Tweet me, baby, one more time
'Do you follow me on Twitter?'
(Credit: BritneySpears.com)When we heard that pop singer Britney Spears was reinventing herself, we didn't know it involved a Twitter account.
But it's true--go to the newly revamped BritneySpears.com, and check it out. You can "Friend Britney" not only on Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, and Britney's own "VIP" social network, but also Twitter. For obvious reasons, it's not actually Spears doing the Twittering. But you can still get updates like "OMG!! 7 hours until Womanizer premieres!!!!!!!" ("Womanizer" is Spears' latest hit single) and "Hey paparazzi...Rolling Stone cover rumors? Too bad you weren't inside the shoot. Brit had a great time and was dancing around the set."
Twitter isn't exactly known as a tool of the teen-pop set. The most popular accounts on the micro-blogging service, according to analytics tool Twitterholic, are currently either politicians (Barack Obama), tech industry heavyweights (Digg's Kevin Rose, blogger Robert Scoble), or news outlets of one kind or another (CNN's breaking news, the Mars Phoenix). Mainstream forays into Twitter typically deal with news and politics, like Current TV's onscreen tweet campaign.
But think about it this way: the PR teams behind many celebrities, particularly bands and singers, have built ways for fans to subscribe to text-message updates and announcements for quite some time now. A Twitter account is a cheaper and easier way of doing pretty much the same thing.
The real question: will Twitter see a big spike in traffic or new user accounts because of Britney?
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline.
