For fans of HBO’s mega-hit, Game of Thrones, this Sunday’s Season 5 premiere will hopefully shed some light on nagging questions that have kept social media ablaze for months. Where will Tyrion Lannister turn up after escaping his death sentence? What machinations does Littlefinger have in store? And what about those pesky dragons?
With the upcoming season premiere, it seems appropriate that Game of Thrones, which boasts some impressive social media numbers of its own, would be the basis for a clever breakdown of top social media networks courtesy of SHIFT Communications.
This social media map, modeled after the map of Westeros, is cleverly titled “A Song of PR & Social.” For the seven people in America who have never watched Game of Thrones, Westeros is the fictional land in which the show takes place. And the book series by author George R.R. Martin upon which the show is based is called “A Song of Ice and Fire.”
According to SHIFT’s look at total followers, Facebook currently sits upon the Iron Throne, while Google+ and YouTube seek to battle it for social media supremacy. There are a number of upstarts, though, that could tip the balance of power in the future, including Snapchat and international networks such as China’s QZone.
Some communicators might think that Facebook will remain the dominant social network based on its current number of followers. But the Targaryens probably thought they would sit on the Iron Throne forever, too. As with the battle for the kingdom of Westeros, the contest for which social media network will dominate is far from certain.
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Follow Richard Brownell: @RickBrownell