It’s nearly summer blockbuster season, and Hollywood once again has been going to infinity and beyond, building buzz for its upcoming film releases. With the upcoming release of Toy Story 3 in June, Pixar is going beyond the standard formula of seeding the net with film trailers. It’s secret weapon is a whole lot more social.

Already, a lot of buzz surrounds Pixar’s viral marketing for the film, due for release in June. In the past week, the studio has new posted on YouTube and Facebook retro commercials with a distinctly ’80s feel that purport to explain the origins of one of the saga’s new characters and simultaneously connect emotionally with nostalgic twenty- and thirty-somethings. In response, Youtubers are going nuts with video views, and comment conversations tend to flow around “I love Pixar’s creativity. It’ll never cease to amaze me.”

They are not resting there. Toy Story 3 director Lee Unrich’s Twitter page has over 81,000 followers and he rewards his posse with several TS3 tweets a day. Tweets for TS3 have spiked  due to all the talk, as shown by this Trendistic graph:

Could this be a new tactic for Hollywood studios? Directors must do more than cast and cut, they must Tweet too.

Meanwhile, Disney Pixar’s Facebook page has continuous discussions about the movie involving their million-plus fans, incorporating tabs directing curious fans to YouTube videos and movie screening contests. For example:

Our editors did a piece in The Big Money about how film studios are using YouTube to build up attention for soon-to-be-blockbusters. The formula (at least then) included giving people a taste at a time through trailers, plus connecting the film with current and past events, and doing all this through social media channels to build conversation. After all, look what it did for Avatar.

We will be keeping an eye on Toy Story 3. Expect a good deal more about it on a Facebook page near you.

Editor’s Note: Learn more how major brands are going beyond campaigns to have a more fruitful dialogue with consumers at the Social Media Influence conference. Register before May 1 to get the early bird rate for the Social Media Influence conference.