Summary: This article looks at ’social media celebrities’ – those who become known and associated with a business through social media, as well as those current celebrities who use social media to boost their brand.
Social media celebrity – does your company want or need one? Could you handle one?
The social media phenomenon just keeps rolling and changing how we communicate with friends and family, and in a business context, it is impacting how we communicate with our customers.
Social media has really opened up the publishing channels, meaning that now, anyone can grab their “15 megabytes” of fame. This is mainly because of how easy access and cheap to use social media tools are – for a lot of people there is no cost, just their time. This means we can all have a go at gaining ourselves our “15 megabytes” of frame.
The effect of influencers online can be staggering. Take Steven Holmes as a example. He was the ‘chosen one’ by rapper and Def Jam creator Kayne West. Steven, a normal student from Coventry, saw his status change into that of a social media celebrity overnight, just because he was the only one that the rapper was following. Steven’s story clearly shows how things move fast on social media networks.
Is it same for businesses? Social media does offer businesses a vast amount of opportunities. Businesses worldwide are now taking advantage of social media and the opportunities it brings.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc have opened up new communication channels that bring businesses and customers together without the customer being in the business’ store or on their website.
What is a social media celebrity?
In the context of your business, a social media celebrity is someone you employee to represent your brand through social media channels. They become the face of your business through those channels, building relationships with your customers, educating people on your business and adding to your brand. Because people are dealing with a real person and not a faceless company, it’s easier for a relationship to form.
A social media celebrity doesn’t have to be a celebrity already (although sometimes they are!). The important thing is that they become the public face of your company.
How does a business deal with an employee that is social media celebrity?
When deciding if your company wants a social media celebrity, you need to look at it from both positive and negative points for the company and your social media celebrity.
Opportunities for celebrity employees:
- A real person, not just brand – customers get to identify your brand with someone
- Better insight - your celebrity employee gives a better insight into your market sector, they know your customers will react if you make changes, add new products, etc
- Enhanced credibility – your celebrity employee gives the company additional credibility, along with a human face, which also adds trust.
- Enhanced influence – because your celebrity employee has built up an engaging relationship with your potential and current customers, they have the power to influence them.
- Invaluable in a crisis – due to their trusted relationship, your celebrity employee can set the record straight when a PR crisis occurs due to the relationship they have already created. They will be more trusted than other members of the company.
Negative points of a social media celebrity:
- Celebrity, not company – your celebrity employee may develop more of a following than your brand
- Bad reputation - your celebrity employee makes a mistake or upsets followers with an idea or opinion. In turn creating their own PR crisis.
- Leaked information – during building their relationship with followers they reveal your company/trade secrets, giving your competition added advantage.
- Jumping ship – your celebrity employee decides to leave for a new job, taking all their followers with them.
- Starry eyed – they become too focused on being a “celebrity” and don’t remain focused on the task in hand, which is to build your brand and add a human element to your brand.
Well known social media celebrities
There are plenty of well known social media celebrities – some might say they’re well known enough not to have to do it, but that shows the power of having a well-known user and giving your brand a face. Customers like the human side of brands, they like to know who they are talking too and to know that it’s not just a corporate machine.
Richard Banson (@richardbranson) founder and owner of the Virgin group, activity uses Twitter to promote himself and his various business ventures.
Peter Jones (@dragonjones) is well know as an investor and entrepenuer – he shares info about his latest ventures through Twitter.
Rand Fishkin (@randfish) is a favourite in our office – he tweets 15-20 times a week on SEO, internet marketing and business. He’s the face of SEO Moz, the world’s leading SEO tools company.
Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) is a well known professional skateboarder and CEO of 900 films production.
Social Media celebrity – who do you choose?
As noted, you don’t need someone who’s famous – your social media celebrity could be anyone from within your company. Typically they tend to be someone from the marketing/communications team.
Create them an account on Twitter using both their name and the company name e.g. @ZoeAngelSEO, @SharonAngelSEO, so that both their name and the company name gets known on the platform. By creating an account you need to give your chosen employee the time every day to tweet and engage with their following – this will help your brand in the future.
Some ideas of things to tweet about include:
- Company activities
- New products, new staff, etc
- Industry information/stories that are relevant to your business
- Local activities, promote them, say if you are going to be there
- National news, have a plan in place of how you as a company will cover national events
If your future social media celebrity needs some help getting to know Twitter, get them to read this – A Tweeting Guide to Twitter.
You and your “celebrity” employee
You need each other in order to be a success, you need your celebrity employee to build a level of trust that the company can’t do without a human aspect and your employee needs the company brand to build on to start with. The company name is what engaged them and gave them immediate authority in the public arena.
The celebrity employee however, engages the following and level of trust that the company couldn’t of done on it is own. By doing this the celebrity employee has made the relationship truly beneficial for both parties. By this stage you and your “celebrity” employee do need each other more than you think.
Although there are negatives to having a celebrity employee, as stated before, the pressures social media and the celebrity employee bring is mostly positive. Although the company’s role will change from human resources to talent management, as the “celebrity” employee and company grow together.
Due the exposure the company will gain a better level of respect within the market, employees will be more engaged by the company and its activities and in terms of customers gaining the rewards and benefits of the operation. In some companies “celebrity” employees are treated as a threat, yet in others they are viewed as rock stars.
and finally…
Look over the good and bad points, look at your company’s strategy – do you need a social media celebrity? Does the benefit of a “celebrity” employee outweigh the potential detriments? Consider these points carefully before taking someone on or assigning them to this role.
Do you have a celebrity employee that you want to tell us about? We’d love to hear about your experiences!
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