The name that sold a gazillion books is now attaching itself to the world of a gazillion tweets. Yes, Oprah has arrived on Twitter, and she’s making Ashton Kutcher look like a newb — the heck with Twitter.com; she’s launched her own branded Twitter portal. I mean, once you’re following Oprah, why would you want to follow anyone else?
A Facebook friend opined that Oprah’s joining Twitter “will mark the peak of Twitter as the shiny object of the quarter.” He’s joined in that POV by the guys at Adrants, who even have a poll going on how long it will take Oprah to kill Twitter. (By July 4th? Christmas?)
My vote: She won’t kill it. But she will change it, in the way that major brands (including other celebrities — who are really just brands posing as people anyway) are changing it. It’ll take another giant step toward becoming another mass broadcast vehicle, one that gives the appearance of intimacy and 1:1 communication, but in reality is just another monologue. Some 389,000 people (after 3 days) are following Oprah, but how many is she following? All of 11.
If she does any good in the microblogging space, the influx of her peeps may spur the development of better apps and interfaces, designed with the masses in mind. Without that, we may see an eventual outflux of Twitterers — one that Adrants predicts will bring down the mothership, but I think will just be moving on to the next microblogging invention.
Filed under: Brand, Channels, Social, Twitter | Tagged: Brand, microblogging, Oprah, Twitter
I’ve been checking her Twitter account every day, I’ve only seen 3 Tweets in last 3 days. She just doesn’t get it. If she doesn’t start producing some good Tweets soon, everyone will soon unfollow.
Maybe her plan is to hire a ghost tweeter? Maybe she’s too old to figure out this tech thing?!?
But at this point, she’s definitely not “killing it”.
I would be shocked — stunned, even — if she didn’t have a “Twintern” or two lined up to do just this. But to your point — just 3 posts in the last 3 days… Considering her legendary self-absorption, I’m genuinely surprised we haven’t heard more from her.
She may be too old to figure it out, but her minions aren’t. Maybe that’s why her personal portal showcases people tweeting about her, not her own tweets. It will be interesting to see how the tone changes if her “twilence” continues. Twilence. Heh. I should copyright that.
On her show yesterday she addressed these questions. She said that there are no ghosts or Twinterns [or Twittern] tweeting for her. It’s really her. She said people were commenting that she’s not tweeting enough and her answer was that, hey, she has a few businesses to run and gets busy. Makes sense to me. Although I am pretty amazed that Ann Curry has time to tweet while on assignment in Afghanistan (@AnnCurry). Totally makes me feel like a slacker with that one.
Which is worse for you? Following someone who Tweets too much or not enough? Kind of depends on what they are saying, right?
and yeah…yeah…I had Oprah on last night while I was cleaning the kitchen. You caught me.