Adam is an insightful fellow. He put into words what I have been thinking: celebrities are not ruining Twitter because nobody is forced to follow celebs — or anyone — on Twitter. Please read Celebrities Are Not Taking Over Twitter for the rest of the below insightful excerpt:
Celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Shaquille O’Neal and Britney Spears are not taking over Twitter. A well publicized event like Oprah tweeting on her show won’t help. Ashton vs. Larry King, in a contest to see which account, @aplusk (“a plus k”) or @cnnbrk can reach a million followers first is a publicity event that had lots of benefits for both in terms of building large networks, but they are not taking over. Any way you slice it, their efforts are futile. They can’t take over Twitter because of one simple fact: people choose who they follow.
The Twitterati Version 1 are bitter and jealous but they should be ecstatic because they, the first Twitterati, were, in fact, ground zero for something that has taken the world by storm.
It is the same for Internet Denizens Version 1 complaining as the unwashed AOL members flooded into USENET.
What Adam might be saying and I am surely stating is that this break out is good and that there is still plenty of room in Twitter to hide in plain site. Additionally, there is little or no use complaining.
We not only must compete with the Ashton Kutchers and Oprahs of the world but we are also dealing with their media machine, their publicists, their networks and their studios as well — in addition to the obvious equity that they’re happy to cash in from their other media platforms to spend of Twelebrity.
I am amazed that after three years and acruing “merely” 6,347 Followers, I have chosen to spend my time well by investing in 140 characters x 16,210 tweets, resulting in around 2,269,400 characters.
So, heaven forbid I had spent all of that energy in Pownce, which has died, instead of the winner, Twitter — now that would be a waste.
Unlike my blog, which is surely my very own intellectual property that I can maintain forever, my Twitter content is dependent on the health of Twitter. So, I feel blessed, amazed, and triumphant that Twitter has become de rigeur in the world of online media outreach, content-sharing, and community outreach.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Good points! I especially find it frustrating since some of the celebs are using it as a contest to do something good (i.e. CNN vs Ashton). My hope is that it brings more laggards that have interesting things to contribute to the conversation!
Chris – Thanks very much for the commentary on my post. I agree about ‘hiding in plain sight’ – but I don’t look at it as competing for followers. I am hopeful, honestly, that the wave of celebs joining twitter brings along more folks who are looking at it as a conversational tool and make the content more relevant. We’ll see.
Well, I don’t think it is frustrating. I think the hype associated with the Twelebrities will simply drive awareness! At first, EVERYONE will join, but most people will surely just follow 25 celebs at most. A magic percentage of the people — who “we” would love to have as members, followers, and friends — will stick, dig on Twitter, and then start interacting.
Think about it like this: lots of club promoters hire celebs like Paris Hilton ($100k+ for one night hanging out) to drive lots of new people to the club. Most people will never return after Paris leaves the club, but a few will love the club (I had never head of this place before, have you? This place is great!) so after the celebs become bored with Twitter, there will be millions of new Tweeps who will stay, engage, follow-back, and even learn about and use hashtags and TweetDeck!
That’s why I am not frustrated!
I totally agree. Lots will join for the celebs. Most will not follow more than 25 celebs and maybe check in once in a while to see what @oprah is up to. Most will grow bored and leave. That said, there will be a few amazing folks who really take to it and drink the Kool Aid and end up becoming Twitterati themselves!