TwitChange: The Peak Of Narcissistic Giving
And we thought The (RED) Campaign caught heat for making a play on America’s consumerism to help a charity. Now it’s beyond consumerism and going straight for the throat of America’s narcissism.
What Is TwitChange: The only global celebrity auction where Twitter users can bid to get three things: be followed by their favorite celebrity on Twitter, retweeted, or mentioned by them in a special tweet!
I started this post with the intention of ‘giving it the benefit of the doubt’, but the more I’m looking into it the more I’m having a hard time not just laughing at it. Sure, $540k was raised for Haiti on America’s desire to be noticed, but are we really looking at this thing? I mean seriously. How bad is my self image if I’m essentially paying the Blue’s Traveler Guy to mention me on Twitter? Or maybe he’ll ‘notice’ me for a month and follow me on there and see what kind of coffee cup I am using that day. Is this what it takes now to get America involved?
Now, I’m sure there was obviously a decent “idea” behind this, but I’ve been reading a lot about “ideas” lately and it seems like with the way the Internet is growing “ideas” can become a reality way before they are thought though enough to be legitimate things.
Last night I had a lengthy conversation with Brenden Mulligan (the founder of Artist Data) about being the “idea guy” and the problems that arise when the idea isn’t executed properly, or there’s no one there to put the nuts and bolts together to make a proper product. Now obviously the nuts and bolts of something like TwitChange was executed properly, but where was the person in the background saying, “Just because we can, doesn’t necessarily mean we should.”? *More on that in another post.
Has any one else seen this thing? Any other opinions out there about this? I’m completely willing to accept the idea that there are people that disagree with me on this one, but to me, this just has a weird vibe. You? And has anyone heard what Twitter feels about this? It doesn’t seem like something they’d get behind. But I could be wrong.
I couldn’t agree more. When I first heard it, I admit to checking it out, but then as I looked more and more at it, I questioned it. Don’t get me wrong, raising money for charity, and Haiti in the wake of the earthquake disaster is a great thing, but I thought this was as you say truly Narcissistic. I’m on twitter and FB and a bunch of other social sites. I primarily use them to stay connected with friends. However, I do follow other folks because I’m a fan. Mostly musicians, and not because I care about their daily lives (I’ve got my own life) but because I want to make sure I’m aware of when they’ll be in town for a show, so I can see them. I follow others like yourself, who believe it or not I have an interest in what you say sometimes. I could care less if anyone on the twitter retweets me, or follows me. It won’t make a difference in what I have to say. Nor will it improve my self esteem. Peace.
Most (if not all) marketing today already uses appeals to the narcissistic tendencies of Americans.
If you get a celebrity wearing/using your product, you can practically start cashing your checks.
I think the idea was a creative take on the standard celebrity auction. However, the fact that it worked fairly well is not a good reflection on the way the average American thinks. I have to give them credit at the least for trying to do some good, even if the execution of it was awkward.
Twitter might not publicly get behind an idea like this, but they are not beyond doing things in this vein to monetize their services. If anything, they were probably taking notes. Developing a business model to sustain their service is probably priority number one at Twitter right now. And I can’t fault them for it, because someone’s got to pay the bills, and I would prefer they hang around.
To me, it just goes to show that most people don’t get social networking. For them it is a bullhorn to yell at a (hopefully) growing crowd of people that they don’t really care about. They obsess over follower counts, rankings, influence and stats, hoping that they can cash in somehow, or using it to prop up their ego.
Online communities existed long before the world wide web, and before a follower/friends count became a status symbol. The ability to connect with people online that I would not likely connect with in my sphere of reality has been very rewarding for me. But, my self-worth doesn’t hinge on my social media success (or lack thereof).
Thanks for the civil conversation guys. I agree with you both. I think the motive was there, just feels a little weird to me like I said. I’m taking a beating on Twitter from the Pastor that created the whole thing, but at least he’s representing Jesus to someone.
Since I live under a rock, this is the first I’ve heard of it. I’m not gonna lie, the whole social network thing is getting on my nerves, but I’m just as addicted to it as the next guy.
I haven’t been on Twitter much lately, but I have seen this in passing. I had no idea it was started by a pastor, though. I thought it was just another celebrity vanity type of charity thing.
And I think, perhaps, that’s why it feels weird–it feels like yet another trendy Hollywood “I’m such a good person” celebrity PR campaign on the surface. But maybe I’m just cynical.
And, frankly, I think the pastor’s public response to you was lacking in humility. And a defensive, grand over-reaction. I certainly hope he was not that way in DM.
Oh, he didn’t talk to me in DM. I ended up having a great conversation with another guy over DM, who was mature and understood that humans have differing opinions. The Pastor guy just blew me up on Twitter.
I really think that if you look around, most of the things we do involve some level of narcissism. We wear clothes to “look good”, drive cars that are “cool”, have “awesome” hair styles. If none of that mattered to us we would all be driving Justys while wearing an undershirt and worn jeans with our greasy hair in ponytails. Humans all have a certain amount of vanity whether we want to admit it or not. If people are willing to give to a good cause like Haiti Relief and get a “Hey, howdy, hey” from someone they admire in return, why not?
I don’t know if I would necessarily call it narcissistic to pay money for “famous people” to follow/mention you. Some people might actually just want to give to the cause. Others might just be a bit desperate and would do anything to be mentioned by their favorite famous person. But yeah, there might a be a few narcissists who want others to think they’re cool. It’s hard to say, though.
The one thing that strikes me as odd is the “service” itself. How they’re making such a big deal out being followed or mentioned by a famous person. I guess it’s smart if you want to raise a lot of money and know that there are people out there who would pay that much for such a seemingly trivial gesture. I don’t know. I just feel like there are a lot better ways to go about it.
P.S. I just saw all the things the pastor said about you. Harsh. He gave a very jerk-ish vibe, just saying.
[...] The only time I’ve seen twitter actually make a difference is with twitchange, but even with that people found something wrong with it. [...]
While the whole twitter thing generally drives me nuts – I mean I don’t really get the overall point of following every breath of anyone… Can’t think of anyone I’d want to do that for – except maybe my kids. However, as a businessman I can attest to the tremendous marketing power that celebrity tweets posses. I can attest to it – I can’t actually explain it (see above). I have had social marketing companies tell me that Paris Hilton, Shaq, and other big name tweeters can command $20,000 for a single tweet. Impossible you may say! I may have some of the particulars confused, but as I recall one big name celeb tweeted (paid) about a new purse or perfume or something similar and actually crashed the manufacturer’s website. So the twitchange concept probably attracts egomaniacs, as well as business people looking for a marketing opportunity bargain.