In this day and age of social media their people say their opinions on things no matter the place nor the time. One outlet that is instantaneous with this it is Twitter, while it has helped make people famous for very dumb reasons. It also has a way of bringing people together in the midst of tragedy. One thing it has done for bands, sporting events, and politicians is it is used as for marketing, and get people’s names out there for the public’s view.
With that said the way marketing has been used for celebrities, and companies in regards to Twitter is amazing. Businesses who do not normally have social media, only have a Twitter because people use it more than any other social media. It also brings different deals to restaurants such as restaurant week here in Buffalo. Restaurant week is a week in which different restaurants around the area have meals for $20.00. While this was known because of the restaurants putting this in the paper, they used twitter to broaden their audience, and get the word out faster. Another way the social media form has used marketing was, their is a local group of Bills fans who came together to form the #BillsMafia. Now this may seem like a silly idea for NFL fans, but this started as just a hashtag amongst bills fans, its creator noticed this and started a group, where there were contest giveaways, they helped local non for profits in any way they could, and also were the most hardcore fans of the team. It truly is insane how something that started as a hashtag built into something as big as this group, this was all because of how the brand marketed itself.
Twitter can be used as a journalistic, political, and organizational tool in ways that other social media forms cannot. Meaning that part of journalism is getting information to the people in the most factual fastest way possible. Twitter has done this, by posting a link to the article in the form of a tweet. The person therefore can go to the article and read it, because the younger generation is not likely to go to the CNN website, what is also amazing on Twitter is how everyday subscribers can interact with journalists. This has not always been the case, as famous people often ignore fans this has changed the game.
With the campaigns being in full force candidates have gone to great lengths to get their ideas to as many people as possible, Bernie Sanders who has been gaining support like wildfire has done used Twitter in this way and is gaining momentum. Many people did not know the values and the things that this man stood for, it was from the use of Twitter that many got their information and based there stance based off of that.
1. While many people joke about the WWE saying it is fake and what not its marketing strategy is second to none reaching over 60 countries. Recently the World Wrestling Entertainment launched its Superbowl in WrestleMania on April 3rd, it was the most talked about event in history on Twitter, This helped the company develop a fan base, and it was an exceptional way of fans coming together for a common interest. for months prior they wanted to get as many people watching as possible offering this for free (usually 69.00) simply by going to the network and using the hashtag #FreeWrestlemania.
2. Another event that Twitter helped or hurt was, the bombings of London. This was a very tragic day in the world and the outpouring of support for the people of France was overwhelming. People can have their profile picture as the French Flag, with themselves in the background. Twitter was the where the news broke, every hour on the hour people were looking on this for new information on the tragedy. It showed buildings around the world being lit up with the colors of the French Flag, it makes one wonder just how much of an impact it would have had, had it been around during 9/11.
3. The final event while being about an event was about more in Race. The Oscars is a movie award show that gives awards to films in the past year. One problem that many African Americans saw with the nominations was the lack of blacks. This lead to an uproar from African American film stars. They got their message across by boycotting the award show itself. They also used a #OscarssoWhite, they did this to get people aware of the problem. Had Twitter not been around for this the public would have not known about how angry this made people.
The three people I followed on Twitter were 1. Taylor Swift 2. UFC 3. Conan O' Brien
Starting off with Taylor Swift I chose this due to the fact that this is not my style of music particularly and thought it would be interesting to see how she is in everyday life. Also her fame is huge in the U.S and is a pop culture phenomenon
Next I followed the Ultimate Fighting Championship because I am a fan of them. While I enjoy WWE more, a lot of friends love this and the UFC or Mixed Martial Arts was just legalized in the state of New York. Therefore I followed them to see what new was happening in the sport.
Finally I followed Conan O'Brien this man is hilarious and I heard his tweets have shown that. Recently I saw a video with Conan playing video games with sports celebrities and found it hilarious so from there I realized what all of the hype was about with his comedy.
This experience of using Twitter differed from blogging because while blogging helps you get your opinions out there. Twitter is more instant, and more people can have an opinion on things it just reaches a broader audience. As far as this differentiating from other forms of social media such as Instagram, or Facebook, I feel like Twitter is the go to as of right now. More people are on Twitter, some peoples Facebook just have articles linked to the celebrity, as where Twitter is actually the person saying what they feel no matter the backlash.
