Although the film adaptations of the young adult vampire-fiction series "Twilight" finished rolling out two years ago, Lions Gate studios has announced a new batch of franchise-related short films on Facebook. The studio and author Stephanie Meyer announced Tuesday that five aspiring female directors will create short films based on characters in "Twilight."

These mini-movies will be financied by Lions Gate and will be shown only on Facebook next year.

"We think Facebook is a great way for us to introduce the world of 'Twilight' to a whole new audience while re-energizing existing fans," Lions Gate's vice chairman Michael Burns said in an interview. "This is just the beginning-a template, if you will. You can probably guess what might be coming next."

Predictions favor Facebook next premiering a series based on Lions Gate's other blockbuster movies, "The Hunger Games."

As the New York Times reports, Hollywood has been using social media as a tool to keep big-budget titles on fans' minds by pumping out further content beyond their films.

"The effort reflects the manner in which Hollywood is maintaining its most valuable film properties between sequels and prequels and remakes. In the past, studios barely kept a pilot light lit, forcing marketing teams to constantly reactivate cold fan bases," Times reporter Brooks Barnes said. "Now the savviest studio marketers are using Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube and other online platforms to keep fans on a constant low boil."

Facebook is appealing as a nontraditional vehicle to the entertainment industry because of its immense following, roughly 1.3 billion monthly users worldwide.

Lions Gate has partnered with Facebook before, creating the site's first video ad for its film "Divergent."

However, Facebook's chief product officer Chris Cox said in a September interview that this type of video content is not the social media site's focus.

"It's really how do we make the experience when you're there amazing, more relevant and more joyful," Cox said. "If you're solving those sorts of problems, it's not on your road map to go get exclusive content to get more people to come back to Facebook. One day, maybe, but not right now."