How Twitter lost famous users

April 2009, actor Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN Join the race to be the first account to reach one million followers on Twitter – the social network was only three years old then. Kutcher said he would knock on the door of the founder’s house CNN Ted Turner if he wins.

When Kutcher livestreamed the celebration after winning, other celebrities started joining Twitter, causing the platform’s traffic to skyrocket, leading to system crashes.

Thirteen years later, Twitter has become one of the global hubs for news, politics and culture. However, many celebrities only treat Twitter accounts as an advertising tool, or have stopped using them altogether. This is not the end for Twitter, as there are still about 229 million people using Twitter every day, up from 217 million three months ago.

However, billionaires Elon Musk it’s not wrong to ask “is Twitter dying?” back in April. At that time, he posted a list of people with a large following like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber but almost no longer interacted on the platform.

Data from Social Blade, a social media analytics site, shows that the 10 most followed Twitter accounts, excluding Musk, had 35% fewer posts in the first four months of this year than in the same period in 2018. Only Elon Musk and former US president Barack Obama increased the number of posts at this stage.

Musk is said to be unlikely to reverse this trend.

Interviews of Washington Post with 17 celebrity reps and consultants shows that Twitter is seen as a high-risk but low-performing platform for A-list artists. That’s where statements are so politicized that many people does not want to participate anymore, but assigns posting tasks to subordinates or the management company.

Many celebrities turn to Instagram and TikTok, which offer more responsive and secure video tools that allow unwanted interactions to be blocked in a variety of ways.

Twitter declined to comment, but emphasized that many stars are still active on the platform.

Musk, which is planning to buy Twitter for $44 billion, pledged to relax restrictions on speech on the platform if the deal goes through. Even so, this is still difficult to keep the most popular characters on the platform.

Under former US President Barack Obama, Twitter attracted many top stars to share, comment and reveal life behind the red carpet.

The height of the “Twitter star” era was in 2014, when Oscar presenter Ellen DeGeneres stepped forward to pose with Meryl Streep. This is essentially a scene staged by Twitter’s television collaboration team. Bradley Cooper suddenly grabbed the phone and a series of A-list stars joined in the photo. DeGeneres’ post then broke the record for most shares on Twitter.

But also in the 2010s, two events happened. The first is the rise of Instagram after being acquired by Facebook in 2012. The platform offers a way to engage fans with images without using words like Twitter. Second, the 2016 US presidential election polarized Twitter, as news related to candidate Donald Trump began to overwhelm other trending topics.

Twitter began to be promoted as a news app and was re-categorized on the app store, from social networking to news. However, entertainers balked at plunging themselves into online speech and the news cycle.

Many famous faces in turn left Twitter such as singers Lizzo, Ariana Grande or limited their presence with lackluster promotional activities. There are some exceptions as comedian Leslie Jones and actress Anna Kendrick often express interesting personal views. However, Twitter in general is no longer a place where people can view life in Hollywood through colorful lenses.

Bringing the stars back to Twitter is one of the ways to start the plan to grow the social network as Musk envisioned, but it is not an easy thing.

According to Jamin Jamming, a media manager, using Twitter will only make stars show that they are not ambitious, unless they are political activists or media insiders. “The attraction of many celebrities is their looks. But their make-up, fashion sense or style is not conveyed through Twitter,” he said.

“To be successful on Twitter, you have to be smart, control what you share and can keep up with the trends of the times. But interacting and communicating with people on this platform is very difficult,” Wynter said. Mitchell-Rohrbaugh, celebrity strategist, commented.

Compared to the risks, the benefits that Twitter brings are not outstanding, especially when placed next to other major platforms.

“If you look at the inner motivation that Twitter can provide, like you’re a celebrity promoting the latest movie, the platform doesn’t have smart built-in features to suggest people buy tickets,” Kai said. Gayoso, head of digital at talent agency Range Media, said. Social media consultant Kendall Ostrow also said that it is very difficult for celebrities to make money through Twitter.

Many celebrity account managers cite the platform’s failure to tackle harassment or abuse as the main reason they quit Twitter. While Instagram and Tiktok have sophisticated comment filters, Twitter offers little to no control. Until recently, “healthy conversations” were made part of the company’s mission.

“The cost of self-expression on Twitter is too high for stars,” one user commented after Musk posted a comment that the celebrity was inactive on the platform in April. Comedian. Famous Kathy Griffin later expressed agreement with this statement.

“If Musk buys Twitter, this social network will be the last place I advise a star to invest. Everything related to Musk will become complicated,” Lix Stahl, president of In Haus once worked. work on campaigns for Grande and Jay-Z, says.

Trang Linh (according to Washington Post)