We are three years into the phenomenon that is Twitter and the little birdy that could has changed the dynamic between celebrities and their fans. In one sense it has provided a way for celebrities to connect with their fans and gives us a glimpse into their lives. Although I follow a lot of Philadelphia artists, musicians, and local events (since that's what I write about), I do like to follow some of my favorite celebrities as well.
I think the interaction is a good thing for both fans and celebrities since we can see that their daily lives are not much different from non-celebrities. The pedestal disappears when your favorite celeb talks about finding parking spaces, not being able to sleep or being held up by TSA at the airport.
On the other hand we see what these celebrities are really like and sometimes you are pleasingly impressed but other situations are a real let down. Take John Mayer for instance, we all heard about his constant 'foot-in-mouth' comments which may or may not have hurt his career. He has since left Twitter and decided to take a nice long break, hopefully long enough for the world to forget about his twitter behavior. Other celebs like Kanye, Diddy and Shaq, leave us confused, Courtney Love well she's just a given, but her grammar is a bit of a shock and poor James Franco was apparently told by his PR person to stop tweeting.
There are the groups who keep a distance and merely tweet spiritual comments like Rev Run, or a quick hello and shout out to their fans like Mary J. Blige. Some don't even do the real tweeting but hire someone to do it for them. There are the phenomenons like Charlie Sheen who breaks records for getting the most followers in one day. All because of his bizarre behavior and drug use which brings up the question, are people following these celebs because they are fans or because they want to witness their crazy antics?
I've noticed lately, people have posted in their bio's which celebrity has responded to their tweets as if it were a validation or the new "autograph" so to speak. I'll admit I've gotten a few but I'd say the most famous tweet I have received was from Prince Charles. I made a comment about Corgi's and he responded "who said I like Corgi's?". Hey, I just assumed.
It is definitely disappointing when you follow a celebrity and you realize it wasn't behavior that you expected. The ones who are downright rude to their fans really don't get it and the ones that make fun of other celebrities on Twitter and harass them with Tweets is a little over the top. One thing about twitter is the celebs who tweet a lot are revealing idiosyncrasies that we may not have seen before. That could go either way when it comes to good or bad. Some celebrities stay in "character" but if you ask me they are the most boring because their conversations are mostly about the weather and what they ate that day. If they do respond it is usually just a quick thank you to a gushing fan.
Every once in a while there's the celeb or musician who defy's all expectations and could not be kinder to their fans on Twitter. The musicians who share guitar chords or short snippets of a song they are working on, or the ones who make it a point to wish at least one or two fans a day a happy birthday. I don't know if he's still on Twitter but Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters use to go on Twitter for a about an hour every night and answer fan questions.
Some tweet way too much, some tweet not enough. Some wear their heart on their sleeve and some love to retweet what the haters say about them and the celeb to celeb tweets usually make you want to scream "Get a room" but it's still fun to read. Some will make the silly mistake of disclosing their whereabouts but some do that on purpose (papp lovers).
Of course there is still that line between celebrity and fan, usually in the form of the LOW ratio between followers and following, The unwritten celebrity Twitter rule is to follow as few people as possible but every so often one will follow a "civilian". Conan O'Brien made one fan a Twitter celebrity by being the only person he follows. Most celebrities are Verified which is a good thing since there are so many imposters out there. Facebook should consider verifying accounts for celebrities who choose not to have a fan page but a regular FB account to share with their fans. Some prefer a regular account because they can not access their followers personal pages with a fan page. You know they troll the social media sites just as much as the rest of us do!
So I guess it comes down to; if you don't want to be disappointed and you can resist the urge then don't follow your favorite celebrity. If you can't resist you may wish you hadn't or you may be pleasantly surprised. I follow a lot of musicians and I've stopped following the annoying ones. I have a few favorites who I tweet and 90% of the time I don't get a response but that's OK because if I'm just being silly I'm doing it to entertain my followers and usually if I ask a serious question I'll get a response. I'd never use tweets as a source for an article though, I've seen this before and I find it lazy reporting. Not to mention they still manage to get it wrong.
Here's a list of my favorite Tweeters:
@Doctorfollowill: The drummer for Kings of Leon
@fleetfoxes: The lead singer, Robin Pecknold.
@BestyCoastyy: Bethany from the band Best Coast.
@Blobtower: Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver. Musician
@GeorgeMichael: Who knew he was so funny!?
@youngfollowill The bass player for Kings of Leon
he's a bit rude and crude but very funny and answers fan questions often.
Those are the Tweeters who always catch my eye when scrolling through my daily tweets. There are more I haven't mentioned but I think this list is probably the most well-known out of who I follow.
For local Philly fare follow these fine tweeters
@TheKeyXPN The alternative radio station WXPN's blog on local musicians.
@MilkBoyBrynMawr the coffee-house at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute
@DrDogMusic One of Philly's best alternative rock bands
@Questlove from the Roots and the Jimmy Fallon show.
@Jimmyrollins11 Philadelphia Philly
...and don't forget about me! Follow me @TVMBirds
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