Comments on: Celebrity Takeover – Optimists vs Detractors

By: Meryl K. Evans

Meryl K. Evans — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:54:05 +0000

Best part: “Do YOU.” Indeed. Gotta stop being jealous of others and use Twitter for yourself not without worrying what others do with it.

By: Sonny Gill

Sonny Gill — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:26:41 +0000

@Bryan – Thanks so much for your comment. You make a great point about opportunity. Danny and other people doing similar projects could GREATLY benefit from a celebrity or big media name catching wind of their work. There just seems to be a lot more good vs. bad than people are lead to believe.

By: Bryan R. Adams

Bryan R. Adams — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:28:29 +0000

Sonny,
I’m glad you wrote this post. And Danny, I followed the back and forth on FriendFeed some days ago, and was really happy on your stance. Sonny put it simply, Do You. If Twitter has been working for you, then the celeb invasion is not gonna throw you off your game. Imagine the good that could happen, if one of these celebs found out about one of your causes on Twitter and decided to get involved?
We all have to be honest with ourselves. If you wanted this to be a clique, then say so. Nothing wrong with being a big fish in small pond, but make sure you inform us of that agenda. What I think is cool about Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook et al, is the SOCIAL part. Meeting new people, finding out new apps and viewpoints, and even checking out what celebs are doing is all part of it, IMHO.

By: Sonny Gill

Sonny Gill — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:03:30 +0000

@Danny – You bring up a good point. I think a lot of people, ‘leaders’ or not, felt it was their perch up top because this platform has been so accustomed to only tech and marketing folks on it. It was easy for us to stave off traditional people making their way onto Twitter, and even those MLM-ers. But when it came to the celebs, their power is way greater than anyone really that would want to get on Twitter – only thing to do was to backlash.

By: Alexis

Alexis — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:41:04 +0000

@Deb – I agree. That’s the great part about Twitter (and social media in general) … I follow neither Oprah nor Ashton, and I don’t HAVE to.

I think of this surge of new Twitter-ers to the crowd of people who flood gyms everywhere January 2 after making a weight-loss resolution on new year’s. They’ll poke around, see what it’s all about, and then they’ll either leave because it’s not their cup of tea, or they’ll figure out how to use it in a way that works best for them.

@Lex_D

By: Danny Brown

Danny Brown — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:38:11 +0000

The “evil and useless” mainstream media were doing things that were key in the whole social media “movement”, if you like.

* All about the conversation? Check out chat shows and televised public debates.
* Cost-effective advertising? Check out cable.
* Helping those around us? Check out the National Geographic or Discovery channel.
* Community? Check out letters to newspaper editors.

What I took from the whole debacle last week was that some of the “leaders” seemed to feel aggrieved because they’re losing their perch at the top. Question is, did they ever truly have a perch or was it just in their eyes.

If social media is all about opening up to all then saying “Get the celebs off Twitter” is the very anti-social media and will only hold back its acceptance, not encourage it.

By: Sonny Gill

Sonny Gill — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:59:03 +0000

@Deb – That is the beauty of it, isn’t it? We just have to continue with our strategy and engagement with our communities.

@Stuart – Interesting thought. Who’s to say these celebrities would want to attend a MarketingProfs conference to talk about social media? I think that’s what people have become afraid of, and it’s only been a few weeks or months for these celebs to be on Twitter. IMO, the conference wave isn’t going to dry up because of celebrities – as popular as they are, most aren’t equipped to (or would even care to) talk about SM or of the like at an industry conference.

By: Stuart Foster

Stuart Foster — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:36:20 +0000

I think it comes down to this: Does this affect your bottom line? For some it absolutely does. Twitter celebrities have been able to ride a nice wave of conference appearances, talks and demos. This may dry up once celebrities are on the scene and it hits the mainstream.

For me as an underdog to a certain extent…I say bring it. I’m far more interesting then some jackass that wears non-ironic scarves any day of the week. I’m also bigger then Oprah. (No, I’m not. I’m sorry Oprah.)

By: Deb Robison

Deb Robison — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:00:48 +0000

Amen Sonny! You took the words right out of my mouth. And, for those who don’t like celebs online- don’t follow them. You don’t have to and isn’t that the beauty of social media- finding your community? Not finding someone else’s and complaining about it.

By: Sonny Gill

Sonny Gill — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:21:33 +0000

@Tara – You make a great point that I failed to mention. Mistakes. We’ve all made them and we all continue to do so, along with companies. We were quick to judge Skittles and their little splash into SM, but I remember David Armano having a post on how brands and individuals are going to make mistakes in this changing space. ‘Learn by doing. Get over it.’

http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2009/03/brands-will-learn-by-doing-get-used-to-it-.html

Amen.

@Angela – You make some great points on the scope of these detractors and their snap judgments on not only mainstream media, but traditional, and even those individuals and organizations that apparently didn’t initially ‘get it’ to their degree of understanding of SM. Everyone can’t be geeks and be in the trenches in this medium. Trial and Error wasn’t looked down upon that much in the past, was it?

Thanks to everyone for their great comments and thoughts!