On 2012-05-30, at 11:02 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
> [WS:] I understand the virtue of brevity, but what on earth can you
> say in 144 characters of less that has any gravity at all - unless of
> course your persona already has gravity i.e. power so every word you
> say also has gravity.
So it would seem:
Behind That Celebrity Tweet How Social-Media Sites Like Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook Woo Stars to Boost Traffic and Ad Sales By KATHERINE ROSMAN Wall Street Journal May 30 2012
When Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks contacted Facebook for help understanding how best to use the site, the company's representatives showed him how. After Mr. Lin underwent knee surgery this spring, he returned the favor: a live chat for Facebook fans from his hospital bed. To date, about 54,000 people have "liked" it.
Social-media sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Tumblr are formalizing their relationships with the entertainment industry to show users and advertisers that the sites offer content beyond the trivial.
Social-media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr are increasingly forging relationships with celebrities to give both users and advertisers plenty of new material. Many of the sites have hired people and added resources to provide celebrities and entertainment-industry brands like TV host Kelly Ripa and Nascar with marketing ideas, insider tips and even technical support.
"I get the dish right from the celeb's mouth," says Nicole Eisenberg, a 42-year-old mother from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. She used to devour celebrity magazines to get the latest on who is dating whom and who wore what designer to which premier. Now, she follows Gwyneth Paltrow, Kid Rock, Ivanka Trump and others on Twitter.
Celebrities generally aren't paid for their social-media efforts. But their involvement is essential to the sites because their photographs and posts give people glimpses of their rarefied worlds, drawing even more users and advertisers.
"Our primary goal in partnerships is to enable users to have great experiences on Facebook," says Justin Osofsky, director of media partnerships for Facebook. "We have a business model based on advertisements and as people spend more time on Facebook, we monetize that."
Today, most major social networks have departments dedicated to creating partnerships with celebrities, politicians and sports figures—as well as professional sports leagues, movie studios and television networks. Even start-ups are quickly staffing up with Hollywood liaisons. In some cases, employees of social networks act as IT assistants for celebrities—helping them learn how to sign on to their websites and download apps.
Members of Twitter's partnership team keep a close eye on upcoming film premieres and reach out to studio executives and celebrity publicists with ideas of how Twitter can be used to help create buzz—debuting film trailers exclusively on Twitter, for example. Twitter also meets with agents and producers to analyze the stats: What likely caused spikes in tweeting? What didn't work as well? When a public figure's tweet results in big buzz, Twitter makes sure other celebrities know it. One such moment came when Nascar driver Brad Keselowski tweeted a photo taken from his car of a fire at the Daytona 500. He saw the number of his followers triple.
Omid Ashtari, Twitter's man-on-the-ground in Los Angeles, is known to refer to celebrities as "clients" and say that his job is to provide them "customer service." (Rachael Horwitz, a spokeswoman for Twitter, said no executives were available to comment.)
'You have to have a social-media presence if you want to have a successful business,' says Jessica Alba.
When former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal debuts "The Comedy Shaq," a channel devoted to comedians this fall, viewers will tune in on YouTube. "My philosophy is 60% to make you laugh, 30% to inspire and 10% to promote whatever I'm doing," says Mr. O'Neal.
One Direction, the British boy band, launched its official U.S. tour blog on Tumblr, after the social blog network made a compelling pitch. Tumblr's new publication, "Storyboard," would publish a story about the band and its fan base. In addition, Tumblr promised a "mass promotion" package that would include tweets to 300,000 Twitter followers and additional coverage in another publication, such as Seventeen or Rolling Stone.
"They're the most popular thing on Tumblr, hands down, and we reached out to them," says Jessica Bennett, Tumblr's executive editor.
Tout, a service that lets user make 15-second videos that can be posted to sites like Facebook and Twitter, was less than a year old when it hired Brooke Fedro, who began her career at Creative Artist Agency. Among her strategies is finding actors with television shows that are on hiatus and musicians who haven't had an album release in a while and encouraging them to "tout" themselves. "It's important to take advantage of their downtime and let them promote their own brand," says Ms. Fedro, director of entertainment relations and marketing for Tout.
New social networks are creating business plans to appeal to celebrities who want to make money off their online presence. OpenSky is a year-old site where personalities like Molly Sims, Veronica Webb and others can help market health, beauty, décor and kitchen merchandise. They present to their followers recommended items, and sales revenue is split between OpenSky and its celebrity curator.
Actress Jessica Alba founded Honest Company, an online venture that sells household supplies and diapers which are eco-friendly. Currently, Ms. Alba has 3.2 million followers on Twitter, 4.5 million subscribers to her Facebook page and nearly a half-million followers on Instagram.
"You have to have a social-media presence if you want to have a successful business, scalable business," Ms. Alba says.
Radio and TV personality Ryan Seacrest is in talks with Twitter in which Mr. Seacrest would help celebrities create videos and photos to share on Twitter, giving the social network more branding opportunities.
Ryan Seacrest, radio host, television personality and producer, leverages social media's cross-promotion potential. Mr. Seacrest and his team are in talks with Dick Costolo, chief executive of Twitter, in which Mr. Seacrest would help celebrities create videos and photos to share on Twitter, giving the social network more branding opportunities.
A videographer from Ryan Seacrest Productions will follow Mr. Seacrest as he covers the Olympics this summer for NBC Sports. The videographer's footage and photos will be posted to RyanSeacrest.com, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, according to Tony Novia, executive vice president for new media at Ryan Seacrest Productions. "We sit on very valuable content and we try to use it to promote all of Ryan's projects," Mr. Novia says.
Among those on the management side bridging Hollywood with social media is Eric Kuhn, an agent at United Talent Agency. "We try to help our clients understand that social media is about much more than promotion," says Mr. Kuhn, who turns 25 next week.
Mr. Kuhn recently signed Foursquare, the location-based social-media network with 20 million users who "check in" to venues. Together, Foursquare and UTA will work to develop relationships with concert promoters like LiveNation, says Jonathan Crowley, director of media partnerships for the New York-based Foursquare. Mr. Crowley says market research shows that many people go to concert events without tickets, merely to tailgate with friends. If non-ticket holders "check in" outside of concert venues, promoters can sell tailgaters any remaining tickets.