Hollywood Gets Its Hands on Twitter

Early Saturday morning, I headed to the gym and proceeded to the treadmill section to begin my workout. My favorite channel to watch while running on the treadmill is E!, particularly Joel McHale’s show called The Soup. It is my one-stop shop to get all the celebrity news and gossip of the week, wrapped with sarcastic humor. Most of the time, the news is entertaining and allows me to forget the monotonous beat of the treadmill. While running I heard earth-shattering news that Courtney Love, rocker and widow of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, is being sued by her former fashion designer,Dawn Simorangkir, over comments Love has written about her on Twitter and MySpace. Needless to say, it was shocking when I heard it at the time, but I figured it was only a matter of time before Hollywood got itself in a mess over Twitter.

Catching a glimpse of the lawsuit on TV was not enough for me. I wanted to learn more about what happened, so I searched the Internet to find out the full scoop. According to ABC News, a libel claim was filed by Simorangkir in Los Angeles Superior Court on March 26. Love used Twitter to disseminate "an obsessive and delusional crusade" of malicious libel against her and also slandered her on MySpace. The court documents claim that Love "became infatuated" with Simorangkir and her "Boudoir Queen" clothing line after discovering the designer on Etsy, an online marketplace catering to independent designers. Love commissioned Simorangkir to create clothing for her and flew her out to Los Angeles, but then balked when she was invoiced for the designer's work in February and March. This was enough information for me, but in case you want to read the nitty gritty, click here to read the complaint against Courtney Love.

As I have mentioned before in previous blogs, Twitter is a popular online community for many celebrities. It allows them to communicate with their fan base, keeps fans up-to-date about things going on in their lives and enables them to announce concerts and available tickets etc. In fact, “Twitterati” is the new term that has been coined to demonstrate that the elite “Tweet.” These days, you’ll find John Mayer, Lance Armstrong, Paris Hilton and P. Ditty on Twitter. Whether you choose to follow them is a story for a different day.

After hearing and reading about the latest scandal related to Twitter, I am not sure what surprised me the most. The fact that a celebrity is actually taking the time to vent via Twitter or the fact that the opponent is suing for slandering on Twitter and MySpace is up for a debate. I guess even though both seem farfetched, for some reason I was naive to think everyone was going to play nice in the sandbox. It was only a matter of time before celebrities abuse the online community.

The Rising Popularity of Twitter

Most of us are familiar with Twitter, which allows users to communicate via posts that go up to 140 characters at a time. This new trend of communicating has become extremely popular and it’s boldly going where no social networking site has gone before. Many people are finding this site useful to update friends and family about daily occurrences and celebrities are using it to communicate to their fan base about concert tours.

An article in the New York Post goes into extensive details about the various times and places that people are Twittering as well as the etiquette associated with posting. People have proposed marriage via Twitter, jurors have posted Tweets during trials and journalists have been sent to cover funerals in real time via Twitter. So where are people going to draw the line?

Anna Post, etiquette author and spokeswoman for the Emily Post Institute, is loath to pass judgment on what events are and are not OK to Twitter about, except in the case of trials ("We are citizens, there are duties, and it's not just about you") and probably death. (In September, the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News suffered massive public backlash after it sent a reporter to cover a 3-year-old's funeral in real time, via Twitter.) Otherwise, she says, it's situational. "There's nothing inherently wrong with Twittering [big events] as long as everyone's comfortable," she says. "I think the danger, though, is in how incredibly banal it is."

I can understand why celebrities would use Twitter as it a fast way to reach their fan base who are likely hungry for the behind-the-scenes scoop. Similarly, I can understand if someone is in the hospital waiting for the birth of their child or caring for a sick family member. It is an efficient use of someone’s time if they’re tied up at the hospital and can’t take numerous phone calls from family and friends asking about a status update. If family and friends are directed to Twitter or a blog, they can keep up with daily events and even respond so that their loved one knows they are reading. However, sending a reporter to cover a funeral via Twitter and jurors posting Tweets about trials and murder weapons is taking it too far.

Although Twitter is only 3-years-old, it is estimated to have between 4 and 5 million users, with 55 million unique visitors per month. As more people sign up for Twitter and see how easy it is to communicate with others, it is likely that the number will increase and the type of instances that people Tweet about will change. We’ve already seen how powerful Twitter has been with real world-breaking news such as the Bombay attacks, the earthquake in China and the Hudson River plane landing. All of these occurrences were first reported by citizens via Twitter. But what makes me wonder is whether people will realize that there are certain times when it’s just not appropriate to Tweet, or if any life event or a passing thought is game for the site. It will be interesting to see how corporations, judges, bloggers and everyday citizens feel about the site going forward.

Halftime during a Basketball Game calls for a “Tweet”

Twitter’s popularity is rising among people in all different fields such as celebrities, politicians and athletes. Cyclist Lance Armstrong provides updates on the frequency of his anti-doping tests and posts pictures from his training rides and NBA star Shaquille O’Neal gives away free tickets to fans. The latest craze that has received a lot of attention is the fact that Charlie Villaneuva, NBA basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks posted a “Tweet” from his mobile phone during halftime of a critical game. He posted “In da locker room, snuck to post my twitt. We're playing the Celtics, tie ball game at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up."

According to an article on Foxsports.com, coach Scott Skiles was perturbed when he found out that his top player was on his mobile phone and not focusing on the game. "We made a point to Charlie and the team that it's nothing we ever want to happen again," Skiles said after practice Tuesday. "You know, (we) don't want to blow it out of proportion. But anything that gives the impression that we're not serious and focused at all times is not the correct way we want to go about our business."

But according to Charlie, he didn’t think he did anything wrong and was completely focused on the game. As he noted, he had to “step it up” and he did just that by scoring several points and ultimately, this allowed the team to hold the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. He denied any comments that alluded to the idea of him not being focused on the game.

Although Charlie is one of the best athletes to follow on Twitter because he is consistently active, engaging and amusing, it is unnecessary that the professional NBA basketball player post “tweet” during halftime. Isn’t playing ball and the stress associated with it enough? Die hard fans might disagree and enjoy the behind the scenes and live scoop.

Charlie’s response to all this chatter was “we’re talking about Twitter here. We should be worried about Orlando.” In fact, I have to agree that this all this drama was silly. But I am sure that Charlie has learned his lesson and won’t be posting “tweets” during any games.

Addicted to Twitter

As I mentioned in a previous post, posting your every thought on the popular networking site can get you in trouble. But some people have admitted that they are addicted to the site and can’t stop Twittering.

According to an Adweek poll, Twittering is increasingly part of mainstream culture. In fact, some ad world CEOs have joined in on the fun such as JWT's Bob Jeffrey, AKQA's Tom Bedecarre, EVB's Daniel Stein, Deep Focus' Ian Schafer and Big Spaceship's Michael Lebowitz. These top CEOs have taken the opportunity to promote themselves and their agencies. Additionally, they’ve admitted that they find Twittering just plain fun. "I can lose myself in it," said Lebowitz, whose "bigspaceship" account has nearly 3,000 followers.

It seems as though people need to filter and re-read their Tweets before posting them. Tweets and status updates can spread beyond your inner circle of friends and family to competitors and frenemies. According to the article, Ketchum director James Andrews also threw caution to the wind when, in January, upon landing in client FedEx's home city of Memphis, Tenn., he Tweeted, "True confession, but I'm in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, 'I would die if I had to live here.'" FedEx, needless to say, was not amused. (Relations between the two are now fine.)

Not only do people need to filter their Tweets, they need to be as transparent as possible and sensitive to the fact that current and potential clients are out there reading and listening. No client would feel comfortable if their agency of record or account team were Twittering about client-sensitive information.

I agree with Marian Salzman, CMO for Porter Novelli, when she says, "It's public communications, so you're still very aware.” She described herself as ‘obsessed’ with Twitter. "[CEOs] just have to realize that [Tweetering] is very different than talking to a close inner circle."

Although Twitter is a less formal medium of communication in the business world, readers are still disgesting CEOs comments and forming their own intepretations of the Tweets. CEOs and management need to be aware of this and understand how these messages are portraying their businesses.