Just when Harbhajan rekindled the celeb blogosphere by getting on board Big Adda (rather Big Adda getting him on board) we get the news that another celeb blogger Gul Panag has launched her own Twitter stream. The basic details – Yes it is official. The Profile is at Twitter.com/GulPanag and she is very active on it – 89 updates in 4 days. And she uses her Iphone to tweet about most of the time. Take that for analysis!
Well Gul may not be officially the first celeb twitterer on board, there is Aamir Khan already and Shahid Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan too. Though no one has been able to authenticate SRK’s and Shahid’s profiles, Aamir is hardly active on it, his last update came last month. Shahid Kapoor’s profile I am in fact quite sure is a Twitter replica of Salman Khan’s blog which was launched during his reality show stint. Meaning a promotional bait for his upcoming Kaminey managed by some PR or social media agency on his behalf that he has no clue about (nor do the agency from what it seems). SRK meanwhile tweets in a way that makes us believe it is him (at least makes me believe) but he follows more people than those who follow him. Definitely not celeb like, I mean for all that he does he can’t be so attention seeking and even if he is, I wonder if the dude has time to follow over 4000 people, that’s right he follows more than 4000. And with 4000 plus followers he also tops the list of Indian celeb twitterers. Aamir has 700 plus, Gul right now has more than 600 and Shahid has 270.
Coming back to Gul, and the real reason I am even blogging about this is this tweet of hers.
A tweet coming from a pretty lady, a former Miss India, a decently well known Actress that slanders your brand with followers from possibly around the country, not good at all. Jet Airways took the brand beat of April this time with this tweet. Word of mouth from someone influential does more harm than an Ad gone wrong. And the worse part is Jet might not even know about it because it is not on Twitter, and who knows if they have made the right choice of reading WATBlog yet.
It is interesting though that the company that build and manages Gul Panag’s website also have Jet on their client list. I just found the irony (if there is one) too beautiful.
Twitter just made a huge splash abroad with Oprah tweeting (and bringing voer a million new users with her) and Ashton Kutcher’s million followers drama. And it is very likely that more celebs join the tweet wagon in India as well. With more power to influence brands can do well to quickly get hold of the medium before it runs out of hand. For instance, Jet could have easily made Gul’s tweet into an opportunity for one by simply replying to her tweet then and there (with the tools around it’s not difficult at all and certainly doesn’t cost).
Twitter is going mainstream and it is taking conversations closer more louder.
