I think we’ve all seen the reports of celebrity meltdowns and missteps on Twitter. Are you following any of these celebrities or is this news to you?
The Stars, they are a’Tweetin’!
It’s a pretty common occurrence these days, with Lady Gaga’s anorexia tweet being the latest as of this writing.
I don’t believe I follow any of the truly controversial celebs, but I do follow several of the more tame ones, I guess. I’m not really the one looking to read a lot of drama, though. Also I don’t follow the ones who just spit out a stream of promotional events that are obviously written by some intern or assistant.
Even so, why do I follow these celebrities? Whether you’re using Twitter purely for social reasons or if you’re using it as part of a social media strategy, you’re still looking to engage with your followers and the people you follow, right?
Why follow people who most likely will never follow you back, nor reply to any tweets you send their way, nor probably even notice you exist?
For some, I suspect they hold the hope that their favorite celebs may one day respond to them or maybe even follow them against all odds. It’s quite the longshot, but when you look at it, the potential is truly there.
Never have celebrities been this accessible before. Sure there have been official websites, forums, MySpace pages and more recently Facebook pages, but Twitter is a more immediate medium where you get the feeling that these guys are right there on your level and you can talk to them.
So I’m guessing many people do it with the hope that they might be noticed one day by one of their favorite stars.
As I mentioned above, I do follow some celebrities, but I go into it knowing that this is a one way street. I’m paying attention to them but they’re not seeing anything I write. Which is fine for me since I don’t expect anything more.
Even though I’ve been known to fire off replies to a celeb tweet or just shoot off a tweet here or there, I don’t ever really think I’m gonna get a reply (even though I do think they might read it sometime). There’s just no way they can reply to everyone who mentions them.
I have about 1800 followers at this time. That’s a pretty low count these days on Twitter. But still if I get into a conversation with 5 or 6 people at a time I can feel like I’m overwhelmed. At least I do when all those mentions are coming and my phone is blowing up. It can get kind of crazy.
Now imagine if you’re famous and you’ve got over 100,000 followers and 1,000 of those people are tweeting at you all at once. Some of these guys get retweeted like 1,500 times on average. Can you imagine all those retweet mentions coming at you? You’d better not have those notices going to your main email address…
Anyway, with all those people they’d have to pick and choose carefully who they’re going to reply to, if anyone, so I’m not really mad at ’em for being selective.
That brings me back to the question: Why do I follow them if I’m going to get no interaction?
Well, the celebs I follow tend to be comedians and people of that sort. I don’t need to interact with them to laugh at a funny tweet. I made up a list of these guys and put them into a column in Hootsuite to follow them easier. Some days I’ll scroll through that column and just burst out laughing. To me that’s a good enough reason to follow.
So who do I follow, anyway?
So far I follow close to 40 celebrities. I’ll run through some of the people I follow and why. I’m sure you’ll know the majority of these folks.
Marlon Wayans
I think everyone has seen the Wayan’s movies like Scary Movie, White Chicks, or my favorite Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.
He’s branched out a bit from the family tree and had some solo success, as well. I’ve pretty much watched everything he’s been in, including Dungeons and Dragons and G.I. Joe.
I used to love that old Wayans Brothers sitcom on the WB network, not to mention all the work he did before that on their In Living Color tv show.
Marlon always has something funny to say on Twitter, and he also tweets about current events and about the comedy scene in general. I’ve learned a few things reading his tweets, and if I can learn and laugh that’s a win-win.
Many times you can see Marlon respond to fans who have seen his show. So if you’ve paid money to see his show, and you tweet about it to him then your chances of getting a response increase somewhat -makes sense to me.
Here’s Marlon out on the street giving an impromptu performance…
Conan O’Brien
Conan was always one of those comedians who I wouldn’t go looking for, but every time I watched him, I laughed.
Although I didn’t get involved in the day to day back and forth with the Tonight Show drama, I was glad Conan landed a show on TBS and was able to keep going.
I seem to remember him making a big deal out of choosing to follow back one of his followers at random, but when I look at his page now, he’s following zero people. Maybe that person couldn’t take the pressure of creating tweets funny enough to withstand the constant scrutiny of Conan O’Brien?
Check out this video of Conan buying out Pete Cashmore from Mashable.com.
Olivia Wilde
I know, I know…he’s just following her to ogle her pictures.
Strangely enough, she doesn’t post that many pictures of herself. No doubt she realizes there’s more than enough half-naked photos of her floating about and we’re capable enough to Google them for ourselves.
Go ahead, I’ll wait.
So, welcome back! Here’s the thing, even though I’ve seen her in a bunch of tv shows and movies, I never gave her a second thought until she showed up on an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher one night. Man, the facts and figures and knowledge she was dropping were pretty impressive to me.
Olivia is a real crusader, and she’s always involved in some sort of effort to help people, with a lot of her efforts going to Haiti recently as seen in this Huffington Post article: Baseball in the Time of Cholera.
So while it’s true she’s not really a comedian/comedienne and doesn’t necessarily make me laugh, I tend to agree and empathize with a lot of the links and info she posts, and a lot of it raises my awareness of the plight of others around the world.
I did read on her website before that she was into the vegan lifestyle. To that I’ll have to pull an Al Bundy and say “NO, MA’AM.” I’ll have none of that. I’m off to grab a burger after I finish this article…
Anyway, here’s a clip of her from Tron Legacy:
Bill Maher
Since I mentioned Bill above, now’s as good a time as any to get to him.
Even though I don’t always necessarily agree with everything he says, it’s usually intelligent and funny so it works out for me.
Watching his show each week exposes me to many people from different aspects of life that I wouldn’t normally see like authors, political figures from other states that don’t necessarily always get the limelight, actors, musicians, former “disgraced” politicians and really a huge cross-section of people who never fail to bring up some point I just didn’t consider before then.
I can always count on a laugh and some interesting links from him. Bill’s tweets have sometimes been a bit controversial (the latest one regarding Tim Tebow a few months back), although never to the point of the Lady Gaga firestorm I mentioned above.
Here’s a clip from a recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher:
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers just cracks me up on Twitter. Even though I don’t watch any of her shows (the last thing I saw her in regularly was Celebrity Apprentice a few years back), I like her humor and she always has something to say about current events and other celebs. I love her “Snooki” jokes, especially.
Every time some celebrity screws up in the media I just know Joan will have something to say about it.
I actually see quite a bit of fan interaction from her. She’s a very savvy business woman and she knows how to work a hustle, so when someone tweets at her asking when her show is on I’ve seen her respond almost instantly to let them know. I’ve also seen her honor a lot of the “happy birthday” requests that all stars get (you know “Joan it’s my sister’s birthday can you say happy birthday to her??”).
It has to be a chore when there are 500 people coming at you asking for this, but that she makes an effort is pretty cool to me.
Here’s a funny clip of Joan talking about Angelina Jolie from the Graham Norton Show over in Great Britain:
Emmy Rossum
I’ve seen this actress in quite a few movies, but similar to Olivia Wilde I guess I just didn’t take much notice until I saw her in the Showtime series Shameless.
If you haven’t seen it then you just gotta check it out. The Gallagher family is a trip!
Apparently the show is a direct remake of a long running British version, so some of you from the UK have already seen the stories play out.
Anyway, the one thing I noticed about Emmy Rossum right away is that she actually would live-tweet during the show. She does a lot of fan interaction and is pretty good about staying on her hustle with promoting her show and other Showtime series.
Honestly, I had to avoid the live-tweets since I normally don’t watch anything the actual night it comes on and I didn’t want the show spoiled for me, but I appreciated the effort she put in.
You can count on a lot of Instagram self-photos from her, too. She takes a lot of shots of the various cities she’s in and the scenery around her -and if she’s in the shot, even better.
Recently she had a fan contest to design her Facebook fan page cover photo. I was going to take part in it but I was too lazy. Aw, shucks. You can check out the winning entry here: Emmy Rossum’s Facebok Fan Page.
So here’s a Shameless trailer:
And another Shameless scene with Emmy Rossum:
Wanda Sykes
Wanda’s humor always made me laugh. I remember her from back in the days on the old Chris Rock Show, and I’ve watched her in pretty much everything she’s popped up in since then.
She has a kind of dry humor that’s perfect for Twitter. Kind of like Joan Rivers, you can always count on her to chime in with something funny about current events.
Here’s a clip where she recounts meeting a racist dolphin:
Ian Somerhalder
A lot of you might not be familiar with this guy. I first saw him on the tv show Lost back in the day, but more recently I watch him on a show called The Vampire Diaries on The CW network here in the U.S.
Initially I had no intention on watching this show, since the early promos concentrated heavily on the teen drama and love triangle stuff. I didn’t think I could take it so I didn’t tune in.
After five or six episodes had aired I kept reading about how brutal this show was -especially Ian’s character Damon Salvatore. I didn’t expect that from a network tv show so I decided to go back and watch. Man, it was way more graphic than I thought it would be…
Ahh, that poor girl! But anyway…
Just on a whim, I decided to follow him on Twitter. It turn out he’s another tireless crusader. He’s always posting and trying to raise awareness of people/animals/environment in danger that need our help.
Ian always links to something interesting that I was previously ignorant about. I like that he’s decided to use his star power to try to help people.
Also, he takes care of his fans with the photos. He posts a lot of pictures of himself which his female fans really appreciate judging from their comments. I think this guy is really savvy and he’s keeping the hustle going, keeping his fans engaged and therefore more likely to listen to him, click his links and pass them on. I can’t knock it…
I can also sympathize since, like him, women are always begging me to post photos of myself in various stages of undress. It ain’t easy being this pretty all them time. I guess I’ll get by somehow…
He’s started his own foundation called The Ian Somerhalder Foundation. It’s mission (from the website):
The IS FOUNDATION aims to empower, educate and collaborate with people and projects to positively impact the planet and its creatures.
I can’t deny that he’s passionate about using his fame and resources to try to make a difference. Again, I can’t knock this kind of hustle.
Ian Somerhalder’s Twitter Page
Lana Parrilla
This is another actress that many will not be familiar with by name alone.
I first saw her in a bunch of failed NBC shows like Boomtown and Windfall. I think she even turned up on the Fox series 24 at one point.
In any event she’s now on the ABC series Once Upon a Time, where she plays the evil Queen Regina.
This was another show that I just wasn’t sure of. Obviously, I’m a guy who likes fantasy stories so it seemed to be up my alley but I wasn’t sure.
After I gave it a shot her performance as evil Queen/Mayor Regina actually sold me on the show.
Get this: I shot a tweet her way letting her know her performance sealed the deal for me. Guess what? She responded!
https://twitter.com/#!/LanaParrilla/status/131107108316917760
Whoohooo! My brush with Twitter greatness. This must be how the little people feel when I respond to them!
I kid, I kid…
Do you follow any celebrities on Twitter?
So there you have a small subset of my celeb list. I follow more but these are consistently the most interesting.
For some reason I never see any celebrities given shout-outs on Follow Fridays. I suspect this is because they hardly need help gaining followers.
If you guys are following any interesting/funny/cool celebrities let me know who (and why, if necessary) in the comments. I’m always on the lookout for some more funny tweets!
I follow @NathanFillion cause I’m a fan and he tweets alot. @wilw Will Wheaton always has something funny to say.
I follow others but these two are the most consistent tweeters. No, I don’t expect them to acknowledge my existence. It’s cool to be on the same playing field as them and accept that they are just normal folks, like me.
I also follow them with a Tweeter account that I don’t feel the need to check regularly – separate from my writing accoun – having all my interests flowing into one Twitter identity was overwhelming.
Hi Missy,
thanks for the comment, and the suggestions. These are two guys who I’m definitely interested in following.
So your non-writing account, you’re strictly in “follow” mode with that one? Do you use Hootsuite or some other software to keep track? I tried using the multiple accounts and even with Hootsuite it was getting on my nerves…
1800 followers is something. if you interact with 3 percent of your followers once per month- you’re doing social the right way. Interaction can include a RT, a Triberr tweet, a hat tip, a chat, a #FF, a blog comment, a Facebook like, etc.
The question to keep asking: are you interacting with the people you want to interact with?
Hey Stan, good to see you my friend!
It took me a looong time to get to this 1,800 so I don’t want to sound dismissive of it, so I agree it’s certainly something.
Your question is pivotal, indeed. I can answer this question in the affirmative. The people who share my interests and that I enjoy talking with are folks I can engage with at any time.
Twitter has been remarkable in that aspect. I signed up for it in 2007 and proceeded to ignore it for 3 years. Now I can’t imagine not catching up with my friends and colleagues every day.
What a world we live in, eh?
Hi JG,
I don’t follow celebraties on twitter but it looks very interesting that how deeply you follow them and it also make me curious to know about these stars or follow them. I like Bill Mehar and whenever I saw his videos, he brightens my day and I am also now going to follow him.
Hey Pete!
Thanks for commenting and yes you should definitely follow Bill, he’s always got something funny to tweet!
I am following Bill now, he is simply amazing and I really enjoyed his tweets.
I don’t follow the celebrities but after reading your stuff about it, I am going to follow some of my favorite. Nice videos !
Hi Paul,
Yes indeed, If you have some favorites and you can tell it’s really them tweeting then you should definitely follow. At the least you might end up finding out some early news about their next appearance, project or whatever.
thanks for reading and watching!
Hi there fellow Triberr member ;)
I do follow a few celebs but I am very picky about who they are. I know most have people doing it for them so I try to pick ones I know are doing it themselves, hence my #NateLuv project. I know for a fact (because we’re friends) that he tweets himself and actually I’m going to send him this post to read too.
Great post, I am so glad I popped by!
Hi Amy, always glad to see a Triberr mate over here :)
Hey, I love Burn Notice! I just followed @sethpetersonla right now. I’m glad you stopped by here because this is the sort of thing I was looking for.
If celebrities such as him take the time to personally interact with fans then I’m all for following them and supporting their careers.
Thanks much for dropping in!
I don’t follow a whole lot of celebs, but I do follow some.
Not sure how many of them followed me back yet. =D
Hey Nicko, good to see you man!
you know what, for some reason these celebes have not followed me back yet, either lol.
I guess they don’t want to read my 140 character rants about the evils of vegetables. Aw, shucks…
Nice post JG!
I follow a few musicians such as Glenn Hughes and Keef. I also follow some heavy hitters like Lady Gaga and Britney Bitch, and 10 Downing St and of course Barack Obama. For awhile Britney and Barack were actually following me back! (for whatever reason…).
Hey Kris how are you man?
Yes I follow Barack as well, he never followed me back though :(
I’m not a big fan of Gaga but from a purely social media standpoint she’s certainly intriguing. She pushes a lot of trends. I might just follow her so I can get in on the “ground floor” of her Twitter escapades.
Thanks for dropping in!
I love Asian and Hollywood celebrities to follow as they show there real attitude on it.
You probably won’t believe me, but other than Matt Cutts (not a true celebrity) the only celebrities I follow are ones that not only followed me first but that I still follow. I wrote about it on my blog but I’m connected with Mariel Hemingway, Kathy Ireland, Nile Rodgers and, though some might not see him in the same light, Guy Kawasaki. And they talk back to me!
That’s it.
To me a lot of the celebs are pretty boring on Twitter. I usually like to follow celebrity comedians like lil Duval or Kevin Hart. I love to laugh and these two always tweet something that puts a smile on my face. I follow Marlon Wayans too, he keeps my timeline full of jokes too.
Twitter is not only a way to keep your own friends and family in the loop — find out what your favorite actor or singer is up to by following her on the social networking site. Searching for a celebrity by name is easy, but figuring out if an account actually belongs to them can be tricky. Luckily, in many cases, Twitter will verify the identity of celebrity-run accounts so you know the tweets actually belong to the celebrity..
Hi again. I Would like to ask if there are some simplest ways to follow them?
I guess that is one of the benefits brought to us by the technology; stars are now more accessible than ever. If only some people will learn how to behave when they make their posts.
One of the reasons that twitter became so famous is the fact that celebrities actually use it. In other social media you have no idea if it is the actual celebrity that created the account. So i follow myself some celebrities. It is nice to know that people you admire can be found and talked to.
I follow Howard Stern on twitter along with a couple of other celebrity comedians like Gilbert Godfried. They seem to have something to say most of the time. Although I never get responded back directly, I can see that they do read their tweets as evidenced by radio or television interviews if the topic comes up. I couldn’t imagine having so many followers, it must seem like being in a crowded room with everyone shouting at you to get your attention.
I have not yet followed the celebrities but I really think I can do now because some of your suggestions are great. I want a good laugh sometimes and I think I will follow Wanda.
They seem to have something to say most of the time. Although I never get responded back directly, I can see that they do read their tweets as evidenced by radio or television interviews if the topic comes up.
John, I don’t follow celebrities on social media. They get enough of my attention when I turn on the television. I do enjoy the little snippets, such as your post. Out of all the celebs you’ve highlighted, my two favorites (whose names I DIDN’T know) are Lana Parrilla and Emmy Rossum. I love their characters!
Cheers,
Mitch
I like Jimmy Fallon and funny or die. I don’t follow a bunch of people though.. gets way to cluttered.. Oh and my favorite is all the people saying “This person is spreading rumors about you,, Check it out..” Any one else??
Ellen of course cause I think she’s one of the funniest people alive. Also I follow 50 Cent because I have had a crush on him forever. I actually just tweeted my picture where I 50-Cented myself using the Old Booth app ha ha. Ironically we would be the perfect couple I’m sure…he just doesn’t know it yet. :) I have my whole 50 Cent CD for when there are no kids in the car.
Conan rocks. I don’t know why I don’t watch him more. He’s hysterical. I do follow him too.
I love Wanda Sykes! Her role on Curb Your Enthusiasm just killed me or just any time she is interviewed. I want to have lunch with her and Larry David.
Ahhh Once Upon A Time – one of my fav shows. Lana Parrilla is awesome. She has the role I would want to play.
I just started watching Shameless and I agree she is amazing. All I can say about that show is OMG!
I don’t follow celebrities! I follow Sports Superstars! Football stars like Beckham!
I would love to follow Justin TImberlake because he loves Kobe!
I do follow some movie stars as well as some sports personalities. What I like most about following them is the chance to see the world in their perspective.
Twitter is very popular nowadays because celebrities are in Twitter. I don’t follow celebrities in twitter because for me it is just a matter of wasting of my time.
It’s not only the celebrities that makes it popular. Most people are using mobile and twitter are faster that’s why its popular! It’s for people on the go!
I can’t think of anything more pointless than following a celebrity on twitter, I’m sure most of them are good people but there are thousands of other subjects that are far more deserving of my or anyone else s attention than “he said” “she said” nonsense.
I’m not a big fan of twitter, but I do drop by to catch up with updates from Wayne Rooney and David Beckham.
-Andy
I am not fond of following celebrities on Twitter, I get to see them on TV and the movies then on entertainment news so it’s kind of an overkill for me to know what they do and where they go throught Twitter. I’d rather follow people I don’t know.
I think, the main reason of twitter popularity is the celebrity updates on Twitter. I am following Bill Mehar at the moment and he is simply amazing. His humorous updates make me fresh and I really enjoy his tweets.
I think most people follow celebrities or professional sports men and women on Twitter. It allows the celebrity to keep in touch with their fans and keep them updated on their whereabouts or activities. Let’s face it, there would not be half as much interest in hearing about boring everyday stuff.
I never follow celebrities. I follow those I know I will be socially interactive with. Maybe I should pick up a few of the cool people you mentioned and expand my humor base. I love humor.
Thanks for this great list of these great celebrities but I use my twitter account to promote my blog so I only follow people, blogs and companies who are related to my topic.
I know that some people like to follow every celebrity twitter account they can find but for me, I only follow those who I like for example Olivia Wilde is one of my favs. :D
Yes I like follow them on twitter…I know what they are doing everyday and where did they go..I like following those artist that socially active..
i don’t know why people follow celebs on twitter, i think we need to follow only those who inspire us to do something in our life…… :)
I follow them but I always feel doubt on them. I follow only whom I like most.
I follow a few footballers who tweet often and have something to say about the game and comedians like frankie boyle and a couple of other people that have something interesting to say but apart from that I tend to try and stay away from celebs as they dont tend to have much to say that is not about themselves ;-)
I do not follow celebrities on twitter because they are not likely to follow me back..
I do follow a few celebrities, but it’s because I feel inspired buy them, by what they incorporate and mean to me. And some of them are even funny :P
I tried following celebrities in my twitter account but ended up unfollowing them. I was just not that interested with what they post on a daily basis. But I would like to try following Marlon Wayans to get a good laugh. But it’s true, people follow celebrities in the hope of getting a tweet back from them, and the feel that they are accessible, like they are actually there.
I don’t follow celebrities in twitter after all there just people aren’t they? Just thought I’d say that I appreciate your distributing this thoughful blog posting. You’re batting 1000! Really looking forward to perusing more. Definitive!
All the very best of British luck to you.
All I follow on Twitter are celebrities: Musicians, actors/actresses, writers, tv shows, and even fictional characters from TV, movies and books. But I make sure to follow those who I really am interested in. For instance I don’t follow performers like Lady Gaga and Britney Spears because I do not care at all about them.
I don’t follow any actors. I’m very fond of travelling and news. So will be catching up with travelers or travelers group etc.,
To be honest I don’t really follow any celebs. Actually thats a lie I do follow Frankie Boyle. Think I may have a look at some of the ones you have listed. Thanks for the share
But I would like to try following Marlon Wayans to get a good laugh. But it’s true, people follow celebrities in the hope of getting a tweet back from them, and the feel that they are accessible
Joan Rivers is awful in that video “joking” about Angelina.. How could she?? She is ugly, with lots of facial operations! Ooooh! I’m so angry! How old is Joan? 85?
p.s. I follow Alisa Milano, Hugh Jackman and Rihanna. And I think they do write some things for us, without any servants..
Yes do follow celebrities.
Conan as well.
Talib Kweli (not sure if I spelled his name right)
?uestlove
Jean Grey
The Hulk
Guys actually i don,t have any account on twitter but now i am going to create a new account and will follow my favorite stars and will tweet them :)
You should check out Ricky Gervais. That guy is amazing. Cracks me up everytime with only 160 characters
To be honest, I thought following celebs on twitter is a a waste of time. But recently after
watching the series “Shameless” I started following Emmy Rossum. She is so gorgeous! and I love seeing her pictures in different cities…
I am a twitter addicted person, i wasn’t, but since I start my blog I am using twitter regularly . I wouldn’t love to follow celebrities else i would love to follow top bloggers :)
I don’t follow Celebrities much, cause big fan of sports. So my list is short: Chris Nolan, Adam Lavine, Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Colbert, Jim Gaffigan. The last three have many funny tweet.
Follow Danny Devito. He is insane and tweets all of the time.
I just did, thanks for the great suggestion!
I follow 5-8 movie actors. But I doubt they twit themselves(( There are probably tens of people doing social media things on behalf of them.
Somehow it is natural and fair. They are busy to write messages all day long.
Yeah it’s likely that *someone* is helping them. I usually tend to unfollow the ones that are just a stream of promotion though.
I think famous people do not write those messeges.
The ones I follow seem to be genuine….except for Snoop Dogg/Lion – that one is mostly a stream of promos.
You can usually tell which ones are really them because they’ll tweet with each other. The truly fake or “intern run” accounts only tweet the latest appearances/albums/singles, etc.
I follow celebrities in the fashion industry as a form of market research since not all will respond or re-tweet your work, you have to be extra patient with the ones in the entertainment business. Most celebs that are actually worth following are the entrepreneurs themselves because they sometimes offer information, tips and on rare occasion they respond to tweets which mention them.
I follow a lot of celebrities on Twitter, particularly comedians and musicians. I also follow many authors and bloggers. I’m a horse racing fan so I even follow the Twitter accounts of certain thoroughbreds. Most don’t follow back, but some do.
Hey Jeanne,
you know, I don’t think I’ve had a celebrity follow me back. Some respond to you, but I’ve never got a follow. Aw, shucks!
So when you say you follow the accounts of thoroughbreds, do you mean they have an account as if it is tweeted by the horse? like some people do with their pets?
Or is it that they are tweeting about the horse’s schedule? very interesting!