Celebs Die Digital Death
Many have speculated that celebrities adopting Twitter have helped the micro blogging site reach the masses. Ashton Kutcher was one of the first celebs to adopt Twitter, in the UK Stephen Fry quickly garnered a large following.
And soon many others followed, such as Oprah Winfrey, Shaquile O’Neill and Justin Timberlake. The appeal to their fans is clear, it provides a direct window into their lifes – a level of access the tabloids can only dream of.
To the celebs it provides a way to build a closer relationship with their fans, which eventually should lead to increased album/ticket/merchandising sales.
Ironically, many of the celebrities that have been strong advocates of the site have now decided to stop using it. Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, Kim Kardashian and many, many others have decided to stop tweeting. They are dying a Digital Death.
Until you have helped them raise enough money for charity that is. No more tweets until they have reached $1 million in donations for Keep A Child Alive, a charity which Alicia Keys is personally involved with.
The great thing about this campaign is that not only will we see how much influence these celebrities actually have, but it also allows other users to join their sacrifice and garner donations.
Whilst some have critisised the campaign for being an ego exercise for the celebs involved and the initial target of $10 donations seemed to hamper the campaign, they have managed to reach their target of $1 million within the first week of the campaign. And all they had to do was shut up for a while.