Fakin' Whuffie

No sooner do we read that Some People use Their (PR) People to write blogs and Twitter for them, but now Twitter is getting some of Its People to talk to Their People. TechCrunch:

Twitter is hiring a VIP Concierge to pamper said celebrities, according to their latest job opening on JobScore. His or her job? Make sure the celebrities on Twitter are ‘happy’ and use the service effectively, whatever that means. You can read the rest of the job description on JobScore, but basically Twitter is hiring someone who will have to sway new celebrities into joining the micro-sharing service and make sure the ones who are already on there keep tweeting their hearts out, so the startup can get even more press.

So, what is going on here? Well, the Twitter Slebdunk is obvious - get Free PR! But why are the Slebs signing up in the first place, one wonders?. Well, the old adage is to Follow The Money - or in this case, the Social Capital.

This is because Media Social Capital (or fame) is driven by media exposure. But Celebrity culture - is driving changes to what constitutes "fame" - aka Whuffie - in medialand:

Welcome to the twenty-first century where the days of celebrity status are assessed by breast size, amount of marriages/divorces, and the number of tabloid covers appeared on. Long gone are the legitimate celebrities. The best of luck to you if you're trying to find a famous Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, or Lucille Ball in today's world, as it is a much-desired rarity. What has society morphed minds into? Has the media really lost control of what is deemed as newsworthy? What about global warming? The Bird Flu? When did these lose priority to Lindsay Lohan's alcohol addiction and Pamela Anderson's latest divorce?

In other words, Social (and Financial) Capital comes from media exposure, regardless of how its attained. In the old days, media access was typically via talent (or even better, nepotism), but today it can be accessed simply be being famous for being famous. To do that you just have to find some schtick to beat the fame horse with.

And Twitter is a brand new media channel to use to grab more attention from the faithful, and to get ahead of those that aren't so quick on the uptake. Heck, its a gold rush for New Slebs wannabees too!

Yup, its all about Makin' Whuffie - or, since all the twts and blogs are done by PR minions, its about Fakin' Whuffie.

Which, of course, brings us to a whole 'nother issue about Social Capital and its Ease of Quantitative Easing (aka Printin' Whuffie) but thats a whole 'nother post.