So, you may or may not know that Once Upon a Time has been nominated for 4 People’s Choice Awards this year. The PCA show is January 9th, but if you really want Once Upon a Time to win all 4 categories, we have a lot of work to do.
Seriously, the competition is steep, and this will take ALL of the fans working long hours, consistently long hours, to make it happen.
Alright, let’s go through the steps to vote first, then I will give you some strategies to make it easier and how to get help along the way to give OUAT a better chance at winning.
Step One – Where to Go
Go to http://www.peopleschoice.com/pca/votenow.jsp
* Power Voter Tip: Make that web address a favorite, so you can go back to it again and again.
This is the first screen you will see:
Decision time;
A. You can click on your choice for each category and click on the arrow on the right side of the screen, then go on to B, or skip voting for all the categories and just focus on the 4 for OUAT,
B. Scroll down to this section of the screen.
Now, you can click to one of the four categories and vote for them over and over again.
Step Two – Get to know the four categories;
Favorite Network TV Drama
OUAT is up against-
Gossip Girl
Grey’s Anatomy
Grimm and
Revenge
Favorite SciFi/Fantasy TV Show
OUAT is up against-
Doctor Who
Supernatural
The Vampire Dairies
The Walking Dead
Ginnifer Goodwin in Favorite Dramatic TV Actress
Ginnifer Goodwin is up against-
Ellen Pompeo
Emily Deschanel
Nina Dobrev
Stana Katic
Favorite TV Fan Following
Oncers (we) are up against-
Gleeks
Little Liars
SPNFamily (Supernatural)
TVDFamily (The Vampire Diaries)
Reality Check – Remember I said that if we REALLY want OUAT to win the 4 categories, that it would take ALL of us voting like crazy? If you go through the list OUAT’s competition, it is big competition. Doctor Who and The Walking Dead alone have huge fan bases, and even though we are fans of a #1 Drama, we still need to focus on this task. We can work together and accomplish this awesome goal for the show we love, but don’t need to just blog about it, talk about it on a podcast or talk about it on Twitter, we need to do the hard work of voting.
Step Three – Voting
When you hover over OUAT on, let’s say Favorite TV Fan Following, it will show “Click to Vote”, Go ahead, click.
then you will see a checkmark validating that you did vote. You will briefly see a “Sending Vote” message, then a checkmark signifying that your vote was registered.
You should also notice two buttons on the lower right hand corner of the screen to share the fact that you voted for a particular category. We will focus on the “Tweet Your Vote” button, because we have some tips to let more people than just your followers that you voted (It’s a great reminder for Oncers). Click on the “Tweet Your Vote” button. You will see this new window appear…
You could Tweet this message out as is, but I’m going to teach you a semi-geeky trick to expand your Tweet to more than just your followers.
Hashtag – What is it? A word or mushed together phrase that begins with a #. Tagging or Hashtagging a comment with #Oncer , #OUAT or #OnceUponaTime will allow people that are sreaching for all information on those hashtags to see your message. It is a powerful tool to remind and gather the troops to vote for Once Upon a Time.
ReTweeting – Whenever you see someone Tweeting about voting on the People’s Choice Awards for OUAT, ReTweet them. The more we all help each other remind the rest of the fans to vote, we will do more than if we just voted ourselves.
Step Four – Adding Power to the “Tweet Your Vote” message
We know the message that the PCA site wanted you to send out, right?
It’s a good Tweet, but not a great Tweet. Let’s change a few things and make it great.
I did a few things;
I added a hashtag to Oncers, giving it power to go out to all #Oncers on Twitter,
I removed “Retweet to vote” to save room for more ReTweeters. **Remember that if your message is retweeted over and over, you have to make room for other’s Twtter names.
I used a url shortener (on my Twitter client of choice, Hootsuite) to scrunch down http://http://www.peopleschoice.com/pca/votenow.jsp to http://ow.ly/fr8qx , again to save room for future retweeting
Finally, I added a shortened RT (to remind people to retweet this) and “& Vote Often!” to remind them to keep voting.
It takes a few steps, but by doing this will give your Tweet more power to reach more people on Twitter and give it a better chance to be retweeted over and over again. Here is what I created for each category after I voted;
I just voted for #Oncers #tvfans #PeoplesChoice. ow.ly/fnfpx RT & Vote Often!!
I just voted for @ginnygoodwin #dramatictvactress #PeoplesChoice. ow.ly/fnfcG RT & Vote Often!!
Super Duper Voter Tip: I did something special for the above Tweet. I added Ginnifer Goodwin’s Twitter name, so it would be seen (and hopefully noticed and retweeted) by Ginnifer Goodwin, too.
I just voted for #OnceUponaTime #scifishow #PeoplesChoice. ow.ly/fneSC Retweet & Vote Often!!
I just voted for #OnceUponaTime #networkdrama #PeoplesChoice. ow.ly/fnfuC RT & Vote Often!!
Feel free to use them if you wish, but Tweeting only may remind people, but we have to get in there and vote, too. Let me give you an easier way to vote;
Use your favorite to go to http://www.peopleschoice.com/pca/votenow.jsp, then scroll down to the bottom portion of the screen…
Click on one of the categories, vote, Click on the next OUAT category, vote, repeat over and over again.
Step Five – Some final thoughts
Please don’t actually vote, because “there are so many OUAT fans” that will vote. We all love the show, and we all need to work together in this to see that it gets the awards it deserves. Remember, this is one of the few times that our actions can turn into awards for our favorite show. Let’s work together for this.
The more awards OUAT wins, the more focus and importance OUAT will have to ABC and the future seasons of the show.
More Awesome Power Voting Tips – * Quick Shoutout to Jane Espenson.
If you don’t follow her on Twitter, you should. She has written for some of the best Sci Fi and Fantasy shows on TV (including OUAT, as well as the role of a producer), and she does something on Twitter that I think is sooo cool. Many times when she writes, she Tweets out a “Writing Sprint” which is a shared call for all the writers to hunker down and focus for a segment of time (and stay of Twitter, I would imagine, too). Many people use this reminder to share in her “Writing Sprint” to continue the art of writing together, using Twitter as a reminder. That gave me an idea – For Voting for OUAT.
One of us, or many of us can set aside a section of time and Tweet out “Hey #Oncers, PCA Voting for OUAT with me at ow.ly/fnfuC for 30 mins RT & Vote Often!! Go!!” (or whatever time you’ve got to vote) This is a variation of the single category voting reminders, but I like the calling together (like Jane does) to vote as a shared experience.
Use The Power of Once Upon a Time Podcasting, Blogging and Community to give OUAT a better chance of winning the 4 categories.
We have seen Social Media, Blogging and Podcasting being used to “rally the troops” to vote for a President, podcast and help people suffering in tough situations, but now we need to use these tools for a TV show, our favorite TV show.
OUAT Podcasters: Use your shows, blogs and Social Media “voices” to get the fans out and vote,
* If you are an OUAT fan podcast listener, email the hosts to remind them to use a portion of the show to remind and rally the fans to vote! Heck, you can even leave a suggestion on the Official OUAT Podcast Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/OnceABC) and ask them to mention voting, too.
OUAT Bloggers: Use your blogs and Social Media “voices” to get the fans out and vote,
OUAT Tumblrs: See above.
You get the picture, right? As much as I care about traffic to my site/blog and listeners for my podcast (and I do, believe me), it’s time to send focus to this effort for awards for OUAT.
It’s not about me now, it’s about the show.
Without OUAT, I wouldn’t have a podcast, blog, etc.
One Last (and hardest) suggestion – Trade some time for OUAT!
We all do something that’s fun (and most of the time, mindless) during our spare time (We all have some, even if it’s a little bit), like Scrolling through Tumblr, youtube, blogs, Facebook (yes, playing Farmville, etc), playing XBox360, Playstation3, watching some “Reality” TV show, etc, etc. Whatever you find yourself doing during your spare time, decide to trade that time to vote for OUAT in the People’s Choice Awards.
That may sound like a strange request (and maybe none of my business to suggest), but I remember the outrage on Twitter after OUAT didn’t win the People’s Choice Awards they were up for last year.
We need to step up our game to win the 4 categories this year, and since I see a whole bunch of fans Tweeting about this Tumblr spoiler or that bogpost, etc, I know there is some spare time that could be used differently. Just sayin’
** Updated 11/22/12 **
One More Thing – I know that in the OUAT fandom there are subgroups;
#evilregals
#teamseven
#littlereds
etc, etc
Let me gingerly make a suggestion. Even if Ginnifer Goodwin doesn’t play your favorite character on Once Upon a Time, remember that a vote for Ginnifer is actually a vote for Once Upon a Time (which is the show that your favorite character is on), so let’s all vote for Ginnifer, as well as Once Upon a Time! 🙂
So, that’s it. Take these ideas, tips and suggestions let’s help OUAT win this year!
You can follow us at @ouatpodcast