It was about a couple of months ago, during the hoo haa of the MTV VMA Awards to be exact, that I thought about the concept of Twitter Media.
I was fascinated with the drama between Taylor Swift and Kanye West and searched zestully for information, ANY information, of one of the most controversial bullying stories in the history of Hollywood.
So in my desperation to feed my gossip greed, I went through the Twitter updates of Perez Hilton, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus bla bla bla... All the ppl I knew who were at the VMAs itself, to see if they had written anything real time.
I was disappointed to see little to none info on it. That information, I felt, was way more interesting than reading the editted reports post-drama, which only came out, like, 2 hours later!
The idea formed in the back of my brain on the possibility of introducing Twitter Media to bridge the media reachability to the layman.
I mean really, think about it. How many people around you know what's going on in the entertaiment/ media sphere, unless they are in this sphere already?
I thought about the possibility of Twitterati. And last month, I asked Xavier, PR Manager of A Cut Above, to agree to invite two of my high profile Twitter friends, @aprilyim and @spinzer, to cover his A Cut Above Biggest Outlet Launch @ BSC.
Updates were given on the event. Pictures were taken and twitpic-ed. All real time.
Since then, I've tried covering some events, Twitterati style, and from the 20-40 average clicks I get per twitpic from my humble 150 followers, which meant a lot more were reading and noticing, just not clicking on the pictures, I began to figure that there was a lot more to Twitterati that was possible.
Anyway. The purpose of my cheong hei post is not to 'claim' that I 'discovered' Twitter Media. I'm quite sure some genius in the world has already claimed honour to this.
What I want to do is help my level best to propel the popularity of Twitter Media to the Malaysian market.
I myself, am nowhere near the crazy number of followers most of the high profile Twitterers are. So what I wanna do is compile a list of Twitter Media for me to refer to to recommend to some of my contacts, so I can convince them to invite Twitteratis to events.
Imagine.
Gossip. Real time.
Masses. Communicated.
Awareness of brands - people and products. Heightened.
Laymen. Twitterati.
Conclusion:
The masses are happy to get real time feed. Easily available.
The PR people are happy to get more awareness for the brands they are marketing.
The brands are happy because they get more publicity.
Its like. An amazingly simple solution of making so many ppl happy.
(Yes I'm idealistic. So sue me.)
And you can't say people aren't receptive.
Just from that one event, @spinzer has already been asked by Dennis Lau to bring 10 Twitterati to cover his album launch this coming December, and @aprilyim has also been asked by Baki Zainal to cover his and Kiehl's event at Gunung Nuang this coming November.
Awesome or what? ^^
So here's the thing. I have no idea who's interested to become a Twitterati in the first place. And if I do begin recommending this to people, I can't keep recommending these two people to cover each and every event! There are too many events that happen all the time, and just like any other publication, your follow list has a target group too right?
What I just need is for you to leave a comment stating your Twitter URL and your email address (so I can pass your email to the relevant PR people and they can contact you direct) if you're interested to be referred as a Twitterati.
I'll look through every Twitter page and recommend them accordingly. Or they can look through the list and contact you themselves.
Sigh. I dunno if I can do this. But I do think its an idea that can change the way news is presented to the world. And I'm just excited to be able to be a part of something I think that will be really big!
So please help spread the word. We can all do our little part to pioneer change for the better!
P/S: I'll be sending an email out to all the marketing managers of companies who's main marketing initiatives are lifestlye events in the Malaysian market once there are around 20 Twitterati in this list (what's the point of sending 5 names?). Please help to RT and spread the word? Thanks!
PP/S: Now I know it may seem totally belittling for you to even click on the 'comments' link to leave a comment here telling the world that you'd like to be involved in a project with some small nobody like me. (If u can't tell, sarcasm is dripping from my voice in buckets.)
Anyway, first off. I'm doing this to help the you. The world. Not me. Not erin. Who's Erin? I don't care, why should you? Haha.
Secondly, if having to link this to my website offends you, it may not be so obvious to you, but its the only website I have access to. Yup. Deprived, technodungu ppl don't have that many websites to upkeep.
If you're offering yours to promote this and gather names, sure, I'd be more than happy to send your link to the mkt mgrs. Email/ DM me, and we'll work sth out immediately.
Thirdly, if you also have a list of contacts in the market and you'd like to be the one to tell them about Twitter Media, honestly, please. Go ahead and do it. Like I said, I am not doing any of this for my gain. If you can help propel this, just do it!
Fourthly... You know what. There is no fourth. If you can't be arsed to 'lower' yourself and do something remotely proactive (I don't believe in rolling out red carpets in the cyberworld. I wouldn't know how to photoshop it in the first place.) Don't be on this list of recommended Twitter Media. *mutter* *grumble* *glare*
Alright. I am done ranting. I'll be sending out this link to the contacts next week.
Be on the list or be left behind.
