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This sucks, but I won’t be able to make it to the LA 140 Conference where I’m supposed to be on a Twitter Celebrity Panel with Justine Ezarik (@iJustine), Amy Martin (@DigitalRoyalty), Shira Lazar (@shiralazar), and Stefanie Michaels (@Adventuregirl).
The reason? I can’t afford the cost of going. I know. Poor me. SBI is not yet a profitable blog.
So, since I won’t be joining the ladies on stage, I thought I’d share with you most of the comments I was going to make if the opportunity came up to make them:
1. There is no such thing as an Internet celebrity. You’re either a celebrity, or you’re not.
I was invited out to LA to appear on Christian Lander’s PC Hook-up Show (click here and then click on “Socializing), and was really pumped about it. My first time ever in LA and first major video interview. The only other time, until recently, that I’ve been on television was C-Span, and we know that doesn’t really count.
While I was out on Santa Monica Pier writing funny answers to potential questions, I called home. My mom answered, and after asking that I smuggle sand through security at LAX (more on that some other time), she kept saying, “Maybe Leno will have you on his show. That’s how you know you’ve made it and you’re a celebrity.”
And like I said on the show later that day, there’s really no such thing as an Internet celebrity. You’re either a celebrity, or you’re not. And the test is whether or not you’ve appeared on Leno or another major television program to be interviewed.
Remember, for all the talk out there about social media, most Americans are over fifty, and the over fifty set also makes up the majority of web users. Television is still king, and so are the late night talk shows in terms of indicators for success.
2. The Number Of Followers Doesn’t Matter Part 1
At least in my experience, and I can’t speak for others who were on the Suggested User List because most of them are actual celebrities, there is little increase in the amount of click-throughs on your Twitter links for having a large number of followers.
There’s also a pretty big issue with the list of having people follow you who are not exactly the right fit for what you’re doing. That’s part of the reason I’m pushing Dracula and Kittens so hard.
If you like my sense of humor, then you’re perfect and I want you to stick around, if you don’t, and you don’t like what we’re doing here on SBI, I think you should follow someone else.
So really, although that large Twitter number gives you a psychological edge, the number of followers you have is useless unless they are passionate about you and your work.
I’ve used this example elsewhere, but if I tweet something, it either dies quickly or gets re-tweeted several times (unless I’m lucky and someone retweets the retweet).
But if @Alyssa_Milano tweets something (and really, you should be following her because she’s the best example of how to use Twitter if you’re a real celebrity), you can gurantee it gets retweeted at least fifty times in the span of the first few minutes.
That’s the difference between a Twitter (or Internet) celebrity and a real one.
Now, let’s be clear. You can start out as an Internet celebrity and make the transition (Gary Vaynerchuck, iJustine, LonelyGirl, ect.), but when you do, the “internet” part drops off. The only people who don’t lose the “internet” parts are the ones who can’t repeat their success after the initial transition.
That’s not to say there are folks on Twitter who don’t have passionate audiences BUT the way people read and respond to celebrities is different than how they read and respond to just internet celebrities.
It’s like a light switch. The switch is always on if you’re a real celebrity. You have to flick it on if you’re a Twitter celebrity, and if you’ve worked your ass off over the years to build up an organic following like Gary or Justine, then you’ll have the same benefits that a celebrity does, but the switch has to be flipped first, and often the number of Twitter followers is not what’s going to flip that switch for you.
3. The Number Of Followers Doesn’t Matter Part 2
The magic number on Twitter is 10,000, not 1,000,000. You want 10,000 people following you. I go into way more detail about this here.
4. How can someone become a legit Twitter Celebrity?
Step 1: Don’t push out too many links, you are not an RSS reader.
Step 2: Don’t read any of the Twitter or “How To Use Social Media” books out there. Doing so will make you sound like everyone else who has read those books, which mutes your voice.
Step 3: Be honest. Say what you really think, all the time, no matter what. Social publishing is about authenticity and transparency, if you’re not yourself online, people are going to be in for a shock when they actually meet you.
Step 4: It takes time. I’ve been pushing one thing or another online since 1998. It’s now 2009. If you’re serious about this, and you have no connections like I did starting out, you need to put in a lot of work for little to no reward for a very long time.
Step 5: Be everywhere. If there’s a directory, you should be there. If a blog lets you leave a comment using Twitter or include your username, do that. If there’s an open-call for Twitter users to submit X,Y,or Z, submit all three. Don’t ever push too hard with your audience, but push hard when you have an opportunity to promote yourself in a non-spammy way.
Step 6: Don’t automate anything. Automation = Failure.
Step 7: If you don’t see any sort of improvement in exactly one year in terms of an organic growth of followers, re-tweets, and click-throughs, then re-evaluate what you’re doing and tweak what you can. Always leave room for tweaks.
This will work. Trust me.
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