Obviously, the list of reasons to use Twitter are endless. These reasons could range from promoting thoughts, ideas or people, to updating followers on news and events or keeping up with current trends. I personally use the site for all of these reasons, but I have to be honest about another motivation for my Twitter usage. Here is my big confession: I love celebrity gossip. It’s easy to learn what’s going on in Hollywood via Twitter. Following celebrity accounts has saved me time and money because I can get the “news” free and quick, instead of buying magazines at the grocery store. And while some of us may just be in it for the gossip, I also believe there is a greater lesson in social media to be learned.
So, what can we learn from celebrities about maximizing our time and efforts on Twitter? Naturally, one reason that celebrities have so many followers is because they are, in fact, celebrities. But, they have also become a powerful communication tool. Twitter created verified accounts for celebrities in 2009 and, according to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Police Department recently used approximately 30 celebrities to tweet out messages about “Carmageddon”, warning residents to stay away from certain locations. Google+ has recently announced that they are working on finding a way to verify celebrity accounts.
According to a 2010 study done by Sysomos, the followers of celebrity accounts don’t have much authority. Followers of the powerful in social media tend to have more. But, we can still find some takeaways from celebrity twitter users to get the most out of our own efforts.
According to the celebrity list on WeFollow, the top five celebrity twitter accounts are @TheEllenShow, @britneyspears, @perezhilton, @kimkardashian and @Oprah. There has to be a reason why these accounts, out of all celebrity accounts in existence, are the most followed. The question becomes why and what can we learn from them?
These accounts have some similar, simple practices that we could also put to use:
- Tweet often: When these celebs tweet, they tweet multiple times a day. Having a more active account will attract more followers.
- Make your tweets interactive: Most of their tweets include a link, hash tag or photo which can put the comment into perspective and make it more interesting.
- Respond: All accounts respond to or retweet their followers, which can show that the celeb is paying attention to the conversation the fans have started.
These celebrity habits are helpful for any social media campaign because they are simple and effective. While your content strategy will probably differ from Kim Kardashian’s, implementing these tactics could lead to an increase in positive results.