are
just for fun/entertainment purposes only and should never be taken seriously, as far
as I know I am free tweet anything I like (within Twitter's rules).
Due to these parody accounts not being contacted by EastEnders about boundaries it allows
more freedom in the content they produce. So much so that some of the content produced
by some of these accounts go into sexual role play and are extremely visually and textually
explicit. Examples of these accounts are: @fakeboy123 (Fatboy), @Bealepeter1,
@KatMoonMilf.
Accounts that do not produce authentic tweets do not attract a lot of followers. However, in
comparison as shown earlier, fans who create authentic tweets, who interact with other
characters and who adopt a likeness of the character in their tweets attract the most
followers.
This implies that EastEnders fans are loyal to the image of the soap (Hills,2004) and that
they engage in following these accounts in order to obtain an enhanced experience when
watching the soap.
Due to the success some of these parody accounts (i.e. engagement levels and followers),
the EastEnders social media team would be wise to acknowledge and perhaps adopt this
approach within their existing social media strategy. They have already engaged in this
method albeit as a temporary method which could be seen as a possible trial. This was in
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the form of the Tamwar Tweets which took place within the live week for the 30th
anniversary.
Tamwar Tweets
During live week EastEnders official social media team did try out this concept and included
a character based tweets (Tamwar Tweets) in which actor Himesh Patel who plays Tamwar
Masood tweeted during the live episodes, which is a first within UK soap history (BBC,2015).
The character did not have his own Twitter account, instead the character tweeted from the
@bbceastenders account, using the hashtag #TamwarTweets and @bbceastenders
changed their Twitter banner to a Doctor Who theme in order to create and authentic Twitter
account for the character (BBC EastEnders, 2015).
Within these tweets they were documenting and backing up actions in which the character
was visualising at that moment in time as if it was a real person creating a tweet. Himesh
Patel said, “Tweeting in character is a first for me – but I think I know Tamwar well enough
and I’m looking forward to giving the world his unique perspective on things as they unfold.”
(BBC,2015).
Below are a few of the tweets of the Tamwar Tweets that were posted out during the live
week of episodes:
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These tweets were incredibly light-hearted which was in contrast to the tense situation and
storyline that everyone was waiting for and was slowly unfolding in front of the nation.
This is evidence of what EastEnders social media team like to create when deciding on
content to post on their social media platforms as Saul states further:
The key thing I fight for is funny content. The biggest reason people say they don't
watch EastEnders is because "it's miserable". It is... But it's also very, very funny too.
So I use a good sense of humour on social to make people who don't watch (or have
stopped watching) consider giving the show a chance.
The thought of who was the creator of these Tamwar Tweets was a prominent question that
needed to be answered. Did Himesh create his own tweets in order to create an authentic
experience? When asked Saul states:
All credit to Himesh. He wrote it, steered it and made it what it was. Can't take any
credit for that. Just getting him the opportunity he needed to be brilliant. And he was!
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The actor had his script beforehand so he could create tweets that would fit in with the script
but by constructing the tweets himself it made the experience more authentic as he is one
that knows his character the best. However, as Twitter is social networking platform that
often prides itself on users’ spontaneity by producing the scripts beforehand does this
jeopardise the experience for the EastEnders’ Twitter followers? With a huge following
behind the unofficial character based Twitter accounts, could it be that they are more
appealing due to the spontaneous nature of them.
This concept of character based tweeting conducted through an official account and with the
actor creating the tweets, is a the first of its kind in the UK (BBC,2015). It was greeted with a
warm reception and was successful, with one the “Dad stole my phone…” tweet being one of
the most popular gaining over five thousand retweets and over eight thousand likes (BBC
EastEnders, 2015b). As it was the first of its kind in the UK, the press were interested in this
concept and created a news story (Brown,2015) which potentially boosted its SEO, thus
aiding the social media team’s possible overall objectives.
Not only do these stats show that this concept was a successful idea due to engagement
levels, but it also shows that when content that is produced that feels authentic and
spontaneous, it is met with a positive reaction from fans.
When Saul was asked if he thinks character based tweeting works he states:
You also need a great reason to be doing something like Tamwar Tweets. One
reason they worked so well is that Tamwar live tweeted at a wedding that could very
well end in disaster that was being broadcast (in part) live. It added electricity to the
tension. The other reason is that the ‘Who Killed Lucy’ story was so dense for people
to keep track of it was hilarious to have a total innocent saying "what the hell is going
on here then?
Would the EastEnders social media team do this again create a character account again and
for the actor to tweet their own tweets? Saul believes;
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Given the right opportunity and reason for doing it, yes... Character accounts do
work.
EastEnders part of the BBC
The question of whether EastEnders official will adopt the character based Twitter accounts,
have purely been looked at from the view of what the audience desires and how they have
reacted to previous character based accounts.
In order to look at this in a balanced light we need to remember that the soap EastEnders is
a massive brand and part of international corporation, the BBC. Thus, the communication
produced will need to be to a high standard in order to up keep the reputation of the
organisation. In order to produce a premium standard of communication, a strategy needs to
be adopted (Gregory,2010).
According to Saul the social media strategy for the EastEnders 30th anniversary “was about
nine months in development”. This shows that there is more of a strategic approach when it
comes to the social media with the soap. The notion of creating character Twitter accounts
could be part of a wider social media strategy. However, as seen before, it will only be a
success if it has a spontaneous appearance to the EastEnders fan.
In addition to some social media strategies taking around nine months to prepare, the social
media team need to get ideas authorised by higher management. As Saul states, “Show
exec Sharon Batten and I fought for an all-or-nothing decision [pertaining to the Tamwar
Tweets].” This reminds us that EastEnders is not just a soap but part of a wider corporate
community that wants to sustain their legitimacy and establish levels of trust from their
stakeholders (Wood, 2014). Which explains why a strategic approach is often favoured over
a spontaneous approach which is adopted by fan’s own EastEnders role play Twitter
accounts.
Page | 23
Within the strategic approach to marketing communications, the role of online PR has a key
objective of making sure it improves and maintains a high level of SEO, this can be through
their use of social media (Frill,2013). Therefore, if the EastEnders social media team
adopted character based Twitter accounts permanently, it could increase the amount of
content produced by the social media team. Additionally, this would be a method of
differentiating themselves to rival UK soap operas and boosting news coverage. This was
shown during the trial of the character based tweets that were produced during show’s 30th
anniversary (Brown,2015). This could therefore improve their chances of meeting the online
PR’s objectives and possibly the company’s objective as a whole.
Page | 24
Conclusion
With social media gaining more of a following daily, it was inevitable that it would start to
immerse itself within other media forms such as television and in particular soaps. With the
popularity of “para-texutal” play within social media for soaps increasing, one cannot help but
wonder if this is a natural extension of the soap and an area that the official EastEnders
social media team would naturally adopt as a permanent feature.
As Baym (2000) states, soaps can often be fraught with drama and distressing storylines.
Social media and the content that is produced, in particular parody accounts, bring much
needed humour to the fans of the soap. This point that was raised within the secondary
research and was backed up with the interviews conducted.
Primary research which included the interview with Saul, suggests that character based
Twitter accounts are a feature that the social media team would adopt again. However, it
would only be at poignant storylines and occasions like they did with the Tamwar Tweets.
This is due to the fact that “it added electricity to the tension” to the live episodes. It also
gave a much needed juxtaposition to the soap. With masses amount of drama unfolding, to
a “hilarious” tweet by a “total innocent saying, ‘what the hell is going on here then?’”.
With the success of the Tamwar Tweets (gaining over eight thousand likes for one post),this
could be seen as a trial run for the social media team. Looking at the results of this trial run it
is clear to see that engagement levels of this character based Twitter account was high. In
addition, it would of the improved the soap’s PR as they were differentiating themselves from
other UK soaps and thus gaining press from this (Brown,2015).
The likelihood of EastEnders official adopting these fan made parody accounts to have part
of their own social media is extremely slim. They need to uphold an air of professionalism
and one that does not contain often offensive or crude content as they are part of an
international corporation. Therefore, they need to ensure that their marketing communication
is up to a high standard and thus need to adopt a strategic approach (Gregory,2010).
Page | 25
However, the social media team will probably continue to recognise and engage with some
of these fan made accounts by retweeting their tweets (Bell and Deller, forthcoming).
This area of study is a relatively new phenomenon, and needs further analysis from Twitter
statistics that accumulate in the future. More importantly, additional qualitative research
needs to be done with the fans, to see if this concept would be welcomed by them. Results
from this will determine if character based Twitter accounts are a viable PR tool for the soap
and the brand and whether it appeases fans of the soap too.
Nevertheless, the research that has been conducted for this dissertation heavily suggests
that it would be appropriate for the EastEnders social media team to adopt such approach, in
order to gain more interaction and to extend the text of the soap into fan’s everyday lives.
Page | 26
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Appendix
1.0 Ethics Form
This form is an updated version of the original submission on 5/11/2015 due to the fact that
the research question has changed.
Ethics Checklist
Name of student
Francesca Trotman
Name of supervisor
Ruth Deller
EastEnders character Twitter accounts:
Title of research proposal
Are they a natural extension of the soap,
one that the EastEnders social media
team should permanently adopt?
Outline of investigation
This dissertation looks at fan social
media which and the content it produces.
The aim of this dissertation is to find out
what content is produced by fans on
Twitter and if this is a natural extension
of the soap, one in which the EastEnders
social media could and should adopt
permanently.
1. Does the research involve human
participants? This includes surveys,
questionnaires, observing behaviour
etc.
Yes / No (Delete as appropriate)
Observation of Twitter social media
accounts of EastEnders fans.
If the answer is No, go to question 6.
If the answer is Yes, then complete
questions 2 to 5.
If the answer to any of the questions 2 to 5 is
Yes, then the research proposal must be
submitted to the FREC for approval.
2. Will any of the participants be
vulnerable? (e.g. young people
under 18, people with learning
disabilities, people who may be
limited by age or sickness or
disability from understanding the
research, etc.)
Page | 30
Yes / No (Delete as appropriate)
3. Is there any reasonable and
foreseeable risk of physical or
emotional harm to any of the
participants? (e.g. Distressing or
intrusive interview questions,
uncomfortable procedures involving
the participant, invasion of privacy,
topics relating to highly personal
information, topics relating to illegal
activity)
Yes / No (Delete as appropriate)
4. Will anyone be taking part without
giving their informed consent? (e.g.
research involving covert study,
coercion of subjects, or where
subjects have not fully understood
the research etc.)
Yes / No (Delete as appropriate)
Research into the content produced on
Twitter by EastEnders fans
5. Will the research output allow
identification of any individual who
has not given their express consent
to be identified?
Yes / No (Delete as appropriate)
Usernames of some Twitter accounts that
may contain part of all of their birth
names.
6. Does the research involve the use
of live animals?
Yes / No (Delete as appropriate)
If the answer to questions 6 is Yes, then the
research proposal must be submitted to the
FREC for approval.
Yes / No (Delete as appropriate)
7. Does the research require
approval from any external ethics
committee? (e.g. the NHS? For NHS
research, this includes any service
evaluation work, work concerning
NHS Patients (tissues, organs,
personal information or data),
NHS staff, volunteers, carers,
NHS premises or facilities.)
If the answer to question 7 is Yes, then the
research proposal must be submitted to the
relevant external body. For NHS Research
Ethics Committees please refer to
http://www.corec.org.uk
8. Type of approval request (please
delete as appropriate)
Page | 31
Standard approval (This project does not
require specific ethical approval, and can be
approved by the research supervisor.)
Category approval (This work falls within the
category of ((specify)) projects which has
been previously approved by the FREC and
it does not therefore need individual
approval.)
FREC approval awaited (This project must
be referred to the FREC for individual
consideration – the work must not proceed
unless and until the FREC gives approval.)
(Delete as appropriate)
Student
Name:
Signature:
Francesca Trotman
Date:
20/11/2015
Module Leader
Name:
Signature:
Date:
I can confirm that I have read the Sheffield Hallam University Research
Ethics Policy and Procedures document and agree to abide by its principles.
Page | 32
2.0 Initial interaction with fan accounts
Hi, I think your tweets are great, I am a huge EastEnders fan and the comedy relating to it. I
am currently doing a dissertation on the social media surrounding the EastEnders 30th
anniversary and was just wondering if you would be available for an interview, it can be done
just through email.
Hope you can help,
Francesca
N.B These messages were sent when the question of for this dissertation was slightly
different.
2.1 Questions to the fan account holders
1. Why did you create your account? Were there other accounts similar (EastEnders
character inspired accounts) at the time?
2. When setting up your account did you expect your account to attract as many
followers you currently have?
3. During the time and the run up to the EastEnders 30th Anniversary did you preprepare some tweets?
4. How do you feel when your tweets reach news media (both print and online)?
5. Have you ever been approached by EastEnders official or X (Y) regarding
boundaries? i.e. What you can and can't say.
6. Do you think the actions of your account could potentially effect the reputations of the
soap and the actor who plays X (Y)?
7. Do you feel it is important to interact with other EastEnders parody Twitter accounts,
in order to keep uphold your character’s persona?
Page | 33
2.2 @_IanBeale_ answers
1) Good question, one day I was bored and I thought I'd make a twitter account to post a few
harmless jokes and Ian Beale seemed a random character to base an account on. At the
time I don't think there was many soap parody accounts on twitter, if I recall there was just a
Roy Cropper account from Coronation Street but once I made the Ian Beale page a Phil
Mitchell account soon appeared so perhaps I inspired more people to make EastEnders
accounts.
2)When I made the account I thought I'd delete it within a few days, but after a few jokes I
tweeted I think I gained 2-3 thousand followers in a couple of days and I was like whoa!
people seemed to like what I was tweeting and nearly 4 years on I have 158K followers (as I
type this) and I've never asked anyone to follow me and I've never bought my followers
either though I do try and follow as many people as I can back.
3.) I can't remember too much regarding the EastEnders live episodes if I am honest, what I
do remember though during those live episodes I did get a lot more retweets than usual and
I think I gained 4 thousand new followers from using the #EELive hashtag, did I prepare
some tweets? I don't think I did because nobody knew who killed Lucy Beale so everyone
was in suspense so I think most of my tweets from that time were more or less posted during
the live episodes.
4.) I'm not sure many of my tweets reach news media, though I recall a few years ago I was
mentioned in 'The Poke' and quite recently my tweet about 5p plastic bags was shown on
the Daily Mail (or a similar news website) How do I feel? It doesn't bother me, I'm quite
honoured they found the tweets good enough to show to their readers.
5.) I've never been contacted by EastEnders or the BBC, I have it in my Twitter bio that my
tweets are in no way shape or form affiliated with @bbceastenders so I'd hope people
understand I do not work for EastEnders or the BBC and that my tweets are just for
Page | 34
fun/entertainment purposes only and should never be taken seriously, as far as I know I am
free tweet anything I like (within twitter's rules).
6.) I can't see my account affecting the soap, 99.9% of my followers know my account is just
for telling a few jokes and is in no way trying to be apart of EastEnders so I can't see why my
tweets would damage the reputation of EastEnders. As for Adam Woodyatt, he blocked my
account years ago when I first made it. I'd like to think he'd have a slight sense of humour
and would understand my account is just for entertainment purposes and that I am in no way
trying to damage his reputation as an Actor. Ian Beale is one of the most hated soap
characters in the history of British soaps so people kind of expect my tweets to be crude in a
sense, I've never been asked to delete my account by Adam, the BBC, EastEnders or twitter
during the near 4 years the account has being going so I'm happy to keep tweeting as I don't
beleive or BEALEieve I am breaking twitter's rules, but if Adam ever wants me to close the
account then I shall-I do not mean any offensive to him or EastEnders.
2.3 @TheDavidWicks answers
1) When Michael French was in the show there were a few accounts, but I tried to do
something different, I post jokes and do role play, the other accounts didn't do this, I also
post random screen grabs from other shows Michael has done to promote him.
2) No certainly not! I'm shocked at the amount of followers I get!
3)Nothing was pre prepared, I tend to go 'off the cuff' I just hope people like it.
4) It's never happened.
5) No never.
6)No I certainly don't.
Page | 35
7)Yes I think so, I do it because I enjoy it, it's not an account to offend anyone, I just want
people to enjoy it, and I like helping other accounts via shoutouts etc, I don't believe there's
any harm in it.
Il always enjoy doing it.
2.4 @TraceytheBarmaid questions and answers
1. Why did you create your account?
2. When setting up your account did you expect your account to attract as many
followers you currently have?
3. During the time and the run up to the EastEnders 30th Anniversary did you preprepare some tweets?
4. Do you feel it is important to interact with other EastEnders parody Twitter accounts,
in order to keep uphold your character’s persona?
5. Do you feel you are giving your onscreen character a voice as she doesn’t have a lot
of dialogue in the soap?
1) I created the account because I've been a fan of EastEnders from the beginning.
Also enjoy Twitter as a social platform & having stumbled across other EastEnders
Parody accounts thought I could have some fun & a laugh along the way. There are
many role play accounts, which I'm not a fan of, so I decided to do a Parody one
instead.
2) I didn't expect but hoped I would gain followers to my account when I started. Not in
my wildest dreams did I think I would get as many as I have right now. All I hoped
was that some people would find my tweets funny. I still feel the same way after all
the years.
Page | 36
3) I never did any pre tweets for the 30 years Anniversary. I tend to tweet as the show is
being broadcast & at random times if I think of anything funny that's related to Tracey
or EastEnders in general.
4) Yes I do feel it's good to interact with other Parody accounts, I've made a few friends
( & enemies) along the way.I find you will get retweets from other EE parody
accounts that like my account, I consider that flattering & appreciate it & feel my
tweets are reaching a bigger audience, which to me is the point of my account &
Twitter in general.
5) I see what you are saying, because my character doesn't have a huge speaking role
but I decided to create my Tracey account because I believe she is looked upon as a
EE legend & apart from Ian Beale & Dot Branning, has been in the show from the
beginning. Also because so little is really known about her that that leaves me with
more room for expression.
3.0 Stephen Saul questions for interview
1. How long does it take to create content on an average week? Are there any targets
that need to be hit?
2. How long did the social media strategy take for the EastEnders 30th Anniversary live
week?
3. What do you think of character influenced social media accounts (parody accountsparticularly Twitter)?
4. Tamwar Tweets during the 30th anniversary had a great reception and was a TV first.
Was this idea influenced by the character based unofficial social media accounts
created by fans?
Page | 37
5. Was Himesh Patel (Tamwar) given any guidance when constructing the tweets for
the EE live episodes?
6. Due to the popularity of these parody accounts and the reception that Tamwar
Tweets received, do you think character based tweeting could be a regular
occurrence within EastEnders official social media with other characters?
3.1 Stephen Saul answers
1) It's a fast turnaround. We go through 4 episodes in one sitting. We look for the
moments where we feel the most emotional responses and prep content accordingly.
Funny, heartbreaking, WTF?... Whatever that first reaction we have is probably how
most viewers will react too.
Occasionally we have last minutes’ changes or surprises to work around too. Targets
are really a question of quality and increasing followers as can realistically be
expected.
Finally, the key thing I fight for is funny content. The biggest reason people say they
don't watch EastEnders is because "it's miserable". It is... But it's also very, very
funny too. So I use a good sense of humour on social to make people who don't
watch (or have stopped watching) consider giving the show a chance.
2) The strategy was about nine months in development. I inherited it from Alister
Morgan. It was his baby. I just delivered it.
3) I love them but only when they're spot on editor orally (voice of character accuracy)
and brilliantly written.
4) Himesh Patel and Alex Lamb wrote brilliant Twitter scripts. A lot of backstage debate
between the show and online meant it almost got axed altogether. Show exec
Sharon Batten and I fought for an all-or-nothing decision. A total Tamwar Takeover or
nothing. It wouldn't have worked any other way.
Page | 38
5) All credit to Himesh. He wrote it, steered it and made it what it was. Can't take any
credit for that. Just getting him the opportunity he needed to be brilliant. And he was!
6) Parody accounts are really tricky. They're great as unofficial naughty asides
generally. To make social character accounts work you need total conceptual buy-in
from the start of a project. You also need a great reason to be doing something like
Tamwar Tweets. One reason they worked so well is that Tamwar live tweeted at a
wedding that could very well end in disaster that was being broadcast (in part) live. It
added electricity to the tension. The other reason is that the Who Killed Lucy story
was so dense for people to keep track of it was hilarious to have a total innocent
saying "what the hell is going on here then? "Given the right opportunity and reason
for doing it, yes... Character accounts do work.
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