In today’s age, the world has become highly involved with online networking through social media sites. To put things in perspective, in one single day 33 billion tweets are made through the social media wonder Twitter. World wide twitter has over 500 million users in their “twitterverse”, and 1 million new accounts are created every day. These remarkable numbers leave no wonder as to why marketers recognize twitter as a powerful tool for advertising.
By paying celebrities to casually tweet about a product or service, companies can subconsciously advertise their products being used by stars in an everyday situation. This forms a symbiotic relationship since in return, it helps create the celebrity’s image identity. It shows that the stars on twitter are just like regular twitter users and utilize the same services and products that the normal person uses everyday. In retrospective, celebrities can tweet about luxurious products to reflect their lifestyle, a life that builds curiosity within the normal user. This technique creates a connection between the product and the customer on a new level of intimacy, a new dimension that could only be provided by Twitter.
Keeping in mind of the millions of twitter users in the world, image identity is highly sensitive to the tweets that celebrities make everyday. In recent news, singer/dancer Chris Brown and comedian Jenny Johnson had disputed with each other through twitter, publicly tweeting their arguments back and forth. With hundreds of thousands of followers in their fan base, you can see the damage that was done to their identity. Although Chris Brown has already been targeted as Hollywood’s troubled star, events such as this make it hard to rebuild an image to the public.
In general, social media platforms can help build the image and identity of a person, but it can just as quickly tear down the identity that was built infront of the public eye. With 62% of the world being exposed to social media outlets, it is vital for marketers to think twice about the next product, argument, or idea they have their spokesperson send out to the world.