Don’t Settle for Being a Tweeple – Transform Your Company into a Twilebrity!

Photograph by Michael Halsband for Vanity Fair

The six women are profiled in the January 2010 issue of Vanity Fair, glamorous in trench coats and stilettos, flashing their mobile devices as they would the hottest designer bag. Who are these women, and why are they – and their handheld PDA’s – worthy of editorial coverage in a national publication?

They are twilebrities, Twitter’s version of celebrity. A twilebrity is someone who devotes a vast amount of time, energy and skill to tweeting, and is rewarded with a massive flock of followers. It is not necessary to be a traditional celebrity before being assigned twilebrity status, but some celebrities have reached Twilebrity status.

Who is next in line to join the twilebrity ranks? Ideally, your company is. Now, before you protest that you simply do not possess the time or resources to tweet your days away, allow me to clarify: I refer to becoming a twilebrity in your industry. The goal, at least initially, is to build a thriving online community of b-to-b connections. Establish a strong presence on Twitter among those in your field, and word will get back to consumers.

You can start building your follower base by heeding the unspoken rules of twilebrities. The most sacred law? Give in order to receive. Twilebrities are generous to their followers. As referenced in the Vanity Fair article, the most popular twilebrities (of the non-celebrity origin) respond to the majority of those who send them tweets. They are also exceptionally good listeners, paying close attention to their followers and often recommending certain followers to their hefty audience. Though at first glance this may not appear to be the case, at its core, Twitter is all about conversations as opposed to isolated tweets. This is part of its allure.

Gaining twilebrity status for your company is about much more than glitz and glam. Twitter, more so than any other social media network, is in the process of taking over the world. Its army of members has grown at a frenetic pace over the past two years. Make no mistake: Adding a social media strategist to your staff or campaign to amp up your Twitter account is a worthwhile investment, one that has a high potential ROI.