Ellen DeGeneres: Twitter as Promotional
With the invention of Twitter in 2006, the concept of celebrity as we know it began to change. Before social media, celebrity was a term used to describe famous people, those idealized by the average citizen. However, celebrity now means much more, in part because of the development of social media. In their work “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter,” Alice Marwick and Danah Boyd describe the concept of a celebrity as being “organized and ever-changing performance practice rather than a set of intrinsic personal characteristics or external labels” (Marwick and Boyd 140). It “involves ongoing maintenance of a fan base, performed intimacy, authenticity and access, and construction of a consumable persona” (Marwick and Boyd 140). Social media has helped make it easier for celebrities to maintain their fan base and the relationship they have not only with fans but also with other celebrities as well. Twitter is a platform that celebrities can use to publically display their thoughts, reply to a lucky fan, comment on a controversial issue, or simply have a conversation with a fellow celebrity or friend.
One such star that utilizes Twitter is Ellen DeGeneres. Popular for her daytime talk show The Ellen Show, Ellen is a popular actor/comedian turned television host. She has also hosted various award shows such as the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards and Primetime Emmys. She is known for supporting the LGBT community and helping to make their issues known as she is a Lesbian herself.
Ellen has a verified Twitter account, meaning Twitter has verified this is actually the Ellen DeGeneres, not a fake one. On her Twitter page, she has a link to her fan and television based website “ellentube”. “Ellentube” is similar to YouTube in that you can search videos, but the videos are those promoted by Ellen or clips from The Ellen Show. In addition to this, fans can also send in their own videos to be featured on the website, and sometimes even featured in her daytime talk show. She also includes a link to her Vine account. Her Twitter bio states “Comedian, talk show host and ice road trucker. My tweets are real, and they’re spectacular” (Ellen DeGeneres). Marwick and Boyd state “Celebrities must constantly shift between performing their stage persona, concealing or revealing personal information, and creating intimacy and authentic self-presentation for the benefit of their fans” (Marwick and Boyd 151). Ellen certainly sticks to this on her Twitter page by maintaining a playful, comedic tone to almost all of her tweets.
Ellen DeGeneres mainly uses Twitter as a way to not only promote herself and her show but to also promote other NBC shows as well. Most of her Tweets are either gifs or video clips from her show, with a clever caption created to draw your attention and get you to tune into her show. On April 21, she tweeted a clip of her Earth Day show, with the caption: “Today I talked about two of the most pressing issues of our time - global warming and Magic Mike” (DeGeneres).
She uses Twitter to promote her show and important issues but to do it in a clever and engaging way. The video clips she posts from her talk show are around 2-4 minutes. This is just long enough to get the audience interested in watching that particular show, and perhaps others. She tweets often and engages with other celebrities as well as other industries. On April 20, she tweeted “Young people should be able to see the movie “3 Generations,” which won’t happen with an R rating. How do we fix this, @MPAA?” (DeGeneres). She attempted to publicly call out the MPAA rating system in hopes of being able to change something in part by garnering much support from her followers.
In addition to promoting herself and her brand, she also promotes other NBC shows as well as her wife Portia De Rossi. As seen in her tweet below, she promoted Steve Harvey’s show Little Big Shots. She Tweeted: “If you love adorable talented kids and @iamSteveHarvey’s mustache, tune in to #LittleBigShots right now!” (DeGeneres). She also encourages her audience to reply to her by Tweeting things like: “#FirstDates is on NBC in 1- minutes! East Coast, who’s watching with me?” (DeGeneres).
To this she received some responses such as: “@sonia-mafs: I’m watching Ellen and I also love you! Your biggest fan- this is Stan” (Granados). However, she does not appear to reply to her fans or engage in conversations with them. In this way, I think she does not effectively use Twitter because Twitter is meant to promote intimacy between fans and celebrities, but Ellen does not use this function to engage in much conversation. She also promotes her wife and Scandal by tweeting: “I’m proud of my wife for her epic performance on #Scandal. I will miss Lizzie Bear, but I’m glad Portia Bear is sitting right next to me” (DeGeneres). Fans were upset by this tweet because it was a spoiler for those not caught up with the show. User @thebrunetteonex replied “chill w the spoilers ellen i didn’t watch yet the phillies are playing” and @saraanders01 simply tweeted “subtle” (Erin, Strike me down).
For the most part, Ellen DeGeneres is very well liked both on and offline. She has over 67 million followers and tweets often. Her tweets are both funny and informative . She uses Twitter to promote herself and her brands as well as to promote other NBC shows. Ellen DeGeneres is a good celebrity to perform a case study of because she is very active on Twitter. However, she does not engage in conversations with her followers and therefore may lack the intimacy that Twitter is designed to foster. Celebrity status is more achievable today due to the creation of social media sites such as Twitter. As Marwick and Boyd state, “Twitter demonstrates the transformation of ‘celebrity’ from a personal quality linked to fame to a set of practices that circulate through modern social media” (Marwick and Boyd 156).
Works Cited
DeGeneres, Ellen. (@TheEllenShow). “If you love adorable talented kids and @iamSteveHarvey’s mustache, tune in to #LittleBigShots right now!” 23 Apr. 2017, 4:59 PM. Tweet.
DeGeneres, Ellen. (@TheEllenShow). “#FirstDates is on NBC in 10 minutes! East Coast, who’s watching with me?”. 21 Apr. 2017, 4:50 PM. Tweet.
DeGeneres, Ellen. (@TheEllenShow). “Young people should be able to see the movie “3 Generations,” which won’t happen with an R rating. How do we fix this, @MPAA?” 20 Apr. 2017, 1:35 PM. Tweet.
DeGeneres, Ellen. (@TheEllenShow). “Today I talked about two of the most pressing issues of our time- global warming and Magic Mike.” 21 Apr. 2017, 2:08 PM. Tweet.
DeGeneres, Ellen. (@TheEllenShow). “I’m proud of my wife for her epic performance on #Scandal. I will miss Lizzie Bear, but I’m glad Portia Bear is sitting right next to me.” 20 Apr. 2017, 7:01 PM. Tweet.
Ellen Degeneres. “Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow).” Twitter. Twitter, Aug. 2008. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.
Erin. (@thebrunetteonex). “Chill w the spoilers ellen I didn’t watch yet the phillies are playing.” 20 Apr. 2017, 7:03 PM. Tweet.
Granados, Sonia. (@sonia_mafs). “I’m watching Ellen and I also love you! Your biggest fan- this is Stan.” 21 Apr. 2017, 4:53 PM. Tweet.
Marwick, Alice and Danah Boyd. “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter.” Convergence 17.2 (2011): 139-58. Web. 24 Apr. 2017. PDF.
Strike me down (@saraanders01). “subtle” 20 Apr. 2017, 7:52 PM. Tweet.
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