I was reading the paper the other day and came across an interesting article about Kim Kardashian that I thought I would share. First of all I actually know who she is even though I don’t watch her show "Keeping Up with The Kardashians". The article mentioned that Kim has 2.7 million followers on Twitter. In terms of ranking that puts her 10th according to twitterholic.com — just ahead of Shaquille O’Neil. The article talks about how much Kim is paid for her tweets. Take a few seconds to think about it and then read on. Kim is paid $10,000 every time she mentions a product in one of her tweets. Imagine if she said, "Hey I just stopped at a 7-11, bought a Coke and a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup." I wonder if she gets $30,000?
Ok $10,000 seems like a lot of money to me but the real question is – is it worth it?
- Do consumers who are following Kim run out and buy products she buys?
- Since followers are getting Kim’s "Tweets" real time is there a bump in revenue after she tweets?
- What famous people do you follow?
- Have you personally bought any products based on people you are following on Twitter?
- Do you think this trend will be successful?
I look forward to reading your comments.
Stephenie Gordon says:
i don’t twitter in general, but i do follow Rachel Zoe on Facebook. She is the stylist to the stars. I would indeed buy some of the fashions she talks about IF i had the celebrity bank account…
But i wouldn’t buy a Coke from 7-11 just because she bought one. I follow her because I respect her opinion as a stylist and I believe she is an expert in her field.
The only thing Kim Kardashian is an expert on is her body (and Reggie Bush’s) and showing it off… I guess if I wanted to be a Playboy bunny I might be more likely to pick up whatever she is slinging. But alas, I think I’ll stick with Rachel Zoe.
Jeremy Bromberg says:
No. Their respective skills at acting, sport, or other activity in the public eye does not qualify them as anything more than good at acting, sport, or other activity in the public eye. And even then, they may not be great at those things either. I have no interest in following them nor their recommendations.
Melanie says:
I follow some of the World Series of Poker Stars. They are a riot! I wouldn’t buy anything just because they suggested it or they bought it. I would follow their advice on poker, though.
My opinion is that there are some hard core wannabes following every major personality, and they will go buy things suggested to them, but they wouldn’t represent the majority. But every little purchase helps, right?
Lynn Stalone says:
I follow Merrill Dubrow on Twitter… isn’t he a celebrity?
No, I don’t follow any celebs, per se. I do follow my teams and some of the players – Lakers and Chargers (yeah, we sucked on Sunday, please be gentle), my client companies, many colleagues and others. Tweets definitely don’t and won’t impact my purchases.
If anything, it’s a deterrent for me as I doubt the person is truly the one tweeting. Similarly, I’ve been pretty disappointed with the Twitter efforts from some of the chains – they are so blatantly obvious that someone is being paid to tweet incessantly about a new product or promo under the guise of being a random customer/consumer. I suppose that might work on some of the population out there, but my experience is that the consumers are pretty savvy. Likewise, any celeb who is thought to be paying an assistant to tweet for them will eventually be rooted out and discredited eventually.
At the end of the day, celeb tweets need to be honest, or at least consistent with who they are being paid by, and need to come from the real person. If not, there’s a huge potential downside to the entire effort.
Merrill Dubrow says:
Lynn,
Thanks for following me on Twitter. I think the only person who think I am a celebrity is my Mom! Good comments about the honesty about tweets. I HOPE people say how they feel, what they are doing and products they use/like based on preference and not always because of money!
Nice contribution.
Merrill
Will Morris says:
No I don’t, nor would I if I did.
I do follow Merrill Dubrow on Twitter and enjoy everything he posts. I often get an text Tweet early in the morning, sometimes before I leave the house. My phone beeps and my wife will ask, “who is texting you at 6am?” I walk to my phone and say, “must be Merrill.” Life is good.
Kelly Christine Delaney says:
As far as celebrities I follow – mainly my favorite musicians (Weezer, Taylor Swift, John Mayer) as well as baseball players / sports writers. Of the celebrities I follow, the only one that seems to push products would be Rachel Zoe. As Stephenie said, I don’t have the celebrity budget for her purchases either though it’s good to see what’s trending. I have seen ticket announcements from bands and for spring training games on twitter, which has helped me purchase before they sell out. Since these celebrities have so many followers, if you had a question about the product – who are you to ask? I wouldn’t expect someone with 2 million+ followers to respond personally to me.
When it comes to Kim Kardashian, I followed her for about 48 hours before I found her tweets supremely annoying and clogging up my feed. I’d much rather hear how much Shane Victorino was resigned for – or RT something from @merrilldubrow!