Creating Community around LOST

My last post featured the story of my Dad's dedication to a single project for his entire career, and this post stays in the family, this time with my Brother and all that he put into his work covering LOST for Entertainment Weekly.  There must be something in the Jensen male gene that keeps us engaged in a single activity, and focused on seeing it through...from my Dad and his work as a detective, to my Brother and his commitment to LOST, to my own story of spending 10 years with a local technology company.  Either way, for this post I want to recognize my Brother and what he has done for Entertainment and the LOST community by providing his insights and opinions over the last 6 years.  His passion for the show, and his desire to try and determine what it all meant and to share that with the LOST community is a great example of "Making it Happen."

I have to admit that I am not an avid LOST fan.  I watched it occasionally, but as a result of infrequent attention to the show I was ironically "Lost" quite a bit.  For me, I liked the challenge of trying to figure it all out, when I had no idea what was going on.  The other attraction was trying to be somewhat informed as I followed the various online blog posts and videos under Doc Jensen.  So, when it came to the finale, I didn't camp out and watch every minute..in fact, I only watched the last hour.  It didnt matter though, because I knew that the next day I would heave Doc Jensen's recap waiting for me to help explain what it all mean...and I'm not alone in that.  As Jeff's reputation for thoughtful analysis and "inside scoop" emerged he started to have a very loyal following.  People eagerly anticipated his weekly breakdown of all the details from the previous week as well as what was to come.  Also, over time Jeff and his EW partner, Dan Snierson, stared to get active in Social Media to further their message.  On twitter, @EWDocJensen has over 21,000 followers. His Doc Jensen blog typically received many 100's of comments.  And their weekly Totally Lost videos I'm sure get a lot of views.  Given that I am in the social media/community space for my job, it is great to see how Jeff, and the EW team, have created a community around the show and have leveraged social media tools (blogs, twitter, video) to expand the reach of their message.  The LOST audience was eager for the kind of storytelling and insight that Jeff offered, and I think were entertained by the creativity that he and Dan put into the Totally Lost videos.  It provided an opportunity for the audience to see the "real" side of Jeff and the person behind the columns.

So, cheers to Jeff and what he did over the last 6 years covering the show.  I know it meant a lot to him, and he had a passion for delivering on what the entertainment world wanted...someone to try and make sense of it all.  As he moves on to something else, I'm sure it wont be easy to let go of 6 years of brain numbing analysis, but I'm sure he will Make It Happen again, just as he did with LOST.  

Great job bro!