The Trouble With Twitter

Posted by Pinky on Jan 22, 2010 in Blog | 6 comments

Oh Heidi Montag, where would the world be without you?

Who am I kidding?  We’d be trying our best to ignore some other tabloid-chasing bleach-blond something-or-other, no doubt.  But this week, news broke that Monty’s self-funded album, Superficial, which she put a hefty $2,000,000 of her own cash on the line to produce, has sold an astounding 1,000 copies in its first week on the charts.  (Honestly, I actually am surprised it’s not more, but whatever.)

Here’s the punchline:  In an interview with Entertainment Weekly on January 13th, Montag expressed her opinion that a platinum album (one million sold) was a near guarantee, saying, “I think it’s gonna do great. I have a million Twitter followers and they’re all very excited. So that’s at least a million people right there.”

Um… yea, see here’s the thing.  The number of followers any of us have on social and/or mobile networks is an illusion.  As a matter of fact, the more famous a brand is, the more fake-followers they get from people just hoping to gain some attention.  MySpace is legendary for this kind of traffic.

Tilla Tequila is a great example.  In 2007, she boasted 1.8 million MySpace “friends,” one of the most popular profiles in the website’s history at the time.  She had garnered so much popularity, she was offered a TV deal, six figures to take the rest of her almost no clothes off, and signed a management contract with Strategic Artists Management, who represented the likes of Linkin Park, Dixie Chicks and Miranda Lambert.  In a seemingly savvy move, she too financed a music project of her own, and all the world was watching.

The result?  I think The Register put it best when they said, “Thank goodness Tilla Tequila isn’t the future of music.”  When all was said and done, the project had garnered a whopping $8,500.  That’s about one penny for every 213 friends she had accumulated.

The lesson is this:  If you are famous for being famous, stick to charging appearance fees and try your best not to show your hand.  Heidi can likely kiss any hope of an endorsement deal good-bye now that would-be partners know her true stock with her fan base.  Any label that may have been interested in assuming future risk on her is out of the question.  And most damagingly of all, little miss Priss bragged about betting her entire bank account on the album’s success.  It’s a master class in how to prove all the nay-sayers right.

So what could she have done to avoid this catastrophe?  Aside from reducing her risk (and potential profit) by partnering with an experienced team, she could easily have offered an album presale.  She could have tempted them with a thousand or more signed copies to the first to fans to place an order.  She might even have considered a limited edition version at a higher price-point as a special thanks to all those loyal Twitter pals.  And had she done all of this and received the same response she did this week on the charts, she might have known better than to go through with the release.  Artists are great at coming up with excuses to change their plans.  “Scheduling conflicts” being the most common.

Thank you Heidi Montag.  You’ve taught us all a very Superficial lesson.