April 29, 2025 • 29 mins
Today on “Happy Hour,” we have a very special guest: Suzana, otherwise known as Bachelor Data! Suzana is here to dive into all things Bachelor! We get to know her a little better, including how Bachelor Data came to be--you never know where lying on your résumé will take you! Then, we get into some of the most fascinating data behind the franchise, including all of her hot takes, observations, and so much more. Tune in now for all this and more and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode, including part two, which drops later this week!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, everyone, Welcome back to Bachler Happy Hour. I'm Joe
and I'm Serena, and we are here today with a
very special guest who has not been on The Bachelor. Susannah.
Welcome to a Bachelor happy Hour for our listeners. She
is also Bachelor Data. What a lot of people know you.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
As Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Be on of course, of course, where are you located?
Where do you live?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm joining from Denver, Colorado, So if anybody's been following me,
I actually started my whole Bachelor Data journey out in Boston, Massachusetts,
and then through working on this page, we were actually
able to move to our dreams. Stayed out here Colorado
for all the skiing and everything, living the good life
out here.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Nice. You are you from Boston?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
No, I actually grew up in Austin, Texas, so moved
to Boston after college.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
What do you How do you feel about Austin, Texas.
I'm actually going there for my brother bachelor party.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It was a really fun town to grow up in.
I haven't been back since twenty nineteen, so I think
it's a I think it's a pretty different city these days.
I saw it through the before it became cool, and
then it became cool around the time that I was
in college at UT Austin, and it's a it's a
really fun town.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Nice. Nice. Okay, so you went to University of Texas.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
You said, yeah, I actually so. I majored in elementary education,
became an elementary teacher actually at the school I grew
up going to. And then I met my now partner,
Tim and we met in Austin, Texas, and then he
had to relocate for work up to Boston. And it
was through that whole process with work that bachelor came
(01:45):
to be, or bachelor data came to be. I got
a job out in Boston as basically like a tech
specialist helping teachers with technology and education, and that position
morphed into a technology director role. And on one of
my job applications, I lied and said I was proficient
in Excel, as we all do.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, no, shame, this is a safe space.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, all I could do if anybody does use Excel,
all I could do was like equal some and then
drag like a range of cells. And I was like, yeah,
I know how to use Excel, and ended up getting
the job and found out on the first day that
I had to actually be proficient and Excel that they
were really relying on that person to run reports, build
dashboards and stuff like that. So the first few months
(02:28):
I kind of struggled along with the help of my dad,
who's an engineer, constantly calling him up for help. And
then that Christmas break, I was home for Christmas busiting
my family and an ad came on the TV for
Colton season of The Bachelor, and my dad was like, Hey,
you should really consider analyzing something more fun as a
(02:49):
way to learn Excel instead of using this like state
testing data, which is really boring and dry. And I
was like, you know, maybe we can analyze like the
social media growth for Coulton's contestants. So I set up
as redsheet with all the contestants Instagram accounts, and every
single day of Colton's season, I would open up every
single one of their profiles and it would take their
follower accounts, and that way I could see what happened
(03:12):
on the show that led to the most social media growth.
And basically that became a project for about two years
for me to learn how to use Excel, and then
I started my Instagram account during Peter's season, so just
before the world shut down.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Okay, okay wo yeah yeah, okay, So wait were you
did you watch the show or was it just like random,
like let me just start analyzing, analyzing?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Oh god, no. So I started watching The Bachelor when
I was in college my freshman year. I was like
in my dorm board one day and I started watching.
I think it was Brad Womack season or Jake Pavelko
was one of those two. Was my first, and I
went back and watched previous ones. So I've been watching
the show since then. So I've watched Bachelor pad, I've
watched Winter Games, like I've done them all. And it
(03:57):
was just like a fun thing for me to watch
and you know, chat about with my friends, with my mom.
And the data part of it is where it really
got fun for me, because then I could, you know,
we have these assumptions that we make as we watch
the show, like the people who get more screen time,
the people get one on one dates, the fan favorites,
they're going to get more social media growth. But then
it started to really grow into something else where people
(04:18):
were like, well, if you wear a certain dress color
on night one, will you make it further, or if
you get the fireworks date or the horseback writing date
or the helicopter date, will you will you be eliminated
quickly or make it further? And it just kind of snowballed.
And now we I think last I looked, we have
analyzed over eighty different data points on the show, everything
(04:40):
from screen time, date types, social media growth ratings, like
we do it all.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Can you watch the show now and watch episode one
and kind of have a good feel for who you
think is gonna go far just based off just based
off of data.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I wish that I could, but unfortunately, so since I
analyze data right in numbers in general, I have to
be aware of every single variable that impacts the data
that we analyze. So, like social media growth is a
big one, right and one of the major things that
I have to keep an eye on that could impact
social media growth are spoilers. So in a lot of seasons,
(05:23):
spoilers are incorrect until like halfway through the season. We
saw that with Joey's season, the spoiler was that Daisy
one until part way through the season and then it
switched to Kelsey. But those are things that I have
to be aware of to see if they're impacting them.
I will say too, and I don't have any interest
in spoiling, So I'm not like Bachelor Fantake or like
the other accounts that like they're trying to dig to
(05:45):
find a specific spoiler, Like I don't care. So I
typically try to stay away from fueling spoilers, but I
have to keep an eye on them.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Do you have to keep an eye on them for
the purpose of seeing how they affect people's followings.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, it is, but it depends on the season. So
that's the interesting thing about social media growth. You have
some like most seasons, the spoilers will come out before
the season even starts to air, but a lot of
seasons they do not impact social media growth. So like
Clarentatious season, the spoiler about Zach Winning was out before
the season started to air, but he was non existent
(06:22):
on the social media trends until like the last three weeks.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Real quick, because I want to go back to the
beginning Culton season because it's also around my time, so
I want to ask about himself. Yeah, real quick, real quick,
you said on your Instagram story that you thought you
would never be invited on this podcast. Why did you think.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
That, Well, you know, the thing that's interesting about my
page is I I will report the data regardless if
it's good or bad. You know, I I don't hold back.
I will say, especially as somebody who I started as
an elementary teacher, I did a lot on digital citizenship
and I've preached a lot of wanting to make the
Internet a better place just because as something that I've learned,
(07:05):
especially with my account is that negative content makes you
grow like crazy and not to like get like political
and stuff. But we can really see that outside of
the Bachelor universe as well, Like if you create negative content,
man it it creates divisiveness in the comments that pushes
your stuff through the algorithm. So over the all this.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Rage baiting we're seeing now on like TikTok, people like
intentionally making videos that like are just going to piss
people off for engagement.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Exactly, and like I've seen it in my own trends.
I analyze my own data obviously, and anytime I post
controversial things or things that air more on the negative
and critical side, I get a ton of social media growth.
And if I were to lean into that, I could
easily have like eight nine hundred thousand followers, but I'd
really try to be picky about what I do. You know,
I am critical of the franchise at times. I do
think that there are certain decisions sometimes where I'm like,
(07:54):
what were you guys thinking? This was not a great decision,
and it's so typically backed by the data. But I
have to say, like, mad respect you guys have me
on and also if anybody is listening, it was very
much like there's no data off the table on this conversation.
You don't need to, like, you know, hold back, and
I really respect that.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, I mean, are we follow you?
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I started following you after my time on the show,
and Joe, I think around the same time I started following.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
You, I was like, oh, wow, this is this is
like I don't I'm not really interested in like spoilers
for the show or anything like that because I just
don't really care. But when your page came up, I
was like, oh, I actually this is interesting, Like I
want to know how this shit works because it is
like I feel like, I so you started around Culton season,
(08:43):
which I was back at season so the season before.
But I do feel like that was kind of the
time where like people's social media accounts were really starting
to blow up, right.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And I do have some data points from before Coulton season,
Like I do have your data, but let's it was
really like twenty sixteen to twenty twenty that we really
saw just social media take off, not only for this show,
but also the influencing world outside of the Bachelor, for
other reality TV shows as well. I feel like that's
where people really started to watch just TV in general
(09:16):
and be like, Oh, I love this person that I'm watching.
I want to see their day to day lives. I
was even guilty that myself during Colton season. I was like,
Hannah Godwin has the best highlighter, Like I need to
go follow her to figure out which one it is.
And I still buy that one to this day, Like,
you know, I think that's where we really saw that pickup,
but also the influencing side of things which also really
fed into that. And then when the pandemic hit, that's
(09:39):
when TikTok came in and kind of started. We're now
starting to see decreases in that because people's attention is
now being spent over on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, what are some data points you have on me?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Okay? Really interesting because pos I forgot that I had these,
so I was able to get through Reddit and then
also some of my own data points that I took
just out of curiosity for Becas season. So I have
all of your cast how many followers they had a
week before the show aired, and then I have data
points throughout the season plus a week after. But for you,
(10:21):
a week before Becca season aired, you had four hundred
twenty followers. That's it.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah, yeah, and you were at like three posts.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I don't even think I would say in a week
before that, I just started my Instagram.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah, and we didn't you make Instagram to go on
the show?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
You actually your cast. There were quite a few men
who had big followings. One of them, I will say
was buying followers, but he was pretty irrelevant. Who was
Leo that is yeah, yeah, yeah, we don't even talk
about it. But there were people with like one hundred
and seventy seven thousand followers Camille. We had a lot
(10:59):
of contestants who like actually had a decent following. Colton
Underwood had forty two thousand followers. But what's really interesting
is that Joe four hundred and twenty followers, less than
twenty four hours after the premiere aired, he was nearly
at ten thousand followers already, which was pretty big back then.
And then the by the end of the season, so
(11:24):
a week before the finale aired, he had seventy four
thousand followers. Reminder, if you guys have forgotten, Joe was
eliminated night one. So that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah, I was.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
I don't even know if I had that many followers.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I remember it being crazy. I probably lost all those
people now I don't know why.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
I mean, yeah, wow, shout out if you're listening to
this podcast and you were one of those og seventy
k followers.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
And then so the big thing about the end of
Becca season was Bachelor and Paradise aired the next day.
So right after the finale, I don't have data points
because again I really wasn't doing this seriously back then.
But a week later, Joe already had one hundred eighty
six thousand followers.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
How can you how that's crazy? How can you tell
if somebody can you actually see I've never bought followers,
but can you tell if somebody is like you can
actually tell? Because you how like, what's the.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, So it takes. It takes some time to research.
And let me tell you, guys, I was so happy
when I looked into y'all's followings because I have scrapers
running on the back end that runs everybody's like counts
and like important people, former leads, et cetera. And I
can't just look at a data set and be like, yeah,
they're buying followers. So there's a lot of investigation that
needs to go into it. But the big things that
we look at are just sudden gains in one day
(12:42):
and then the next day a sudden loss. So anytime
I see big gains, like I was looking through y'all'
follower accounts last night to be like, oh, should I
not bring up buying followers? But I can, because you
guys are in the clear.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
We're losing. I'm losing. I lose on a consistent basis.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I don't even know what I did, but I was
looking through your accounts, and I was looking at when
you guys got married, but I didn't know your wedding
date off the top of my head, and I saw
both of you guys suddenly gain that one month. It
was twenty twenty two, right October.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Yes, that was our courthouse wedding.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Courthouse wedding.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, yeah, so I saw both of you guys gain.
So whenever I see gains like that, the first thing
I do is I go in and I investigate first,
like was there anything in the media happening with them?
So I searched during those days and I was like, boom,
they got married. But I'll see were there any controversies happening.
I'll take a look through a feed and see if
any post went viral around the time that that post
went up. And I'm seeing those gains, like there's a
(13:35):
lot that feeds into it. The other thing that I'll
look at is engagement on posts to see like the
view count versus the likes versus the follows. And then
the last thing that I'll look at too whenever somebody,
when I suspect somebody is I'll go and look at
their following list where you can see people who have
followed them. And the way Instagram displays that is it
shows the most recent people who followed on that list,
(13:57):
and you can just you can look down that list.
It looks like a bunch of bots.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah interest, have have you ever had anyone from our
franchise or any franchise.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
I guess because you you do data on other reality
shows as well.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Right, reach out to you and kind of like like
upset with you, like any like crazy?
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Yeah, like don't like, don't expose me or like tell
me how to get more followers.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I've had one.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Really, really, who could you tell us? You don't have
to if you don't want to.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Tell you guys after this, okay, tell us object.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I do have a question, So, like I do know
a way people, So, like, I'm assuming I'm losing I
lose followers kind of on a consistent basis. You know,
I only grew followers I'm not, like, not from being
a content creator, but from being on a television show,
which then you are somewhat relevant and you're in the
news and that's kind of how you grow. So since
(14:55):
I'm off a show, I'm constantly losing followers. Why is that? Like,
why is it just like people are just like I
no longer want to I mean obviously people are like
I no longer want to follow him, But why is
it like it's almost like kind of constant.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
It's a pattern.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
It's like a pattern.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, So I've listened to a lot of interviews too
from the Instagram CEO Adam Masiri on this and it's
really interesting. So people are first and foremost people are
constantly auditing the lists that they follow, so be it
they look through their following list to clean it up
a bit, or they're swiping through stories and they see
stories from somebody they're like, I'm just not interested in
this person anymore and they unfollow. It's really so many
(15:39):
different variables. But also a lot of people are, especially
in the last year and a half with all of
the TikTok and meta and what people are doing with
their data, a lot of people are deleting their accounts.
There's so many different variables there, but the biggest one
I think is really just the people auditing their following
lists and seeing who they want to follow and who
they don't. But and it's also so it's really interesting
(16:01):
the way the Bachelor franchise with social media growth happens
versus something like Love is Blind, for example. It's my
favorite example comparing those two because two very different platforms. Right,
the Bachelor franchise, whenever a season ends airing, right, it's
available on Hulu that you can watch for a certain
amount of time, and then it disappears like you can't
just go on to Hulu and just watch Matt James
(16:21):
season for example, or Katie Thurston season. You really have
to go dig for it or go on Amazon and
like rent this season or by this season. Whereas other
network shows like Love Is Blind, for example, whenever a
new season drops, you'll see that contestants from previous seasons
see a big gain in social media growth because people
start to watch that season and they're like, oh, let
me go back and watch the old seasons. And then
(16:42):
they'll watch season one and be like, oh, Ganina, let
me go follow her and see what she's up to
now all these years later. So it's really different the
viewing habits and the following habits of different networks as well.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
That is interesting. Do you ever track engagement rate?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I do, and it's really interesting because, especially during a season,
to see engagement rates of who's interacting on which posts
will typically see that, especially in this post twenty twenty world,
a lot of people are engaging really negatively on the
more like villain edits of the show or people who
are getting arguments within the house. They'll be like team
(17:18):
so and so or Team SO and so. Then people
fight within the comments that typically drives a lot of
the engagement. And then you also have people really wanting
to support and commenting on everything for the fan favorites
each season. But that's actually one of the data points
that I tracked during Colton season. My first one was like,
did anybody do brand deals in the middle of the season,
So how many ads they did? Because that was allowed
(17:40):
back then and now I don't think it is allowed anymore. Yeah,
And then also engagement rates. I'll track the percent engagement
rate that I pull from another app. I'll pull it
a few times during the season just to see how
it changes for contestants.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Why do you think? Okay, so you mentioned like you
started around around Colton season, and that was even like
before then, there was I remember, I want to say,
even like Nick Faiel's season of The Bachelor, a lot
of the women like it wasn't crazy because I remember
going on the show doing my own research, and it
(18:14):
wasn't crazy for you know, a few of the girls
to get one hundred thousand followers night one now like
and you know, you think about like Peter Webber season,
and there was so many women that got such a
large following, we don't really see that anymore. Even Joey's season,
which was fairly big. I feel like a lot of
the women didn't really blow up till later on.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
There's only like a select few from my I mean,
correct us if we're wrong, you're you have all the
data to tell us if we're right or wrong.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
But well, actually, so Joey's season, Maria and Daisy actually
grew faster at the beginning of the season than anybody
did on Peter season. But Peter season was the peak
growth that we saw in this franchise. Nobody grew as
fast as they did on Peter season until Joey's season.
But Joey's season, they actually grew really quickly, but then
towards the end of the season it didn't speed up
(19:05):
as much as we used to see back.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
In the day.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
So if people haven't seen the data report, so I
actually do post and you can see it on my
page right now. It's one of my most recent posts.
You can see their social media growth through the whole
season for the final four contestants. What's really interesting if
you haven't seen this data before, is that the growth
is really fun to watch during the season, but the
last three weeks in especially post finale, that's where the
majority of growth happens. And that is still that way
(19:32):
to this day. But those games were a higher rate
back in twenty twenty than they were these days.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Okay, yeah, I remember, both on The Bachelor and on Paradise,
my biggest bump of followers was at the very end,
if not like after my time on the show had ended.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, yeah for me, well, our season of Paradise had
felt like my growth was really towards the end. It
was like the last couple episodes and then like a
month after her and then it's slowed down to.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Paradise also used to be a huge social media gainer,
like that was the show that you went on to
gain the most social media also or the main most
growth on social media. Also a quick note on Peter's season.
This is a really interesting point too, because if people
are new here, I know that there are a lot
of people that are like, ooh, we don't want people
on this show that are gaining followers. We want this
(20:23):
to be focused on love. And then they'll cite things
like you know, Maddie and Hannah Ann like they went
on the show for love, they didn't have a big
social media following. That's wrong. So Maddie before the season
started to air, she had over forty thousand followers on
Instagram already, and Hannah Ann had eighty seven thousand followers.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
I mean, look, that doesn't necessarily obviously we know that
doesn't necessarily mean they didn't go on the show for love,
but it definitely disproves the fact that, oh, you have
to have like ninety followers on Instagram to be coming
on for genuine reasons exactly, like there's people that can
come on with disingenuous reasons at ninety followers or nine
thousand or ninety thousand or good reasons.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Also and also statistically one person out of the thirty
contestants are gonna make it in the end, So most
people know that their odds of winning are pretty low,
but that doesn't mean that they aren't there for the shot,
because like they have seen, there are so many amazing
relationships that have come out of this franchise, and if
it's not on the main show, there's a good chance
(21:22):
they can get on Paradise and I don't know, crazy enough,
lots of people end up getting married, who go on Paradise, Like,
there are so many odd, so many different ways that
you can find love on this show.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Yeah, and you're just exposed to this new dating pool
that even if it doesn't work out on the show,
there's plenty of people that have met in the Bachelor
world off camera that it then works out.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Do you think there is there an edge to having
a following as far as growing on social media prior
to going on the show, So like would so like
I had four hundred and twenty followers and you said,
I think, let's call it. Colton had forty five thousand.
Does he have an edge in the algorithm to grow
(22:12):
more and at a faster rate? Like is Instagram going
to push him out more than they would to somebody
that has nothing? Or is there kind of an even
playing field.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
There's a combination of factors there, right, and especially it's
very different in this day and age now with TikTok
than it was before, because like I feel like at
Colton or Peter season, for example, I have it pulled
up here. There was a contestant named Lauren Jones. She
went on the season. She had one hundred forty thousand followers,
before the season's hard here, nobody knows who she is.
She actually I think made it to like week four
or five, but she hardly had any screen time during
(22:44):
the season, So that's a big impact on that variable too.
Or even if we look back at Zach's season, there
was a contestant, Victoria j. She had like nine hundred
thousand followers on TikTok, and you know, she hardly got
any screen time, and even though she was making a
lot of content, it really didn't pick up because people
didn't recognize her from seeing them on the show because
they didn't see her as much. So, but if we
(23:05):
look at Daisy for example, this season, Daisy had a
following before she went on the show from TikTok, So
she had before episode one air she had forty three
thousand followers on TikTok, and then on Instagram she had
twenty thousand followers. And that's because she had already been
making a lot of content on her cochlear implant and
all that stuff that she had kind of built a following.
But she already had that skill under her belt on
(23:29):
how to create content, how to tell stories that that
coupled with her strong storyline episode one and then getting
the first date. It was just the perfect combination that
it just blew her up in the algorithm. So what
I always tell people is, especially people who just watched
this show, we want people on the show who know
(23:49):
how to make content on social media because it's this
like symbiotic relationship that they get put on the show.
They're there for love, et cetera. But we're also going
to get a lot of great content from them. That's
to bring in all these new viewers. Like we saw
it happen during Joey's season with Maria and Daisy. It
brought in a whole new fan base from gen Z
that just weren't watching the show. So it's they do
(24:10):
kind of have a leg up mainly because of the skill,
but it also really comes down to what's being shown on.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
The show, right, that makes so much sense. That's so interesting.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I remember when I was on I was working at
a PR agency and my bosses were like, girl, you
got to post something like post something like once a week,
post on your page like every day on stories And
I was like, I can't do that, Like I don't
think I can do that, And like TikTok was new
and I was like, I don't even I just got it,
(24:41):
like I don't even know what to do on here.
And obviously at the time that was the right decision
for me from a personal perspective, It just like I
wasn't ready and I just didn't know. But now looking
back hindsight the business side of things, like they were right.
I mean, I look at Daisy who was posting like
almost every single week she had story times she had struck.
Sure like she came at it from such a smart angle.
(25:03):
If we're just talking strictly about social media growth after
the show, don't you think?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, absolutely, And I think it's one of those things that,
you know, social media is just such an amazing tool.
It It allows contestants on this show to bring people
into their lives. Be it so we can see Daisy's
story now with her moving to Vegas with her boyfriend
and you know how that's impacting her life and all
with the cochlear implant and everything. Or even you know,
(25:27):
watching Joe and Kelsey go on Dancing with the Stars
and seeing what's happening in their day to day lives.
You know, you think back to you know, even before
Joe went on Dancing with the Stars, for example, the
show Dancing with the Stars. It's amazing, right, you get
to see this competition show. But what we used to
be limited to before social media became a thing was
whatever we were shown on TV. So Dance with the Stars,
for example, we got that two minute package that we
(25:50):
got to see them practicing during the week, and that
was it. But nowadays with social media, we can see
what's happening in between each episode on Dancing with the Stars.
What's happening with practice? Are they doing like fun little dances?
Are they you know, with other his day day anning
with Yeah, exactly, like the whole Brooks and Glub thing.
Like there was a whole extra story this last season
(26:10):
on Dancing with the Star that was happening just on
social media that nobody knew if they were just watching
the show. And that's where I really think that social
media has helped all reality TV shows because we get
to see these extra parts of their day to day life.
And that's one of my things that I'm always screaming
from the rooftop that production. I'm just like, you guys
have to get like burner phones that are like offline
(26:33):
because I know whenever it's filming, you guys can't be
in touch with the real world. But give the contestants
a phone that isn't connected to the internet so they
can film content. Can you imagine get Ready with me
that Daisy could have made before her first one on
one day in the mansion with the girls coming in
and out of the background, Like that would have been
so fun for us to see on social media that
I feel like it just helps us enjoy the show
(26:55):
more for the people who are diehards like myself, and
it's like, give me more content, like I want more.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
I'm so glad you said that because like it's so
true and it makes me it just like it is.
I do believe social media has really helped reality TV.
And like I remember our season, like they wouldn't even
tag us, Like it was you wouldn't even get tagged
because they didn't want people. They like you were there
for love and anything else you gained was not beneficial.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
But the stigma is still like really strong about like
if you're engaging on social media, it is correlated to you.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Not for the right reasons or whatever. I question for you,
I don't know if you would know this answer but
like as far as the Bachelor audience and take away
the contestants skill set at social media, what platform TikTok
or Instagram is like more like viewed or or I'm
(27:54):
trying to more engage with more engaged with the Bachelor audience,
Like which One's what platforms more likely to grow?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
So Instagram seems the most consistent, but it also it's
it's also because a lot of contestants just don't have
TikTok accounts still, especially depending on the season Bachelor versus Bachelorette,
what women do is very different than what men do. Also,
their social media growth trends are very different between Bachelor
and Bachelorette. But I would have said one hundred percent
(28:24):
Instagram until Joey's season because Joey season really showed us
that when you have cast members that embrace TikTok, which
if people don't use TikTok, there's a very big difference
in the type of content that goes on both platforms.
So Instagram is a much more polished, curated, you know,
like more more intention is put into them, whereas tiktoks
(28:46):
are more off the cuff, like just my my content.
For example, if I have my hair curled, makeup is done,
and I spend hours on a video. It's gonna do
really well on Instagram, it's gonna flop on TikTok. On TikTok,
I have videos that hit like a million vs use
and it's like I recorded it first thing in the morning,
my face mask is still on my forehead, and like
(29:06):
that is the type of content that thrives more on
TikTok because that platform is much more about this is
like my real life. This is you know, no editing,
no filters, et cetera. That's what TikTok is more focused on,
and it's more the gen Z younger millennial audience over there.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, gotcha, Okay, I think this is a good Part
two and Part one with Susannah. Thank you guys for
tuning in to Bachelor Happy Hour and make sure you
tune in for Part two.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
Yeah, thanks so much for listening. We have more coming
your way with Susannah and lots more Bachelor data in
our part two. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Bye,
Hey, everyone, Welcome back to Bachler Happy Hour. I'm Joe
and I'm Serena, and we are here today with a
very special guest who has not been on The Bachelor. Susannah.
Welcome to a Bachelor happy Hour for our listeners. She
is also Bachelor Data. What a lot of people know you.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
As Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Be on of course, of course, where are you located?
Where do you live?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm joining from Denver, Colorado, So if anybody's been following me,
I actually started my whole Bachelor Data journey out in Boston, Massachusetts,
and then through working on this page, we were actually
able to move to our dreams. Stayed out here Colorado
for all the skiing and everything, living the good life
out here.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Nice. You are you from Boston?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
No, I actually grew up in Austin, Texas, so moved
to Boston after college.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
What do you How do you feel about Austin, Texas.
I'm actually going there for my brother bachelor party.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It was a really fun town to grow up in.
I haven't been back since twenty nineteen, so I think
it's a I think it's a pretty different city these days.
I saw it through the before it became cool, and
then it became cool around the time that I was
in college at UT Austin, and it's a it's a
really fun town.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Nice. Nice. Okay, so you went to University of Texas.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
You said, yeah, I actually so. I majored in elementary education,
became an elementary teacher actually at the school I grew
up going to. And then I met my now partner,
Tim and we met in Austin, Texas, and then he
had to relocate for work up to Boston. And it
was through that whole process with work that bachelor came
(01:45):
to be, or bachelor data came to be. I got
a job out in Boston as basically like a tech
specialist helping teachers with technology and education, and that position
morphed into a technology director role. And on one of
my job applications, I lied and said I was proficient
in Excel, as we all do.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, no, shame, this is a safe space.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, all I could do if anybody does use Excel,
all I could do was like equal some and then
drag like a range of cells. And I was like, yeah,
I know how to use Excel, and ended up getting
the job and found out on the first day that
I had to actually be proficient and Excel that they
were really relying on that person to run reports, build
dashboards and stuff like that. So the first few months
(02:28):
I kind of struggled along with the help of my dad,
who's an engineer, constantly calling him up for help. And
then that Christmas break, I was home for Christmas busiting
my family and an ad came on the TV for
Colton season of The Bachelor, and my dad was like, Hey,
you should really consider analyzing something more fun as a
(02:49):
way to learn Excel instead of using this like state
testing data, which is really boring and dry. And I
was like, you know, maybe we can analyze like the
social media growth for Coulton's contestants. So I set up
as redsheet with all the contestants Instagram accounts, and every
single day of Colton's season, I would open up every
single one of their profiles and it would take their
follower accounts, and that way I could see what happened
(03:12):
on the show that led to the most social media growth.
And basically that became a project for about two years
for me to learn how to use Excel, and then
I started my Instagram account during Peter's season, so just
before the world shut down.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Okay, okay wo yeah yeah, okay, So wait were you
did you watch the show or was it just like random,
like let me just start analyzing, analyzing?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Oh god, no. So I started watching The Bachelor when
I was in college my freshman year. I was like
in my dorm board one day and I started watching.
I think it was Brad Womack season or Jake Pavelko
was one of those two. Was my first, and I
went back and watched previous ones. So I've been watching
the show since then. So I've watched Bachelor pad, I've
watched Winter Games, like I've done them all. And it
(03:57):
was just like a fun thing for me to watch
and you know, chat about with my friends, with my mom.
And the data part of it is where it really
got fun for me, because then I could, you know,
we have these assumptions that we make as we watch
the show, like the people who get more screen time,
the people get one on one dates, the fan favorites,
they're going to get more social media growth. But then
it started to really grow into something else where people
(04:18):
were like, well, if you wear a certain dress color
on night one, will you make it further, or if
you get the fireworks date or the horseback writing date
or the helicopter date, will you will you be eliminated
quickly or make it further? And it just kind of snowballed.
And now we I think last I looked, we have
analyzed over eighty different data points on the show, everything
(04:40):
from screen time, date types, social media growth ratings, like
we do it all.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Can you watch the show now and watch episode one
and kind of have a good feel for who you
think is gonna go far just based off just based
off of data.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I wish that I could, but unfortunately, so since I
analyze data right in numbers in general, I have to
be aware of every single variable that impacts the data
that we analyze. So, like social media growth is a
big one, right and one of the major things that
I have to keep an eye on that could impact
social media growth are spoilers. So in a lot of seasons,
(05:23):
spoilers are incorrect until like halfway through the season. We
saw that with Joey's season, the spoiler was that Daisy
one until part way through the season and then it
switched to Kelsey. But those are things that I have
to be aware of to see if they're impacting them.
I will say too, and I don't have any interest
in spoiling, So I'm not like Bachelor Fantake or like
the other accounts that like they're trying to dig to
(05:45):
find a specific spoiler, Like I don't care. So I
typically try to stay away from fueling spoilers, but I
have to keep an eye on them.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Do you have to keep an eye on them for
the purpose of seeing how they affect people's followings.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, it is, but it depends on the season. So
that's the interesting thing about social media growth. You have
some like most seasons, the spoilers will come out before
the season even starts to air, but a lot of
seasons they do not impact social media growth. So like
Clarentatious season, the spoiler about Zach Winning was out before
the season started to air, but he was non existent
(06:22):
on the social media trends until like the last three weeks.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Real quick, because I want to go back to the
beginning Culton season because it's also around my time, so
I want to ask about himself. Yeah, real quick, real quick,
you said on your Instagram story that you thought you
would never be invited on this podcast. Why did you think.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
That, Well, you know, the thing that's interesting about my
page is I I will report the data regardless if
it's good or bad. You know, I I don't hold back.
I will say, especially as somebody who I started as
an elementary teacher, I did a lot on digital citizenship
and I've preached a lot of wanting to make the
Internet a better place just because as something that I've learned,
(07:05):
especially with my account is that negative content makes you
grow like crazy and not to like get like political
and stuff. But we can really see that outside of
the Bachelor universe as well, Like if you create negative content,
man it it creates divisiveness in the comments that pushes
your stuff through the algorithm. So over the all this.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Rage baiting we're seeing now on like TikTok, people like
intentionally making videos that like are just going to piss
people off for engagement.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Exactly, and like I've seen it in my own trends.
I analyze my own data obviously, and anytime I post
controversial things or things that air more on the negative
and critical side, I get a ton of social media growth.
And if I were to lean into that, I could
easily have like eight nine hundred thousand followers, but I'd
really try to be picky about what I do. You know,
I am critical of the franchise at times. I do
think that there are certain decisions sometimes where I'm like,
(07:54):
what were you guys thinking? This was not a great decision,
and it's so typically backed by the data. But I
have to say, like, mad respect you guys have me
on and also if anybody is listening, it was very
much like there's no data off the table on this conversation.
You don't need to, like, you know, hold back, and
I really respect that.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, I mean, are we follow you?
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I started following you after my time on the show,
and Joe, I think around the same time I started following.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
You, I was like, oh, wow, this is this is
like I don't I'm not really interested in like spoilers
for the show or anything like that because I just
don't really care. But when your page came up, I
was like, oh, I actually this is interesting, Like I
want to know how this shit works because it is
like I feel like, I so you started around Culton season,
(08:43):
which I was back at season so the season before.
But I do feel like that was kind of the
time where like people's social media accounts were really starting
to blow up, right.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And I do have some data points from before Coulton season,
Like I do have your data, but let's it was
really like twenty sixteen to twenty twenty that we really
saw just social media take off, not only for this show,
but also the influencing world outside of the Bachelor, for
other reality TV shows as well. I feel like that's
where people really started to watch just TV in general
(09:16):
and be like, Oh, I love this person that I'm watching.
I want to see their day to day lives. I
was even guilty that myself during Colton season. I was like,
Hannah Godwin has the best highlighter, Like I need to
go follow her to figure out which one it is.
And I still buy that one to this day, Like,
you know, I think that's where we really saw that pickup,
but also the influencing side of things which also really
fed into that. And then when the pandemic hit, that's
(09:39):
when TikTok came in and kind of started. We're now
starting to see decreases in that because people's attention is
now being spent over on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, what are some data points you have on me?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Okay? Really interesting because pos I forgot that I had these,
so I was able to get through Reddit and then
also some of my own data points that I took
just out of curiosity for Becas season. So I have
all of your cast how many followers they had a
week before the show aired, and then I have data
points throughout the season plus a week after. But for you,
(10:21):
a week before Becca season aired, you had four hundred
twenty followers. That's it.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah, yeah, and you were at like three posts.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I don't even think I would say in a week
before that, I just started my Instagram.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah, and we didn't you make Instagram to go on
the show?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
You actually your cast. There were quite a few men
who had big followings. One of them, I will say
was buying followers, but he was pretty irrelevant. Who was
Leo that is yeah, yeah, yeah, we don't even talk
about it. But there were people with like one hundred
and seventy seven thousand followers Camille. We had a lot
(10:59):
of contestants who like actually had a decent following. Colton
Underwood had forty two thousand followers. But what's really interesting
is that Joe four hundred and twenty followers, less than
twenty four hours after the premiere aired, he was nearly
at ten thousand followers already, which was pretty big back then.
And then the by the end of the season, so
(11:24):
a week before the finale aired, he had seventy four
thousand followers. Reminder, if you guys have forgotten, Joe was
eliminated night one. So that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah, I was.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
I don't even know if I had that many followers.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I remember it being crazy. I probably lost all those
people now I don't know why.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
I mean, yeah, wow, shout out if you're listening to
this podcast and you were one of those og seventy
k followers.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
And then so the big thing about the end of
Becca season was Bachelor and Paradise aired the next day.
So right after the finale, I don't have data points
because again I really wasn't doing this seriously back then.
But a week later, Joe already had one hundred eighty
six thousand followers.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
How can you how that's crazy? How can you tell
if somebody can you actually see I've never bought followers,
but can you tell if somebody is like you can
actually tell? Because you how like, what's the.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, So it takes. It takes some time to research.
And let me tell you, guys, I was so happy
when I looked into y'all's followings because I have scrapers
running on the back end that runs everybody's like counts
and like important people, former leads, et cetera. And I
can't just look at a data set and be like, yeah,
they're buying followers. So there's a lot of investigation that
needs to go into it. But the big things that
we look at are just sudden gains in one day
(12:42):
and then the next day a sudden loss. So anytime
I see big gains, like I was looking through y'all'
follower accounts last night to be like, oh, should I
not bring up buying followers? But I can, because you
guys are in the clear.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
We're losing. I'm losing. I lose on a consistent basis.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I don't even know what I did, but I was
looking through your accounts, and I was looking at when
you guys got married, but I didn't know your wedding
date off the top of my head, and I saw
both of you guys suddenly gain that one month. It
was twenty twenty two, right October.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Yes, that was our courthouse wedding.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Courthouse wedding.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, yeah, so I saw both of you guys gain.
So whenever I see gains like that, the first thing
I do is I go in and I investigate first,
like was there anything in the media happening with them?
So I searched during those days and I was like, boom,
they got married. But I'll see were there any controversies happening.
I'll take a look through a feed and see if
any post went viral around the time that that post
went up. And I'm seeing those gains, like there's a
(13:35):
lot that feeds into it. The other thing that I'll
look at is engagement on posts to see like the
view count versus the likes versus the follows. And then
the last thing that I'll look at too whenever somebody,
when I suspect somebody is I'll go and look at
their following list where you can see people who have
followed them. And the way Instagram displays that is it
shows the most recent people who followed on that list,
(13:57):
and you can just you can look down that list.
It looks like a bunch of bots.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah interest, have have you ever had anyone from our
franchise or any franchise.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
I guess because you you do data on other reality
shows as well.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Right, reach out to you and kind of like like
upset with you, like any like crazy?
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Yeah, like don't like, don't expose me or like tell
me how to get more followers.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I've had one.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Really, really, who could you tell us? You don't have
to if you don't want to.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Tell you guys after this, okay, tell us object.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I do have a question, So, like I do know
a way people, So, like, I'm assuming I'm losing I
lose followers kind of on a consistent basis. You know,
I only grew followers I'm not, like, not from being
a content creator, but from being on a television show,
which then you are somewhat relevant and you're in the
news and that's kind of how you grow. So since
(14:55):
I'm off a show, I'm constantly losing followers. Why is that? Like,
why is it just like people are just like I
no longer want to I mean obviously people are like
I no longer want to follow him, But why is
it like it's almost like kind of constant.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
It's a pattern.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
It's like a pattern.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, So I've listened to a lot of interviews too
from the Instagram CEO Adam Masiri on this and it's
really interesting. So people are first and foremost people are
constantly auditing the lists that they follow, so be it
they look through their following list to clean it up
a bit, or they're swiping through stories and they see
stories from somebody they're like, I'm just not interested in
this person anymore and they unfollow. It's really so many
(15:39):
different variables. But also a lot of people are, especially
in the last year and a half with all of
the TikTok and meta and what people are doing with
their data, a lot of people are deleting their accounts.
There's so many different variables there, but the biggest one
I think is really just the people auditing their following
lists and seeing who they want to follow and who
they don't. But and it's also so it's really interesting
(16:01):
the way the Bachelor franchise with social media growth happens
versus something like Love is Blind, for example. It's my
favorite example comparing those two because two very different platforms. Right,
the Bachelor franchise, whenever a season ends airing, right, it's
available on Hulu that you can watch for a certain
amount of time, and then it disappears like you can't
just go on to Hulu and just watch Matt James
(16:21):
season for example, or Katie Thurston season. You really have
to go dig for it or go on Amazon and
like rent this season or by this season. Whereas other
network shows like Love Is Blind, for example, whenever a
new season drops, you'll see that contestants from previous seasons
see a big gain in social media growth because people
start to watch that season and they're like, oh, let
me go back and watch the old seasons. And then
(16:42):
they'll watch season one and be like, oh, Ganina, let
me go follow her and see what she's up to
now all these years later. So it's really different the
viewing habits and the following habits of different networks as well.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
That is interesting. Do you ever track engagement rate?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I do, and it's really interesting because, especially during a season,
to see engagement rates of who's interacting on which posts
will typically see that, especially in this post twenty twenty world,
a lot of people are engaging really negatively on the
more like villain edits of the show or people who
are getting arguments within the house. They'll be like team
(17:18):
so and so or Team SO and so. Then people
fight within the comments that typically drives a lot of
the engagement. And then you also have people really wanting
to support and commenting on everything for the fan favorites
each season. But that's actually one of the data points
that I tracked during Colton season. My first one was like,
did anybody do brand deals in the middle of the season,
So how many ads they did? Because that was allowed
(17:40):
back then and now I don't think it is allowed anymore. Yeah,
And then also engagement rates. I'll track the percent engagement
rate that I pull from another app. I'll pull it
a few times during the season just to see how
it changes for contestants.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Why do you think? Okay, so you mentioned like you
started around around Colton season, and that was even like
before then, there was I remember, I want to say,
even like Nick Faiel's season of The Bachelor, a lot
of the women like it wasn't crazy because I remember
going on the show doing my own research, and it
(18:14):
wasn't crazy for you know, a few of the girls
to get one hundred thousand followers night one now like
and you know, you think about like Peter Webber season,
and there was so many women that got such a
large following, we don't really see that anymore. Even Joey's season,
which was fairly big. I feel like a lot of
the women didn't really blow up till later on.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
There's only like a select few from my I mean,
correct us if we're wrong, you're you have all the
data to tell us if we're right or wrong.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
But well, actually, so Joey's season, Maria and Daisy actually
grew faster at the beginning of the season than anybody
did on Peter season. But Peter season was the peak
growth that we saw in this franchise. Nobody grew as
fast as they did on Peter season until Joey's season.
But Joey's season, they actually grew really quickly, but then
towards the end of the season it didn't speed up
(19:05):
as much as we used to see back.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
In the day.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
So if people haven't seen the data report, so I
actually do post and you can see it on my
page right now. It's one of my most recent posts.
You can see their social media growth through the whole
season for the final four contestants. What's really interesting if
you haven't seen this data before, is that the growth
is really fun to watch during the season, but the
last three weeks in especially post finale, that's where the
majority of growth happens. And that is still that way
(19:32):
to this day. But those games were a higher rate
back in twenty twenty than they were these days.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Okay, yeah, I remember, both on The Bachelor and on Paradise,
my biggest bump of followers was at the very end,
if not like after my time on the show had ended.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, yeah for me, well, our season of Paradise had
felt like my growth was really towards the end. It
was like the last couple episodes and then like a
month after her and then it's slowed down to.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Paradise also used to be a huge social media gainer,
like that was the show that you went on to
gain the most social media also or the main most
growth on social media. Also a quick note on Peter's season.
This is a really interesting point too, because if people
are new here, I know that there are a lot
of people that are like, ooh, we don't want people
on this show that are gaining followers. We want this
(20:23):
to be focused on love. And then they'll cite things
like you know, Maddie and Hannah Ann like they went
on the show for love, they didn't have a big
social media following. That's wrong. So Maddie before the season
started to air, she had over forty thousand followers on
Instagram already, and Hannah Ann had eighty seven thousand followers.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
I mean, look, that doesn't necessarily obviously we know that
doesn't necessarily mean they didn't go on the show for love,
but it definitely disproves the fact that, oh, you have
to have like ninety followers on Instagram to be coming
on for genuine reasons exactly, like there's people that can
come on with disingenuous reasons at ninety followers or nine
thousand or ninety thousand or good reasons.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Also and also statistically one person out of the thirty
contestants are gonna make it in the end, So most
people know that their odds of winning are pretty low,
but that doesn't mean that they aren't there for the shot,
because like they have seen, there are so many amazing
relationships that have come out of this franchise, and if
it's not on the main show, there's a good chance
(21:22):
they can get on Paradise and I don't know, crazy enough,
lots of people end up getting married, who go on Paradise, Like,
there are so many odd, so many different ways that
you can find love on this show.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Yeah, and you're just exposed to this new dating pool
that even if it doesn't work out on the show,
there's plenty of people that have met in the Bachelor
world off camera that it then works out.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Do you think there is there an edge to having
a following as far as growing on social media prior
to going on the show, So like would so like
I had four hundred and twenty followers and you said,
I think, let's call it. Colton had forty five thousand.
Does he have an edge in the algorithm to grow
(22:12):
more and at a faster rate? Like is Instagram going
to push him out more than they would to somebody
that has nothing? Or is there kind of an even
playing field.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
There's a combination of factors there, right, and especially it's
very different in this day and age now with TikTok
than it was before, because like I feel like at
Colton or Peter season, for example, I have it pulled
up here. There was a contestant named Lauren Jones. She
went on the season. She had one hundred forty thousand followers,
before the season's hard here, nobody knows who she is.
She actually I think made it to like week four
or five, but she hardly had any screen time during
(22:44):
the season, So that's a big impact on that variable too.
Or even if we look back at Zach's season, there
was a contestant, Victoria j. She had like nine hundred
thousand followers on TikTok, and you know, she hardly got
any screen time, and even though she was making a
lot of content, it really didn't pick up because people
didn't recognize her from seeing them on the show because
they didn't see her as much. So, but if we
(23:05):
look at Daisy for example, this season, Daisy had a
following before she went on the show from TikTok, So
she had before episode one air she had forty three
thousand followers on TikTok, and then on Instagram she had
twenty thousand followers. And that's because she had already been
making a lot of content on her cochlear implant and
all that stuff that she had kind of built a following.
But she already had that skill under her belt on
(23:29):
how to create content, how to tell stories that that
coupled with her strong storyline episode one and then getting
the first date. It was just the perfect combination that
it just blew her up in the algorithm. So what
I always tell people is, especially people who just watched
this show, we want people on the show who know
(23:49):
how to make content on social media because it's this
like symbiotic relationship that they get put on the show.
They're there for love, et cetera. But we're also going
to get a lot of great content from them. That's
to bring in all these new viewers. Like we saw
it happen during Joey's season with Maria and Daisy. It
brought in a whole new fan base from gen Z
that just weren't watching the show. So it's they do
(24:10):
kind of have a leg up mainly because of the skill,
but it also really comes down to what's being shown on.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
The show, right, that makes so much sense. That's so interesting.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I remember when I was on I was working at
a PR agency and my bosses were like, girl, you
got to post something like post something like once a week,
post on your page like every day on stories And
I was like, I can't do that, Like I don't
think I can do that, And like TikTok was new
and I was like, I don't even I just got it,
(24:41):
like I don't even know what to do on here.
And obviously at the time that was the right decision
for me from a personal perspective, It just like I
wasn't ready and I just didn't know. But now looking
back hindsight the business side of things, like they were right.
I mean, I look at Daisy who was posting like
almost every single week she had story times she had struck.
Sure like she came at it from such a smart angle.
(25:03):
If we're just talking strictly about social media growth after
the show, don't you think?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, absolutely, And I think it's one of those things that,
you know, social media is just such an amazing tool.
It It allows contestants on this show to bring people
into their lives. Be it so we can see Daisy's
story now with her moving to Vegas with her boyfriend
and you know how that's impacting her life and all
with the cochlear implant and everything. Or even you know,
(25:27):
watching Joe and Kelsey go on Dancing with the Stars
and seeing what's happening in their day to day lives.
You know, you think back to you know, even before
Joe went on Dancing with the Stars, for example, the
show Dancing with the Stars. It's amazing, right, you get
to see this competition show. But what we used to
be limited to before social media became a thing was
whatever we were shown on TV. So Dance with the Stars,
for example, we got that two minute package that we
(25:50):
got to see them practicing during the week, and that
was it. But nowadays with social media, we can see
what's happening in between each episode on Dancing with the Stars.
What's happening with practice? Are they doing like fun little dances?
Are they you know, with other his day day anning
with Yeah, exactly, like the whole Brooks and Glub thing.
Like there was a whole extra story this last season
(26:10):
on Dancing with the Star that was happening just on
social media that nobody knew if they were just watching
the show. And that's where I really think that social
media has helped all reality TV shows because we get
to see these extra parts of their day to day life.
And that's one of my things that I'm always screaming
from the rooftop that production. I'm just like, you guys
have to get like burner phones that are like offline
(26:33):
because I know whenever it's filming, you guys can't be
in touch with the real world. But give the contestants
a phone that isn't connected to the internet so they
can film content. Can you imagine get Ready with me
that Daisy could have made before her first one on
one day in the mansion with the girls coming in
and out of the background, Like that would have been
so fun for us to see on social media that
I feel like it just helps us enjoy the show
(26:55):
more for the people who are diehards like myself, and
it's like, give me more content, like I want more.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
I'm so glad you said that because like it's so
true and it makes me it just like it is.
I do believe social media has really helped reality TV.
And like I remember our season, like they wouldn't even
tag us, Like it was you wouldn't even get tagged
because they didn't want people. They like you were there
for love and anything else you gained was not beneficial.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
But the stigma is still like really strong about like
if you're engaging on social media, it is correlated to you.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Not for the right reasons or whatever. I question for you,
I don't know if you would know this answer but
like as far as the Bachelor audience and take away
the contestants skill set at social media, what platform TikTok
or Instagram is like more like viewed or or I'm
(27:54):
trying to more engage with more engaged with the Bachelor audience,
Like which One's what platforms more likely to grow?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
So Instagram seems the most consistent, but it also it's
it's also because a lot of contestants just don't have
TikTok accounts still, especially depending on the season Bachelor versus Bachelorette,
what women do is very different than what men do. Also,
their social media growth trends are very different between Bachelor
and Bachelorette. But I would have said one hundred percent
(28:24):
Instagram until Joey's season because Joey season really showed us
that when you have cast members that embrace TikTok, which
if people don't use TikTok, there's a very big difference
in the type of content that goes on both platforms.
So Instagram is a much more polished, curated, you know,
like more more intention is put into them, whereas tiktoks
(28:46):
are more off the cuff, like just my my content.
For example, if I have my hair curled, makeup is done,
and I spend hours on a video. It's gonna do
really well on Instagram, it's gonna flop on TikTok. On TikTok,
I have videos that hit like a million vs use
and it's like I recorded it first thing in the morning,
my face mask is still on my forehead, and like
(29:06):
that is the type of content that thrives more on
TikTok because that platform is much more about this is
like my real life. This is you know, no editing,
no filters, et cetera. That's what TikTok is more focused on,
and it's more the gen Z younger millennial audience over there.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, gotcha, Okay, I think this is a good Part
two and Part one with Susannah. Thank you guys for
tuning in to Bachelor Happy Hour and make sure you
tune in for Part two.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
Yeah, thanks so much for listening. We have more coming
your way with Susannah and lots more Bachelor data in
our part two. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Bye,
Hosts And Creators
Joe Amabile
Susan Noles
Serena Pitt
Kathy Swarts
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