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It’s one thing when tech geeks are popular on Twitter, that’s to be expected. But let’s face it, most folks don’t know who Kevin Rose or Robert Scoble are. They’ve got 115k+ Twitter followers between the two of them, but are unknown outside tech/web circles. They’re weblebrities.
But now Shaq is on Twitter. John Cleese is on Twitter. Lance Armstrong is on Twitter. Dave Matthews and Imogen Heap are on Twitter. Parkman and Daphne from Heroes (the actors, not the characters they play) are on Twitter. How weird is that?
These are people that average people see on TV, listen to on their iPods, and read about in magazines. These are people that non-web-nerds actually know of. The thought of Twitter becoming a mainstream, ubiquitous platform is hysterical to me, but I wonder if all the speculating the tech community does on such things is actually starting to become reality?
You forgot Al Gore and the birthday girl, Britney Spears (although it’s her team, not her), as well as some other folks like Sara Bareilles, A Fine Frenzy’s Alison Sudol, and others.
But I get your point.
I think that the entry point might be the iPhone. With free apps like Twitteriffic and TweetDeck, the format is much easier to enter into.
said Shane
at 4:30pm on Tuesday
Yes, the entry point is absolutely the iPhone. I was talking to some folks yesterday about this, and I suggested that the only barrier to Twitter’s ‘crossover’ isn’t Twitter itself, but rather the means to Twitter.
The concept is easy to grasp and attractive, but only relevant if there’s an immediate interface for you to tweet & read tweets located on your person.
So it’s not Twitter that’s slowly being accepted - it’s The Actual Internet In Your Hands. I expect the former and the latter to grow proportionally to one another.
said Cameron
at 4:38pm on Tuesday
Is there anyway to verify that these celebrities are actually managing their twitter accounts? If these are their actual accounts what’s the difference between a celebrity updating their twitter versus their myspace blog or something similar?
With the way most famous people our about their private lives I have a hard time believing famous people are going to use twitter to do anything other than publicize their own work or their sponsors.
said Jon
at 6:11pm on Tuesday
I think Cameron has a great point. Depending on how you use it, Twitter can be so “low cost” from a time standpoint if you’re just an actor sitting on a set in between takes with a phone in your hands, or a cyclist in France, done training for the day, and enjoying a leisurely meal.
What’ll be more interesting will be the abuses. This is a marketer’s dream. Thousands of people wanting to know what’s in Britney Spear’s head (maybe nothing?). I think the account you mentioned are legit, but what about the backlash when people find out the person they’ve been following is just a team of sleezy PR people (because they’d have to be sleezy!)?
said Grant
at 7:02pm on Tuesday
I suspect that following celeb’s twitter feeds will in most cases be a worthless endeavor. Look at Clesse’s feed, for example.
said Paul Merrill
at 9:35pm on Tuesday
Is there anyway to verify that I’m actually managing my Twitter account? I’d say trust and context clues over time would reveal who’s for real and who’s a PR stunt.
Brittany Spears, yes. Parkman from Heroes? He’s not exactly A-List celebrity. Maybe the guy just really likes Twitter. You know, like the other million people using it.
Maybe I’m being naive, but I actually think some people who are famous might also be fairly normal and have the same motivations for doing things that non-famous people do.
said Joshua