No matter how many times I get retweeted or tweeted at or favorited or whatever, I never expect a celebrity to acknowledge my tweets to them or about them. It still shocks me every damn time. Big celebrities or niche celebrities, I always just assume they're going to read my tweet and then forget about it. Maybe they won't even read it. But now that I
have been acknowledged by several famous folks on Twitter, it does seem interesting to examine who responds and who doesn't, and what they respond to. Celebrities who I think seem very humble and in tune with their fans don't seem to use Twitter to express this much. Take Evanna Lynch, for example. She is super fan-oriented, and she even goes to Harry Potter conventions as a regular guest, not as a speaker, or someone who signs autographs. (Though certainly she does the latter two things as well.) But on Twitter, she really only interacts with her friends. I have tweeted at her a few times, and have never gotten acknowledged. (That's not meant to sound bitter, just stating a fact.) Another person like this is author John Green. He is very involved with his fanbase, but doesn't often show that over Twitter. John
has tweeted at me though, and it was in response to a critique/suggestion I gave him. But he doesn't retweet "fan stuff," like Grey DeLisle or others like her. Grey is amazing on both Twitter and Tumblr- she follows back, favorites tweets to let you know she's read them, and very frequently talks to fans. I would say Grey is more of a niche celebrity, but that by no means makes her unpopular- in fact, she has a huge following.
Then, of course, there are the celebrities like Stephen Fry, or Justin Bieber is you want to change demographics, but in essence, the ones who have millions and millions of followers. The ones who don't tweet at fans but once in a blue moon. The ones who you tweet at incessantly, but the ones who also probably miss all of your tweets because they get thousands of messages per day.
One of the things I like to examine when considering who tweets at who is what the celebrity is known for. Are they actors, authors, politicians, musicians, etc. Politicians and musicians seem to do the least fan interaction, whereas authors seem to do a lot. I have also had a lot of luck with actors personally, though not "A-list" actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, et al.
I got a weird dose of being temporarily flooded with interactions when Josh Groban retweeted me. I suddenly gained followers and had people tweeting at me left and right. This lasted for about two days and was in reality not actually a huge thing, but it
seemed very overwhelming. I was minorly Twitter famous for a day. And that made me realize how very, very cool it is that celebrities even have Twitter accounts. If my interactions tab was constantly filled with ten times as many tweets as I was getting because of my Josh Groban tweet, I would go crazy. How do you even read all of that? But I loved getting the new perspective, and it
really made me appreciate the celebrities who reached out to me, even if they are very small in terms of Twitter fame. (I'm talking about you, Neville Page.)
Twitter is utterly fascinating because it really does break down barriers between us common folk and famous people. I grew up accustomed to the fact that I would be lucky to ever meet a celebrity, let alone be acknowledged by one. But Twitter has given fans the opportunity to constantly tell their favorite celebrities how they feel, and for celebrities to reciprocate if they want to. I think that's really, really cool. I have exchanged ideas with some of my favorite authors, and a musician I love wanted to share my humor with his fans.
The lovely Kristian Nairn was kind enough to tweet at me tonight, which is what brought about this whole post. I had a serious freakout moment about him tweeting at me, and it sort of made me go, huh, why did I do that? Why did he tweet at me? LET'S ANALYZE STUFF. I know this post is super convoluted but I'd love to hear everyone's feedback on this. Have you had a celebrity encounter via Twitter? With whom? Who do you
want to talk to on Twitter? Let me know!
