How
do celebrities utilize social media to gain fame?
In a recent interview with Olivia
Munn, she went on to explain how celebrities use Instagram solely for fame and
attention. Munn explained how “you can’t put out so much and then ask for your
privacy and expect people to take you seriously all the time, the only reason
is to get more followers or get likes, you want the fame and attention but if
followers were the number one thing to getting a career, all the Kardashians
would be in every big movie of the year.” Celebrities have now used social
media in order for them to become closer with their fans as well. By using
Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook it allows the stars to have the chance to talk
to their fans in a moderately safe atmosphere. Social media allows fans to feel
like they know celebrities on a more personal level. I’m sure many of us are
guilty of following our favorite stars and feeling like we know them personally
because we saw a picture of what they ate for lunch. It is quite bizarre if you
really think about it but when it comes down to it, celebrities and fans use
their social media to connect to each other. Fans can feel like celebrities are
average people based off of what they see on their social media accounts. All
publicity is good publicity in the eyes of a celebrity, although not every
interaction on social media is positive. For example, the famous Amanda Bynes
scenarios got everyone talking about her again when she fell out of the
spotlight because of her twitter rampage. Social media has also become a way
for celebrities to promote themselves. Daily instagram photos, tweets, and Facebook
posts keep celebrities in the public eye and make them stay relevant.
There are ten celebrities who are
said to have the best social media skills. Robert Downey Jr. uses Facebook to
promote his new upcoming movies and is a big fan of the new fad “selfies”. All
of his social media posts come from him directly so it makes him seem down to
earth and authentic, which his fans love. Vin Diesel who normally stays out of
the spotlight is also the most-liked actor on Facebook with an outstanding
number of 80 million likes and is also the 9th most liked page on
the site. He gains between 500,000 and 1 million likes every week, which makes
him stay relevant because otherwise, you don’t see his name mentioned that much
in the tabloids. Olivia Wilde is usually posting quite comical tweets, however
she uses Twitter and Facebook to publicly support her numerous amounts of
charities that she is involved in as well as her non- profit work. Ellen
DeGeneres has also gotten herself the nick name “ Queen of Twitter”, as she uses
twitter as a way to share her humorous personality and talk about her personal
opinions on social issues, which her fans love. Oprah Winfrey is a celebrity
that is known to be constantly skype-ing, tweeting, or Facebooking encourage
advice to her readers and she makes sure she comes across very personally to
her fans through social media. Leonardo DiCaprio solely uses social media to
influence and spread the word on political and environmental issues. Ashton
Kutcher uses social media to mainly spread the word about what the definition
of beauty really is, women’s rights, what it means to really actually be happy.
John Green who is the author of The Fault
in Our Stars and was just labeled by Time Magazine as one of the top 100
most Influential People in 2014, uses social media, mainly Twitter as a way to
talk about everything that is anything and has gained himself a respected
reputation because of that. George Takei, has kept himself relevant by
constantly posting hilarious status updates and always posting and supporting
his views on gay rights. He is claimed to be one of the most loved people on
social media. Elise Andrew is not even technically a celebrity but to people
who know the famous Facebook page, I F**king Love Science, she is the founder
and creator of the page. Elise has made herself known and talked about as if
she is a celebrity because of the page that she has created.
In an article written by the
Huffington Post, according to Instagram, the top celebrity moments of 2014 were
when, Blue Ivy and Beyonce dressed up as Michael and Janet Jackson for
Halloween, One Direction’s Liam Payne joined Instagram and fans went crazy,
Solanges wedding picture, Kim Kardashian actually broke records with the amount
of likes she received with her wedding photo. Taylor Swift won everyone’s heart
by the fact she began to comment on her fans instagram accounts, Justin Bieber
posted a video of him recording music, Alicia Keys announced she was pregnant, Beyonce
posted a picture of Jay Z and Blue Ivy to quiet all the breakup rumors, Lebron
James posted a instagram photo with his two jerseys, and when Allison Wilson
posted a “TBT” of when she was little. I am sure a majority of people can
remember at least half of these Instagram posts and remember talking about them
as well. This is how celebrities stay relevant and famous, don’t you agree?
Works
Cited:
Marcus, Stephanie. "Top
Celebrity Moments Of 2014, According To Instagram." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015
"Olivia Munn Says Celebrities Use Instagram for Fame
& Attention." Just Jared RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
"How Celebrities Use Social Media to Build Their
Brand." Social Media Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
"10 Celebrities With The Best Social Media
Skills." TheRichest. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
Amanda Schaffrick
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that celebrities use social media to promote themselves. Sometimes it isn’t even their own doing, they are just so well known that their fans, or even non-fans talk about them. Celebrities will stay celebrities as they stay in the spot light and stay relevant. They may not even be on social media for something positive but it’s like the saying goes, no publicity is bad publicity, in other words, as long as you are being talked about it’s a good thing. Social media sites allow fans to feel as if they personally know the celebrity. Instagram and especially Twitter “is the perception of direct access to a famous person, particularly “inside” information, first-person pictures, and opinionated statements.” (Marwick and Boyd)
Celebrities do things that they know will create a buzz on social media. Some celebrities are better at this than others. Taylor swift and Beyonce are good examples of this. As talked about in class, Taylor Swift is constantly promoting herself through means of Instagram and Twitter. She even used Instagram as a way to promote her new album. Swift knew fans feel very connected to her and knew that they would be looking at everything she posted. She is known for connecting well with her fans and uses these social media sites to do so. Swift, it has been said, deals directly with her own social media sites. If someone gets a comment or a like from the singer, chances are she did this herself as seen in “Top Celebrity Moments of 2014, According to Instagram.” She knows what it takes to use social media to present herself and to make fans feel like they actually know her personally.
Beyonce also knows the power of social media. She knows that this is how a majority of people communicate now a days and uses this to her advantage. As we talked about in class, Beyonce didn’t tell anyone that she was releasing her new album until the day that it came out. She didn’t want people talking about it ahead of time, but once it was released, she knew social media would eat it up. She decided that by talking about it once it was released would get fans intrigued. They would take to social media to talk to other fans and give their opinions on the new album. Because it was such a surprise to people, they couldn’t stop talking about it. Beyonce knew this would happen and let social media promote her new album instead of her doing all the work.
Facebook is another site that knows that stars want to promote themselves and get their names out there. Every time I go on Facebook, I see a page called Celebrities on Facebook. This is not a page that I have personally liked but one that just happens to show up on my newsfeed. This page pops up informing people of what celebrities are doing in their lives. It talks about what celebrities are at which events and how people are reacting to it. This is like free publicity for celebrities, just as much of social media is. I think even more stars are beginning to realize this and that is why they have begun to put more of their lives on social media and to be able to connect better with their fans.
Marcus, Stephanie. "Top Celebrity Moments Of 2014, According To Instagram." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Web. 29 Mar. 2015
Marwick, Alice. Boyd, Danah. “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter.” 2011 Convergence: The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies. http://con.sagepub.com/content/17/2/139
Katie, this was a fascinating write up, it really brought to light the impact of celebrity self-promotion. You did a great job to include many examples of what some celebrities do along with the impact of what happens after. For these people to use their social medias to do this ‘off the clock’ marketing of themselves is quite a testament to keeping themselves relevant. Certain posts such as Beyonce and Blue Ivy’s Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson picture on Instagram which received 1.7 million likes or Kim and Kanye’s wedding picture which received 2.4 million likes is astounding. With the ubiquitous domination of social media and other communication technology, celebrities who take in upon themselves to make business arrangements in a mutually beneficial way is very smart on their end. For example, if celebrities get verified on their social media platforms it costs money for the social media company to do this. But in return it will attract a following that want to stay in touch with their favorite celebrities. The gap between stardom and your average Joe is slightly decreased and this entices the follower to stay updated with what their favorite celebrities do off the clock.
ReplyDeleteBut that’s just it, the “off the clock,” posting is blurring the lines between if a celebrity is a person or a personified product. Which leads me to bring up the question that is the demand for celebrities to constantly post about their lives to appease the followers ethical? Stardom has become more like viewing animals in a zoo than the feeling of admiration to the person. Sure often times it is not the actually celebrity posting, but rather a publicist instead. But the fact that to have a loyal fan base in today’s day in age you must keep them entertained as much as possible seems wrong. To me it is turning peoples lives into products. You often hear celebrities going crazy because they just want a normal life, and although social media is fairly new. I predict that in the future we will hear many more stories of celebrities loosing their minds due to an inescapable lifestyle of attention that they have done to themselves. The spotlighted attention that is required of these people may also be just part of the job, but it certainly makes living a normal life impossible, and I hope they all understand that.
Along side with the personal postings there is no doubt that celebrities are paid to spread advertising from companies they endorse on their own social media. I personally get upset when I have to sign up for something using my own email address and if I was ever asked to post about a product, the little rebel inside me would surely be furious. But it just goes to show the power that some people hold just by staring in a few movies or making some music, and they are fully aware. These people have opted out of the normal life and have decided to take money and do what the people who run their careers want of them. And this always is parallel with where the money is coming from.
Marcus, Stephanie. "Top Celebrity Moments Of 2014, According To Instagram." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015
"How Celebrities Use Social Media to Build Their Brand." Social Media Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
"10 Celebrities With The Best Social Media Skills." TheRichest. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
Katie, I really am interested in the subject matter that you have chosen and your analysis on celebrities and their use of social media. I personally am not someone that follows many celebrities on social media because I have always felt like it is a PR tactic and a lot of the time you cannot even trust if the celebrity is the one who is actually making the posts. I do agree that social media is a main tactic used by celebrities to maintain or fix their personal image. It is an easy way for them to try and make up for a bad PR stunt or to make themselves look like more personable people. In the Boyd and Marwick article they investigate the social media practice that celebrities use to create and maintain their image and catapult them to gaining more fame. In their research they state “The fragmented media landscape has created a shift in traditional understanding of celebrity management from a highly controlled and regulated institutional model to one in which performers and personalities actively address and interact with fans” (Marwick, Boyd) They argue that celebrities have a lot of control over the way that they manage themselves. It gives them a lot of control over the way that they manage their personal image.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand I do believe that some celebrities can screw up their image by using social media the wrong way. Some celebrities have gone on twitter rants that have caused them a lot of bad PR. Also, celebrities have posted things on Instagram that could be deemed to provocative or inappropriate. A celebrity has to be smart when they are managing themselves on social media because it is their image they are trying to sell. Some celebrities are a lot smarter with the tactics that they use and some celebrities are just really bad at the way they manage themselves.
Social media is a great platform for celebrities to use in a positive way and if they have a good PR team. In the Markovitz article he says “Fans gravitate toward stars who post authentic, behind-the-scenes photos and videos.” (Markovitz) He pointed out that the best strategy for actors to use is to make their shoots more personable. This is the same with artists too because they can give the fans shots of them backstage at a concert that certain fans might be at. In all I feel that most celebrities use social media in a very useful way. The ones who keep it positive and post the most personable things are usually the ones that have the most followers and the most fans. It is just a misused tool when celebrities are using it the wrong way.
Work Cited
Markovitz, Adam. "Hollywood's Twitter Jitters." Entertainment Weekly 7 Dec. 2012. Web.
Marwick, Alice and Danah Boyd, “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter,” Convergence 17.2 (2011): 139 – 158.
Social Media is pretty much now a requirement for celebrities to be a part of if they want to have a growing fan base to maintain their celebrity status. Of course, it is not impossible to be famous and not be active on social media. But the truth of the matter is that fans want to interact with their favorite celebrities, and with more people growing up using the Internet, celebrities are going to have to show a presence on social media to remain relevant.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a study published in Convergence, social media is an important tool for celebrities to maintain their status. “Entertainers, public figures and technologists actively contribute to the construction of their persona through public interaction with fans” (Marwick and Boyd). Celebrities use sites like Twitter to give their audiences a sense of who they are and make them seem more personable. Connecting with fans on social media has become a new form of interaction that is an important skill to acquire. “Celebrity practitioners must harness this ability to maintain ongoing affiliations and connections with their fans, rather than seem uncaring or unavailable. Thus, Twitter creates new expectations of intimacy” (Marwick and Boyd). If a celebrity comes across as disinterested towards his or her fans, than that person is likely to loose some of those fans. It has almost become expected that celebrities have some sort of interaction with their fans on social media.
It is also used as a publicity technique. Publicist, Mara Buxbaum says, “One of the basic questions that studios now ask actors early on is whether they are on social media, because if they are, then they want to figure out a way to cross promote” (Markovitz). If a celebrity has a new project coming out, social media is an inexpensive and easy way to promote it. If they aren’t promoting something than celebrities may be interacting with fellow celebrities in a way that can sometimes cause commotion or may just be for damage control to denounce rumors. Celebrities have to “navigate skillfully the performative friendships, feuds, and negotiations with [other celebrities], all in front of their fans and the mainstream media” (Marwick and Boyd). If a celebrity wanted to interact with another celebrity they can do it on their own time in private. But if they wanted others to know about certain interactions than they go to social media.
I thought it was interesting that out of all the top celebrity moments on Instagram that were mentioned in your post, none of them were from movie stars. An article from Entertainment Weekly makes a good point about this when it stated that posting pictures and videos is “easier for musicians and TV stars than for movie actors, who are often contractually bound to secrecy” (Markovitz). Movie stars cannot always post about the work they are doing at that present moment like musicians because they are not allowed to give anything away about the movie before it is released. For musicians, posting a picture of themselves in the recording booth or on stage at a concert does not give much away that is not supposed to be known. Movie actors need to find creative ways to stay relevant with their fans on social media because in the future, “actors may not even have the option of remaining offline” (Markovitz).
Works Cited
Markovitz, Adam. "Hollywood's Twitter Jitters." Entertainment Weekly 7 Dec. 2012. Web.
Marwick, Alice and Danah Boyd, “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter,” Convergence 17.2 (2011): 139 – 158.
Eddy Negrepont
ReplyDeleteKatie, I think that this blog was one of the more interesting blogs that I have read recently. Social media has become a huge part in the society that we live in today, and is going to continue to grow for years to come. There have been many new things that have come about since social media has become so popular. I do not think that there is anyone more affected by social media than celebrities. I think this because the media is always trying to find out information about celebrities lives, knowing that is what the people in society are interested about. I agree with what you said about how celebrities use and approach social media in different ways. Some celebrities like as you stated, do not like social media at all and try not to be involved with it whatsoever. But, most celebrities like the rest of the world use social media consistently throughout their lives
Celebrities do utilize social media in all different ways to gain fame. Fans are always following their favorite celebrities on social media to see what they are doing in there everyday lives. I also agree with what you said how fans want to see what there favorite celebrities are doing in there lives, so it makes the fans feel closer to them. I know that I personally do that sometimes myself. I follow all my favorite celebrities and athletes on social media. I see what is going on in their lives and for athletes to see what there thoughts are on the game or things happening within the organization. Celebrities know that they can make a lot of money endorsing them correctly on social media. According to Henry Schafer in the Value of Celebrity Endorsements, “Celebrity endorsements can have a significant impact on increasing consumer awareness and purchase intentions for virtually every product category. The key ingredient for making this work is insuring that the celebrity spokesperson is perceived to be compatible with the brand and the product category, and that these important perceptions are based on the brand's target consumers” This shows that there is a lot of way these celebrities can brand there companies to there fans. I know a lot of celebrities that I follow on social media do that exact thing. If I were a celebrity I would try to do the same thing so I can try and make the most money I possibly can. For example, one of my favorite rap artists Fabolous just opened up his new clothing line. He has been advertising it on all forms of social media and has showed other celebrities wearing his clothing line. This makes fans want to go out and where the same thing and support there favorite artists.
With social media becoming a lot has gone good and bad with using it. Many people use it to fill in fans on the important things going on in their lives. For example, according to the Hollywood Reporter, “Beyoncé broke twitter when she announced her and her husband Jay-Z are expecting their first child. The news generates 8,868 Tweets per second, a record for a single event at that time. ” This show how much of an impact these celebrities have on society and how big social media has become. I think that this was a very good blog and I agree that this is how celebrities will stay relevant.
"The Value of Celebrity Endorsements." QScores.com 27 Jan. 2014. Web.
"10 Top Entertainment Moments in Twitter History." The Hollywood Reporter. 20 March 2015. Web.
We live in a generation where our society has mastered the art of self-promoting themselves. There is nobody that needs to self-promote themselves more than current celebrities. The main reasons why celebrities rely on social media to self-promote themselves are because no publicity is bad publicity and because it is the only safe way for celebrities to interact with their fans. I thought that Katie did a great job at discussing how celebrities utilize media to gain fame.
ReplyDeleteTwitter and Instagram has surpassed Facebook as the two most used social media outlets to interact with their fans. Social media technologies let people connect by creating and sharing content. We examine the use of Twitter by famous people to conceptualize celebrity as a practice. On Twitter, celebrity is practiced through the appearance and performance of ‘backstage’ access. Celebrity practitioners reveal what appears to be personal information to create a sense of intimacy between participant and follower, publicly acknowledge fans, and use language and cultural references to create affiliations with followers.
Networked media changed celebrity culture from the way people relate to celebrity images, how celebrities are produced and how celebrity is practiced. Twitter requires celebrity practitioners to negotiate a complicated social environment where fans, famous people, and intermediaries such as gossip columnists co-exist. These multiple audiences complicate self-presentation, since people present identity differently based on context.
The top 10 most powerful celebrities all heavily rely on self-promotion to connect with the public. The top ten is Beyoncé, LeBron James, Dr.Dre, Oprah, Ellen DeGenerse, Jay-Z, Floyd Mayweather, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Robert Downey. Katie pointed out in her blog that Robert Downey uses Facebook to promote his upcoming movies and is a big fan of selfies. Ellen DeGeneres got the nickname “Queen of Twitter”.
Instagram however is the biggest thing on social medial. In an article written by the Huffington post on the top ten celebrity moments on instagram the first line of the article was “If it wasn't posted to Instagram, did it even happen? Not if you're a celebrity. Good thing the people who tinker around behind the scenes at Instagram came up with a list of the top celebrity moments of 2014:” A picture of Blue Ivy and Beyoncé killed it as Michael and Janet Jackson for Halloween got 1.7 million likes. Kim and Kanye broke records with their instagram post of their weeding picture with 2.4 million likes. Other top moments was when One Directions Liam Payne joined instagram, Solagens wedding picture, Taylor Swift commenting on her fans accounts about them inspiring her, Justin Bieber posting a video of actually recording music, Alicia Keys announcing that she was pregnant, Beyoncé posting a picture proving that her and Jay-z were not broken up, and LeBron James posting a picture wearing #6 and #23 on the Cavs.
At the end of the day celebrities are paid to promote their lives behind the scenes on social media and it is part of their job. These celebrities are some of the most powerful individuals in the universe and it is the best way for them to get extra good recognition.
Work Cited
"10 Celebrities With The Best Social Media Skills." TheRichest. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
Marcus, Stephanie. "Top Celebrity Moments Of 2014, According To Instagram." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015
Marwick, Alice and Danah Boyd, “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter,”Convergence 17.2 (2011): 139 – 158.
Jake Carleton
ReplyDeleteBlog 7
Katie, you make a lot of good points about how celebrities are using social media in order to promote themselves and products that they are currently spokespeople for, or are involved in. In regards to your comment about the Kardashians using social media in order to get famous, and remain popular to people, and how if followers were a direct correlation to fame then the Kardashians would be in every big movie, well thank god that is not the case or I think the entire film industry would die. However, I enjoyed and learned a cool story about Beyonce posting the photo of Jay-Z and Blue Ivy amidst all of the rumors that they were breaking up, and I think that was a cool way for her to answer all of her critics at that time in her life. Also, we are all guilty of caring about what celebrities are having for lunch, as pathetic as that is, it is very true. As a society now we do want to feel closer to celebrities, and feel like they are our friends and that our lives are seemingly the same, even though they are not. These celebrities are trying to build a closer relationship with everyday types of people, and social media is a great tool to do this, but these celebrities have to be careful that they do not post anything too bad or offend anyone with their social media posts.
In an article by Adam Markovitz, titled Hollywood’s Twitter Jitters, that was posted by EW.com, it is discussed how celebrities use certain types of social media posts that everyday people enjoy and relate to, it is written that, “ Fans gravitate towards stars who post authentic, behind-the-scenes photos and videos. And that’s easier for musicians and TV stars than for movie acctors, who are often contractually bound to secrecy.” Which that statement is something that I had no considered. Legally, these actors would be breaking their contracts with a film studio by posting something about the projects that they are working on. Meanwhile, musicians would be far more about to post things about the projects that they are working on as they could release a sneak peek or minor part of a song to build the hype of their brand and celebrity level. Also, in regard to the use of social media by celebrities and their posts about the products that they endorse. In an article that is titled, The Value of Celebrity Endorsements, by Henry Schafer, it is discussed the idea of celebrity Q Scores. Q Scores describe how believable a celebrity is for a certain product that they are endorsing. “The perceived relationship between the celebrity and the brand needs to be evaluated on the following dimensions: Sensible and appealing, believable, appropriate, and motivating to the purchase decision.” This is a lot that must come into consideration by the celebrity in relationship to their posts about the products, and also the company must make a decision about this being the right celebrity for their products. With social media, celebrities must make sure that they are using it for the right reasons, and most celebrities do, but then again, it is always nice to read a funny story about a celebrity being an idiot and posting something inappropriate!
Works Cited:
Markovitz, Adam. “Hollywood’s Twitter Jitters.” Entertainment Weekly. 7 Dec. 2012. Web.
“The Value of Celebrity Endorsements.” QScores.com. 27 Jan. 2014. Web.