Twitter

I choose to look at Kim Kardashian’s twitter. Kardashian is an American reality TV star, model, actress and, most widely known as a celebrity socialite. She is very involved in celebrity gossip and hangs out with all “A-listers.” Kardashian is an avid tweeter. Her twitter account closely resembles her personality, clearly suggesting that she is the author of her tweets. Her tweets are very personal, displaying her daily routines, talking about family members, and promoting herself, her sisters, and other celebrities. It is obvious that she, in fact, picks the people and things she wants to promote. She frequently posts pictures and tweets at people. These personal pictures and shout outs allow her followers to feel close to her, making her seem more normal, like them. In doing this, Kardashian uses a good sense of ethos. The page itself does a wonderful job portraying her personality as well, as she poses as a badassled Kim. Twitter is an effective tool for the star because it allows her to have constant communication with her fans. To date, Kardashian has over 7,000,000 followers, and this number continues to increase.

I then looked at Ellen DeGeneres’ Twitter. DeGeneres is a stand-up comedian talk show host. DeGeneres’ profile reflects her personality. She hardly ever tweets about her personal life; she generally tweets in regards to her early morning television show. She tweets at people who were just on her show or who plan to make appearances, making them seem closer to her. It is obvious that she is in fact tweeting because her humor seen on television comes through on her posts. Because she restrains from posting a lot about her personal life and day-to-day actions, I think her fans don’t have a “personal” relationship with the comedian; they have more of a relationship with the show. She does use a good sense of ethos, because emotion is provoked; however, the emotions felt by the pubic are a lot less personal then that of many other of today’s celebrities. The page itself is made up of snapshots from the show itself, promoting it even more. DeGeneres’ twitter account is crucial to her success. She has over 6,000,000 followers, all eager to hear about the DeGeneres show.

While Kim Kardashian and Ellen DeGeneres’ twitter accounts both reflect them as people, they tweet in very different manners. Through twitter, Kim builds personal relationships with the public and keeps them entertained by taking them through her everyday life. Her twitter is extremely personal. On the other hand, Ellen promotes her television show through twitter, rather than promoting herself as a person. While these are both effective tools for their success, they are extremely different tactics.

Social media allows celebrities to be even more in the spot light. They use it in a way to promote themselves to generate more success. This is an effective tactic because, through the social media networks, the celebrities are able to get closer to their fans. The audience is able to see that celebrity tweets reflect their true personalities, giving them a sense of connectedness. Not only does social media bring fans closer to celebrities, but it also brings celebrities closer to each other. In a large way, this stimulates competition between celebrities. Social media networks have completely changes the relationship between the public and celebrities and the celebrities themselves.