Pause for Celebrity Tweets
Celebrities everywhere are taking advantage of twitter. Not only does tweeting allow them to connect directly to their fans, it does so in a matter of seconds. The adventures of our favourite a-listers are now available on a daily, and for some twitter-obsessed celebrities, hourly basis. Want to know what Ashton Kutcher had for lunch? No problem. Shaq’s latest musing? Just a click away. Fans worldwide now have an all-access pass to the daily ponderings of these once seemingly untouchable stars.
Twitter has altered the way we perceive and interact with celebrities allowing musicians, actors, and even politicians to take the power back into their own hands. Instead of depending on the media to report on their, often-fabricated celebrity story lines, social networking tools have opened the doors of communication and completely cut out the middleman. Why purchase a copy of Us Weekly when you can follow your favourite celebrity every day?
This new accessibility can even lead to unintentional PR goldmines. Most recently, Demi Moore was centre of a suicide cry made public when a fan posted on her twitter page. After Moore became aware she re-tweeted to over 350,000 of her followers, which prompted a call to the California police who took the women into custody. Shortly after, media praised Moore for saving a woman’s life. Some would argue that Twitter was the real hero but Moore certainly gets credit for taking the reach of this social networking tool and using it to do good.
What Made Me Pause?
Whether celebrities are tweeting themselves or have their PR team carefully crafting their latest post, twitter is a way to keep stars on the map, or bring others back from the land of has-beens. With an overwhelming unbalance between the few they are following (sometimes as little as 10) versus the thousands of dedicated followers, it is clear that most celebrities are using Twitter as a strategic endorsement tool. That, or they just don’t have many real friends on the twitter bandwagon yet. The former seems more likely.
Celebrities are designed to be larger than life personas that are out of our reach. How else can they generate an onset of screams when they enter a room? Fill a theatre or stadium? It’s not just about talent. It’s about this image that is created of them being different, special and anything but average. While we’re busy with our ordinary routine, they are supposed to be out there living a glamorous life we can’t begin to imagine.
So what happens when our bubbles burst and we realize that the most exciting event in a celebrity’s day is taking a yoga class or sitting at home doing nothing? Will that enhance their image by making them more relatable? Or, at a certain point, will that fail to impress us? Will weekly gossip magazines survive when it’s just as easy to find out John Mayer and Jennifer Aniston broke up in 140 characters or less? Only time will tell.
Isabella
April 6, 2009 at 11:14 pm
I’m beginning to feel as though i’ve become a twit for not tweeting as of yet. Where do I sign up? I do not wish to be left behind in this age of electronic media! How quickly our lives are changing! George Orwell was right….BIG BROTHER is watching.
April 7, 2009 at 10:33 am
What an interesting spin on a media tool that, most of us haven’t thought too much about….I don’t even have twitter, but it seems like every type of technology around me is just begging me to log in.
Up to date info on celebrities is one way to keep fans, not guessing, and also, build a day to day following of their favorite celebs….is this healthy? is it lucrative? Id have to say no to the twitter dose. despite the free, pure, and bottled at the source features, is twitter furthering our obsessions with celebrities, with little marketable value? like you said, time will tell..
great spin!
April 7, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I have to admit the only celebrity I follow on Twitter is Taylor Swift. I’ve checked out profiles of other celebrities but was discouraged by the small amount of Twitterers they actually follow. No one on Twitter is obliged to reciprocate a “follow”; that is one of the benefits of the site. But Twitter is about communicating and part of communicating is listening. So are the celebrities who choose to follow next to no one misusing Twitter?
April 9, 2009 at 12:14 am
Thanks so much for commenting on the blog Natasha! And, great point. I totally see where you are coming but after listening to Mayor David Miller’s presentation at Mesh (who has about 5000 followers and is only following 49) I realized that he still engages. When people @ message him, he apparently does follow-up (some specific examples were given). So, just because he isn’t following someone doesn’t mean he isn’t engaging with them using @ replies. This could also apply to celebrities….
I guess that brings us to another question about what are the ‘uses’ of twitter and who’s to say someone is ‘misusing’ it?
The disproportionate amount of followers vs. people following for celebrities on twitter is definitely high. I’d love to welcome any other thoughts on this issue – very interesting!
Melissa