At the end of #TomsSpiritWeek (TSW) in 2013, I really didn't know if there would be any interest in recreating the week in 2014. Luckily, for TSW fans (especially myself, haha!), the meteoric rise of Tom Hiddleston's career in 2013 meant that he was still incredibly relevant, and therefore still incredibly worthy of a week devoted to honoring him.
So TSW 2014 appeared, formed out of late night Twitter chats and lots of giggling. Ideas for themes for the days of the week revealed themselves whenever Tom did or said anything; I considered "dance day" as well as "hot buttered toast day." And of course, the Nerd HQ conversation yielded a theme suggestion from Tom himself, and "Act of Good Will (Shakespeare)" day became a real, weird, and wonderful thing.
TSW 2014 blew me away on so many levels. We reached an INCREDIBLE amount of people this year. Studying the #TomsSpiritWeek hashtag showed that HUNDREDS of people used it in THOUSANDS of tweets. According to one report, the hashtag had over 293,000 individual timeline deliveries during 7 Feb. to 10 Feb. (via hashtracking.com). Pictures showed up on Instagram with the daily hashtags, bringing MORE people into the fun.
And wow, DID WE HAVE FUN. We colored mustaches on ourselves with Sharpies. We replaced a word of Shakespeare with "Hiddleston." We wore cosplays of our favorite Tom characters to work and school. We danced like loons in our cars, in our chairs in the office, at stores... We made people question our sanity. We enjoyed the silly potential of every day.
When it was time to do good things, this community stepped up in droves. We donated blood. We bought meals and groceries for strangers. We knitted caps for infants and cancer patients. We supported our favorite charities financially. We opened our hearts. We gave our time. Many people reported that "Act of Good Will" day was their favorite, and for good reason. It feels good to do good.
It also feels good to give credit where it is due, so...
THANK YOU to Tom Hiddleston himself for having a birthday. ;-)
THANK YOU to Robin (@LaceAndBooks) for making the graphic that was shared worldwide (and was even translated into different languages!).
THANK YOU to Megan (@thenerdygirlie) for creating the cosplay looks that gave so many of us ideas for TomsTwinThursday.
THANK YOU to hollowcrownfans , who gave me the thumbs up to begin the week on ShakespeareSunday for the second year in a row (and the honor of choosing the 2 Feb theme!).
THANK YOU to @Loki_Page , for giving me the freedom to share their graphic and hashtag freely for February 9. It was awesome trending HappyBirthdayTomHiddleston with everyone!
THANK YOU to hiddlememes and hiddlesgoddesses and @hiddlestonersfb for helping promote the week on their respective accounts. We reached so many people thanks to your kind gestures!
THANK YOU to travisthegrimm , who asked Tom the question at Nerd HQ that got us a Spirit Week theme. I will never stop thanking you for that.
But most of all, THANK YOU, friends, for believing in the good intentions of the game. THANK YOU for trusting in yourselves enough to bring the game to life in your own ways. THANK YOU for sharing and including all of us in your week. I hope you met new friends this week. I hope you did something out of your comfort level this week. I hope you stayed out of Twitter jail this week. ;-)
Finally... I remember the exact moment I began sharing the TSW 2014 themes. I was in my Regents Park hotel room in London. I had just seen Tom in Coriolanus, and I was listening to Daft Punk to unwind a bit. It seemed ironic that I was sharing the week's details after I had JUST seen Tom in person. As I tweeted out the individual days, and saw the excitement build (and match my own) via retweets and comments, I knew that this year was going to be HUGE. The numbers and comments and laughter and warm fuzzy feelings proved it.
Thank you again for making #TomsSpiritWeek so much fun! See you next year. :-) xx
@HiddlesEducates on Twitter
