Social media as a storytelling device

Some more about social media storytelling. I made a tweet asking for examples of fictional characters' social media and got a few examples! I'm focusing in on comics here, but there are a lot more for other media.

There are a few articles on the subject (not that helpful), but most deal with the type that's based around advertising. Arguably all of these are a form of advertising; having a twitter account in which all the 'photos' are drawn is uncommon and likely to be obvious that it's fictional in some way, and possibly create interest, but I doubt it's that effective; there's far less twitter followers on most of these accounts then there are subscribers of the main comic (if that's public).
It's more of an extra content thing,  for fans. Breaking the fourth wall in a way is interesting, especially when the comic is set in, for example, the future, or is sci-fi/fantasy in some way - there's a kind of juxtaposition of that and the fact that the account is 'real'. Another thing which is really effective is the interactibility  of it - many of them actually interact with people who reply to the tweets.

I don't really 'talk' to any of the characters below, but I talked to a fair few webseries characters. (I don't watch so many webseries these days) I won't list them here because there are a lot and it's going a bit off topic from the webcomic theme, but most LIW (literary inspired webseries) are very fourth-wall breaking, they're in vlog format and the youtube accounts actually belong to the characters; they talk to the viewers. So most of them have a variety of social media accounts - here's some examples - I tweeted Omar quite a lot because we have similar interests. It's interesting how you're aware that they're a fictional character, but it still feels like you're talking to a real person? And there's a certain thrill to having the character talk to you; it feels like you're part of the story, and gets you even more invested.

There's a TV Tropes page on this called Character Blog. Here's some of the description:

The Character Blog may serve several functions:

• It can provide a new angle to the existing plotline, by writing the story in first-person perspective rather than the omniscient view of the story that the audience usually gets. This can be highly effective if there are blogs for different characters in the same show — The Ditz will probably have a very different take on things from The Smart Guy, for example.

• It can offer supplemental stories, filling in the time that the characters were "off air" or providing relief from the main storyline, such as doing a silly entry or personality when the Canon plotline is rather dark. May also fill in backstory or provide more Character Focus than the canon can afford to provide, or keep the audience informed on a character who is currently Out of Focus or uninvolved in the present rotating arc. This is a popular use of the Character Blog for webcomics, which often don't have the time or space to fit in all the stories an author would like to tell — it's much quicker to write a text entry than to draw a comic.

• It acts as a Fourth-Wall Mail Slot, allowing the fans to interact with the creators, with the alias of the fictional character as an intermediary.

• Basically, it makes the character seem more real.

Usually, the Character Blog is seen as positive, a quirky addition that exists between Canon and Fanon; it adds to the story, but isn't mandatory reading.

Examples

Griefer Belt // Scott's Twitter / Lars' Twitter

Griefer Belt has two main character twitter accounts, which were started up only in the latest few chapters. They're not essential to the story, but have interesting extra details, and help flesh out the characters in ways that aren't generally shown in the comic. They also reply to real people who talk to them
It also shows contrast between the characters - Lars is very social media savvy, whereas Scott obviously is not and barely knows how to use twitter. They're 'real time' in the sense that the tweets happen in relation to the comic pages, though obviously one scene might take three weeks, so the tweets on the twitter timeline will be more spread out.

Project Nought // Mars' Twitter

Project Nought is actually set in 100 years, so he's not tweeting in 'real' time, though as with above, it is in relation to the comic updates. He's also a character who is very social media savvy. An extra level of interactivity with this (and Lars above) is that patrons of the comic can get a selfie with him - in story, they're 'time travellers' (in Griefer Belt, they're Lars' party guests) Patrons of both can also get cameos in the comic itself.

Check Please // Eric's twitter

This is an example in which the tweets are in real time - which means that they're ahead of the comic. - Therefore the account is locked and we can only see archived tweets. This is an example of a more streamlined account which is more directly related to the story. The comic itself is told in 'episodes' which generally start out with the character vlogging, talking to his audience, and though that's not as direct of a 4th-wall-breaking as webseries with actual youtube accounts, it's still something that connects to having a real social media account.


Monika from Doki Doki Literature Club // Twitter

I'm not familiar with this - but after some brief research, it looks like she's the main antagonist of the game which is a visual novel, that seems like a dating sim but is actually a psychological thriller? Which makes use of breaking the fourth wall a lot - therefore giving the character a real twitter account goes along with that theme. The account's only got a handful of tweets from the last year, and doesn't interact with people


Steven Universe // Peridot's twitter

Steven Universe is a kids cartoon about aliens living on earth (kinda), and Peridot is a character who uses a recorder to record diary logs, but it breaks, so Steven gives her a tablet and shows her twitter to use instead (as far as I remember). Her twitter was made when that episode aired, and the tweets are great - it really suits her character to make a lot of all-caps tweets in a way that shows she probably has no idea what she's doing. After that first episode she occasionally tweeted things relevant to new episodes just before they aired, which helps keep it realtime

The Bright Sessions // Caleb's Instagram

The Bright Sessions is a podcast, and some characters have various social media accounts. They're mostly faceless photos as it's an audio medium, and the actors don't look like the characters.


Radio Silence // Colbie's Twitter / Instagram / Wren's Twitter / Shy's Twitter

This is a webcomic I haven't read - but from glancing at the twitter accounts, they seem really realistic, in terms of the random tweets, retweets, commenting on real-world events etc.



Some other things of a similar vein:


Manuel, Dear David, Ver_acity

Dionea House 

I haven't looked into this much but apparently it's a story told through emails and blog posts, which branches out into different blogs later on.