On the tail of the Oscars this weekend comes a story from the NY Times. I have read it several times
According to the article
In addition to being a staple for rapid-fire communication among technophiles and a networking tool for tech-savvy companies, Twitter is swiftly being adopted by celebrities who see it as a way to give the public a controlled peephole into their otherwise highly private lives.
Examples that have been seen are Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore (or Mrs. Kutcher as she is known on Twitter). While an innocent example, just the idea of Ms. Moore going the Mrs. Kutcher route which is not her public persona is a glimpse into what might be causing publicists all around Hollywood to cringe and maybe even pray that their clients won’t do this at all. The speed of a ‘get to know me’ statement to ‘start the spin control!’ can be a split second.
Other celebs that have been taking advantage of Twitter include Shaquille O’Neal and Lance Armstrong. Armstrong even used Twitter to help Sacramento police track down a bike that had been stolen from him. He let his followers know about the incident and sent them a picture of the bike and a week later it was recovered.
While that is the fun and productive side there is the potential for who knows what. Josh Bernoff, the author of Groundswell says
“It’s not that surprising celebrities are making the leap from blogs to using Twitter,” Mr. Bernoff said. It also doesn’t either hurt that celebrities tend to thrive on attention, he said.
Where the infiltration of celebrities on a platform such as Twitter gets interesting, he said, is what happens when celebrities sidestep their publicists and begin communicating directly with fans. “Are we going to find out that Angelina Jolie isn’t a good writer?” Mr. Bernoff mused. It’s a whole “new level of engagement,” he said.
So let’s imagine what might happen. What handles would some of these folks try to use? If @ARod is not available for Alex Rodriguez would he go with @Aroid (both are taken by the way)? Could a tweet look like ‘@AlexRodriguez Wow. These press guys want to know the truth. What up with that?’ Let’s put our Pilgrim imaginations to work and tell us what you envision might be seen in the Twitterverse in the near future from the think tank of great ideas that is the world of celebrity.
