The Brave New World Of Celebrity Social Media

I have a rather large announcement to make. It’s big news. Huge. I can’t mention it here, of course, because that’s what social media is for, but trust me, it’s pretty big.

Now, I’m trying to decide how to spread my big, important news to the most people, but I only have 62 followers on Twitter and don’t have an Instagram account, so it’s a wee bit complicated, but I’ll figure something out. Because, see, it’s what all the celebrities are doing, so of course, that’s what I need to do, too. Right?

It’s amazing how far we’ve come, where people can speculate for days and weeks about who is going to land which coveted part in what highly anticipated movie, only to have the news broken by the person cast in the part, or the producer – which, in some cases, are one in the same. 

My model here is Dwayne Johnson. But let’s take a look at Scott Eastwood. He made my day a couple weeks ago when he let it be known that he got a key part in next year’s Fast 8, alongside Vin Diesel and the gang, which, by the way, now includes Charlize Theron and, yep, The Rock himself.

I get it. I do. It brings celebs closer to their fans and allows them to really connect. On the other side, it lets their followers feel like a part of their heroes’ lives. It makes perfect sense, and it’s also more than a little synergistic. What better way to get fans excited about a new project than to let them know about things in a more personal way than letting them read about it in People magazine? Johnson, for one, has mastered this concept, sending out pictures from on set, or during a publicity junket, or a premiere, or an inspirational hospital visit. He’s made half a dozen casting announcements for the upcoming Baywatch movie through his Instagram account, laying the project’s social media foundation more than a year before its scheduled release date. And just last week, he used his account to confirm that, yes, he is in fact going to be in that Jumanji remake that he’d been talking about for a while, so everyone can relax and set a date to hand over our money.

For a guy who started his career as a pro wrestler, which doesn’t always carry the highest level of legitimacy as far as an acting career is concerned, he has completely transformed himself. Not only is he actually a pretty good actor, he has built a reputation as a class act. A bit of that credit goes to the charisma and charm he shows during talk show appearances, but even more of it goes to his use of social media. I don’t see every movie he makes, but I do pay attention to them, because I have grown to like the guy. And I don’t even follow him on Twitter.

It’s not only casting news, either. Lately, we’ve seen Brooklyn Decker and Blake Lively announce pregnancies on Twitter and Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis and Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell announce the birth of their daughters on Instagram. Why even employ publicists anymore? Just have your assistant manage your feed!

Think about all the great things that have come from this phenomenon. Gilmore Girls fans learned of the possibility of new episodes because of an Instagram post by cast member Keiko Agena that made them lose their minds. The Game of Thrones cast flashed pictures of themselves all out of character and having fun together that set the internet on fire.

I haven’t even gotten into those who actually make money from their posts. I hesitate to call them celebrities because I haven’t heard of many of them, but clearly they’re famous for something. Kim Kardashian and Jenny McCarthy both make a fortune for a certain number of likes (obviously, I’ve heard of both of them), but so do folks like Stephanie Pratt, Blac Chyna, Meghan King Edmonds and Jojo McCarthy. I have absolutely no clue who any of them are, but they all have thousands of followers on their various social media feeds and get hundreds or even thousands of dollars per post from their myriad sponsors.

Meanwhile, someone like Kylie Jenner gets six figures for one of her sponsored posts, which makes me think more and more that I somehow got into the wrong business.

That’s not all. Remember that Sony leak about a year and a half ago? The big headlines were about The Interview and North Korea and terrorism and all that stuff, but there were other interesting tidbits that emerged as well, like studio exec Clint Culpepper calling Kevin Hart a “whore” for demanding more money to use his social media for promotion of his latest movie (possibly Think Like a Man Too). This, the exec pointed out, was on top of the $3 and $4 million the studio had paid the actor for his last two films.

Whoopi Goldberg live streams her drive to the Oscars on Facebook. Celebrities from Ken Jeong to Clay Aiken to Rachel Zoe — and literally dozens in between varying from youngsters like Bella Thorne to more, ahem, experienced like Albert Brooks — broadcast on Periscope. The NFL has committed to Twitter, making a deal with the company to stream one game each week on the service.

Facebook, in fact, has taken it a step further with its Live platform — illustrated by Goldberg on Oscar Night — the first step in an evolution to a real revenue stream. The idea being that ads could be included in the streams coming from celebs, thus allowing A-listers (and others, of course) to view it as more than just a tool for promotion. Facebook is constantly updating Live to make it more user-friendly, with the understanding that there is an enormous amount of content on the site that can be truly valuable to creators.

Is there even a downside? Not really. Not for the celebs exploiting social media to push their wares, at least. I mean, maybe there’s the danger of over saturation, and of course the late night ‘foot-in-mouth’ tweet, but if anyone is ever in danger of that to begin with, then it’s probably going to happen eventually, anyway. So why not push things as far as they’ll go in the meantime, using all the tools at one’s disposal?

Which brings me back to my big announcement. The thing is, I think I have to reconsider. At the very least, I’m going to have to wait until I have more than 62 Twitter followers. Maybe when I pass 1,000, it’ll be worth it. Until then, you’ll just have to be patient.

After all, there’s a potential deal to be made here, and when opportunity knocks, I answer.

Neil Turitz is a filmmaker and journalist who has spent close to two decades in the independent film world and writing about Hollywood. Aside from being a screenwriter/director and Tracking Board columnist, he is also a senior editor at SSN Insider.