Shaq on Twitter
Matt Rhodes over at SocialMediaToday.com wrote an interesting post asking, “Will 2009 be the Year of Twitter?” My initial reaction was, “Wasn’t 2008 the year of Twitter?” After all, Twitter has grown 752% in 2008.
But some think Twitter’s growth and popularity will stall. In their Marketing Over Coffee podcast, John Wall and Christopher Penn discussed whether or not Twitter is this year’s Second Life. There are plenty of people out there who still think Twitter is just full of people giving insignificant details of their daily activities.
So has Twitter run its course? No.
I get that there are other microblogging competitors out there and that Twitter lacks a business model, but Rhodes was right, Twitter has not yet reached it’s potential.
One key area that we haven’t seen explode yet is Twitter’s celebrity potential. Citing THE_REAL_SHAQ (the NY Observer proves its really him) and Obama, we can see how popular a celebrity’s 140-character messages can be. Twitter offers a unique and immediate satisfaction to a very celebrity obsessed country. Who wouldn’t love to see the small, unreported details of their favorite celebrity or athlete as they happen? Isn’t this why we read gossip magazines and visit Perez.com?
Imagine the possibilities. What if Christian Bale tweeted? What about Heath Ledger? See where I’m going with this?
Twitter is brand building tool and celebrities have their own brands to build. What separates most celebrates from most of us is that their professional brands are their personal brands.
I don’t think we’ve scratched the surface of celebrity Twitter use. If 2009 is in fact the year of Twitter, we’ll see more and more celebrities (and even politicians) use Twitter in a way unique to those in the public limelight.
UPDATE 2/23/09: The NYT has a great article on Celebs using Twitter.
Very true, if there’s anything that made the BlackBerry popular – it was seeing them with your fave celebs. To add to this idea, I think I could offer up some of my services to these potential multi-tasking, social media celebrities. For a cool few thou, instead of a PUH (personal umbrella holder – Diddy), there could be PTTs (personal Twitter typer). I’m not too proud to follow Britney Spears around with her BlackBerry typing her tweets
I think celebrites are surely trying to get their talons into the “Twitter world” because that is where some of their “customers” are (and I use customers lightly). Like you said “Twitter is brand building tool and celebrities have their own brands to build. What separates most celebrates from most of us is that their professional brands are their personal brands.”
Since Twitter is becoming more mainstream I think we’ll see a total rape and pillage of the tool before it falls to a normal usage pattern…meaning it will become increasingly more commercial, people will then abondon, then it will maybe resort back to before.
When we think of celebrities tweeting, I find it hard to believe that it’s actually their fingers pounding out the 140 words or less. Is it a place to be because others are there? Who are the sheep now?
Mishy79,
I like what you’re saying. Do you think Twitter could survive a ‘total rape and pillage?’ Or as that happens, will Twitter’s core users turn to another similar service to completely avoid the spamming?
Do you think it’s up to Twitter to ensure this doesn’t happen, or should they let, as you suggest, nature run its course to weed out users exploiting the medium?