Fannibals — let’s stay positive and continue our fight to save Hannibal.

After the news of Hannibal‘s cancelation by NBC, Fannibals took to social media in protest, doing whatever they can to try to save our beloved show. It’s been only two weeks since the news; however, I feel that some Fannibals may be losing hope that we will see a fourth season. Additionally, the rumors about the cast being released from their contracts hasn’t helped the overall morale of the Fannibals. Many have tweeted to De Laurentiis Company (DLC), asking if the rumor is true, however DLC stated they were unable to comment (ex. here and here). Don’t let that deter you, however, dear Fannibals. Another person asked if we should still have hope, and DLC said “We do.” If they thought it was a lost cause, they could have ignored the question; after all I’m sure they get bombarded with tweets. The fact that they want us to keep fighting is a positive sign — let that motivate you.

The Nielsen ratings, sadly, continue to fall. I don’t know if it’s because some Fannibals are protesting NBC (if you are, please don’t; this only hurts the show), or if some mistakenly believe the show is no longer airing, or for some other reasons. Nielsen ratings may not be important to NBC anymore; however if another channel were to pick up the show, I’m sure they will take the ratings into consideration. On the other hand, if a streaming service (such as Amazon) were to pick up the show, then the ratings won’t be as important, but our social media presence may be very beneficial.

That said, there are some things we can be doing to continue the fight for Hannibal. One of the most important things a Fannibal can do is be vocal on Twitter. If you’re not on Twitter, what are you waiting for? If you are on Twitter, there are a number of hashtags that we’ve been using in order to get recognized; they include: #SaveHannibal, #HelpHannibal, #LetHannibalLive, and #LoyalFannibal.

Every Thursday, DLC (as well as showrunner Bryan Fuller, many of the writers, and even actor Aaron Abrams) live tweet with the Fannibals during the east and west coast airing of the show. This is always a treat for the Fannibals, as they often post behind the scenes pictures and anecdotes. During the live tweeting, we try to get #Hannibal and/or a special designated hashtag for that week’s episode trending. Getting a hashtag to trend is helpful because it displays to any potential home for Hannibal just how passionate our fandom is about the show. There’s also the potential to draw in new viewers if they see a trending hashtag.

In addition to trending, Nielsen ratings now also counts tweets; typically we make it into the Nielsen Daily Top Five for Thursday’s airing of Hannibal (last week we were #3). Nielsen counts tweets for a show three hours before the show airs, during the airing, and up to three hours after the show airs. For Hannibal, that means from 7 p.m. EST to 2 a.m. EST, Nielsen counts #Hannibal.

Information for July 9

This coming Thursday, the special designated hashtag is #MadsAndHugh. It’s very important to NOT use this hashtag before Thursday at 9 p.m. EST; I cannot stress this enough. In order to get a hashtag to trend, we need a sudden, dramatic increase in the use of the hashtag. The more we use a hashtag before then, the less likely we will get it to trend. More information on the special hashtag for this week can be found on DLC’s Facebook account.

What if you won’t be online Thursday night to do the live tweeting? You can schedule tweets in advance using either Tweetdeck or Hootsuite. Both sites are relatively easy to use, though I found Tweetdeck a bit easier and more accommodating. On Hootsuite, one can only schedule tweets every five minutes, but on Tweetdeck, one can schedule for every minute. You can also schedule two tweets a minute; as well as schedule tweets from multiple accounts. If you use either site to schedule tweets, be careful of time zone differences, so that you are scheduling tweets at the correct time.

Other things we can do while tweeting is target specific companies, such as Amazon, Hulu, etc. Also, tweeting to the sponsors (commercials), thanking them for sponsoring Hannibal is a nice gesture. Some sponsors have replied back to Fannibals even.

One last thing we can do on Twitter is to sign up for the Thunderclap. It is free, quick, and easy. Basically, Thunderclap will send out a tweet from every single account that signs up for it, all at the same exact scheduled time. For example, if 500 people sign up, then at the time scheduled, a tweet will be sent out from all 500 counts, at the same time. This can help us get the dramatic increase we need to trend a hashtag. This week’s Thunderclap can be found here.

Remember Fannibals, it has only been two weeks. Negotiations, contracts, etc. take time; it’s not something that just happens overnight. We need to remain patient, polite, and keep pushing forward to try to save our show. I understand that it is easy to get discouraged, but as long as DLC and our showrunner are fighting for the show, we owe it to them to keep fighting along with them. Don’t lose hope, Fannibals — we’re not done yet.