How I ended up Working with Netflix on The Queen's Gambit #NetflixTheQG

 I watched The Queen's Gambit on Netflix as soon as it was released. I may have been in the first half million people in the world to have watched it as I watched pretty much sitting motionless for 7 hours but for comfort breaks. Afterwards, I tried to find out what Netflix had done on social media for the show. I went onto Facebook, nothing, Twitter, nothing, Instagram nothing but some weird stan account with tens of thousands of fans but didn't even seem like they were legit or even pretending to be. In a panic, I even went to TikTok and of course nothing. Okay so I went back to Twitter, they had posted some low key promotion on Netflix and Netflix Queue but still, no dedicated social media account anywhere. I was astounded.


Well, this just was not going to be good enough for me (and I suspected a few million chess fans and randoms). I started writing DMs to Netflix Executives and eventually found the actual Social Media Manager. I told her exactly what I thought about the amazing Netflix series The Queen's Gambit and told her I was the Co-founder of Chess Club Live and would post for free and with no agenda (even I believed it lol at the time). So the rules were no self-promotion for commercial gain and taking the lead from the incredible Netflix Queue team. Netflix had full control of the account from the start and logged in a few times but the majority of posts were done by me. Major updates and awards were handled by Netflix Queue. I can honestly say it was like being in chess heaven. I would like to thank the team at Netflix Queue for letting me steer the ship during what was a very rewarding campaign for the Netflix social media team. Every post I did had Netflix mentioned and even though the account was never going to be verified by Netflix they tolerated some of my Chess Club Live type flourishes like the video montages and chess memes. I created lists for everything, the cast and crew, professional chess women, chess tournaments, chess magazines,  fan artists etc. I thought it would be cool to follow only 64 people and left Chess Club Live as the last followed, so if anyone was still in doubt we were behind it they shouldn't be now but still, it seemed that people didn't realise it was a collaboration between Chess Club Live and Netflix Queue. It was most obvious when a technical chess question was asked and answered with insider chess knowledge. Also when I'd post a reply to a chess tournament or chess grandmaster. Anyways it was a thrilling ride and I'm happy it made the celebration of the greatest chess anthology on television even more real and risible to true chess fans including the numerous new chess fans as a result of the brilliance of the show.



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