Social Media versus the Zombies – follow me to victory!

Some of you have heard this story before, but I have an update on recent developments. To others, especially participants in the third Campaign, it may well be news.

About a month and a half ago, I posted about a challenge from a writer I met at the CSSF short fiction workshop this summer, Chuck. Chuck got a little zombie story published up at the ‘Tales of the Zombie War’ site, and said that he’d never been convinced about the idea of using social media to get readers, but that he’d give those of us with blogs or twitter accounts a chance to prove their worth – if we got 40 people to post comments to his story by next summer, he’d wear a t-shirt admitting defeat to the next Campbell Science Fiction Conference in Lawrence, Kansas.

I eagerly took up the challenge, and did what I could over July and August to spread the news about Chuck’s story and urge others to leave their comments. I sent an email to the 2nd crusader’s Yahoo group telling them about it. And the comment count on the story rose one at a time, or a few at once… up to 36.

We’re so close, and having risked all of my blogger cred on this little challenge, I am not about to give up before hitting 40. So please, my new Campaigner friends, I beg of you if you haven’t already done it – go read the story and reply with your thoughts, whether they’re good or bad.

We can’t let the zombies think that they’re better than bloggers after all – can we? 😉

Prove the Zombies wrong! Social platforms can build readership.

I got this missive in my inbox yesterday:

Subject: My Zombies Challenge You to Prove Them Wrong About Social Media

I have a previously workshopped story up on Tales of the Zombie War.  Now, one thing I’m a bit of a zombie about is the alleged power of social media.  I’m just not convinced that it does all that much to increase readership or sales.  But it strikes me that this might be an opportunity for those of you who have drank the social media cool-aid to prove me wrong.  Tales of the Zombie War is one of those places where readers can leave comments.  Typically, a story on this site averages 25 comments.  So throw your followers at me, urge them to check out my story and leave comment.  If the power of your social network raises the comment count to 40 or greater, I will have to admit I am Luddite and will wear a t-shirt so saying to the next Campbell Conference.  Here’s the link:  http://www.talesofworldwarz.com/stories/2011/07/11/running-on-ahead-by-chuck-von-nordheim/

Now, Chuck is a really great writer, the winner of the best revised story at the short fiction workshop that I just got back from in Kansas, and you really should check out his story, because you’ll probably like it a lot.

But also – for reasons of my own, I really would love to prove Chuck wrong about this and make him wear that t-shirt.

So please, for my sake, go to the link and post a comment whether you enjoyed reading the story or not! Thanks very much.

Update – well, as of the afternoon of July 28th, we’re at 26 posts and rising. There’s still plenty of time to reach 40, unless interest dies off entirely. If you want to take part in the battle between social media and zombies, please link on your blog, facebook, or twitter – either to me, or directly to Chuck’s story on the talesofworldwarz site. Together, we can do it!