Comments on: Question Of The Day: Are You Following Celebrities On Twitter And Having Them Impact What You Buy?

By: Kelly Christine Delaney

Kelly Christine Delaney — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:46:41 +0000

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!

By: Will Morris

Will Morris — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:33:53 +0000

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.

By: Merrill Dubrow

Merrill Dubrow — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:30:51 +0000

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

By: Lynn Stalone

Lynn Stalone — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:15:21 +0000

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.

By: Melanie

Melanie — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:17:47 +0000

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?

By: Jeremy Bromberg

Jeremy Bromberg — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:11:58 +0000

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.

By: Stephenie Gordon

Stephenie Gordon — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:57:48 +0000

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.