1. Is Twitter Trending?

Both celebrities and politicians showed how Twitter has become an important tool, for themselves and for the website too. Because, as for any other website, when celebrities are users and they post content on social network, they immediately attract people, especially fans, considerably increasing the opportunity for advertising. Is the same Twitter whom tries to work with celebrities and various media public relations staff in order to convince them of using Twitter for their campaigns, while at the same time giving them support and analysis service to immediately analyse what was a good campaign, what went viral and what was the result of a terrible plan. And this is what made social media fundamental, because it is a better way for famous people to get in touch and create a solid relationship with their fans by posting moments of their private lives, sharing personal thought and so on. Even if we already know that many celebrities aren’t in charge of their accounts, but they’re managed by their PR agents. This is the case for Kate Thornton or Wayne Rooney for example.

A distinction should be made between a new artist and a well-known star. We all know how Justin Bieber career is founded and entirely supported by a very young female crowd, attracted by his angelic and intriguing character. For the young singer, Twitter become a way to get in touch with his fans, where he mostly shares or retweets pictures of him with them, showing gratitude to his “beliebers”. But at the same time, as the picture below shows us, he might use it for commercial purpose, making it look believable, as if writing that tweet was his thought and idea.

Another example that has to be considered is Beyonce, who has strong social values, referring to many global campaigns she took part and supported such as #BeyGood and #28DaysBlackHistory, and also several charities campaigns like #EveryMileMatters, #TheWorldNeedsMore #ChimeforChange and supporting charity festivals and concerts.
Even in this case the promotional part is very important, including informing about her commercial partnerships (Pepsi for example in 2013), where supporters are invited to participate live on the profile through surveys or invitations to vote (MTV Video Music Awards).

Another fundamental set of “important” people who has to be considered is politicians. In the UK and US we saw them using Twitter to get in touch communicate and interact with their voters. The best example was given by Barack Obama 2008 campaign, when during the United States general election Obama made 261 tweets while his Republican competitor John McCain made only 26, showing how Obama better understood the huge potential inherent in social media. Hillary Clinton also didn’t realize this when instead of following back some of her followers (like Obama did) kept her Twitter account only for herself, losing her credibility, and only posting facts related with politics, while President Obama increased his communicative skills by placing side by side political topics with personal facts.

So after this what we can say is that Twitter is trending between celebrities since it’s a fundamental tool for their public relations, linking their image to the crowd showing the world their “human” side and at the same time promoting themselves or any other brand they collaborate with.


Mattia Chicco