R6: Lisa Vanderpump

Case Study: Lisa Vanderpump

In the world of Twitter, users can share their thoughts, photos, news, or ideas in 140 characters or less. When it comes to celebrities, profiles are usually public - meaning that everyone has access to what users have Tweeted or Retweeted. It probably will not surprise you to learn that your favorite celebrity that has a high following, almost certainly has someone to manage his or her social media presence, including Twitter.

I decided to do a case study on Lisa Vanderpump, a British/American restaurateur, author, actress, and television personality. I focused on the way she presents herself on her Twitter profile. I looked out for things that seemed genuine verse things that seemed scripted. Because she is known for her appearances on Bravo's The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Vanderpump Rules, Lisa has a large following of 1.51 million followers. Now with the advancement of technology and the rise of social media, I believe having a high follower rate is very crucial to celebrities because it is how they maintain their fame. “Just as we now see ‘regular’ people adopting micro-celebrity tactics to gain status online, we also see famous people using similar techniques on social media sites to maintain popularity and image.” (Marwick and Boyd, 2011)

When looking at Lisa Vanderpumps profile, I noticed that she is VERY active on Twitter. Her timeline is filled with pictures, news, retweets and personal tweets. On her reality shows, Vanderpump portrays herself as a fashion icon, businesswoman and animal lover. She mainly uses her fame, to bring awareness to animals and adoption. Reading the case studies presented by Marwick and Boyd, you see a lot of direct interactions between user to user. For example, Perez Hilton tweets at Taylor Swift, or Mariah Carrey direct messaging her fans.  When it comes to Vanderpump, you don’t see any direct communication. Instead it seems like she only uses her Twitter account to represent herself as she has been in her reality shows.

Her posts consists of:

1.Retweets of fans supporting her adoption business

2.Awareness for animal adoption

3.     Celebrity endorsements

4.     Restaurant advertisements

Lisa Vanderpump does not really use the typical micro-celebrity techniques to connect with her audience. Instead, it seems like she is sticking to the reputation she has on her reality T.V shows. She does not use Twitter to connect with fans; she uses it more to inform her fans. At first, I thought that this was a bad strategy because usually fans follow celebrities to get a sense of genuine connections and interactions. Why would Vanderpump not take advantage of that? But after analyzing her Twitter account, it’s clear that she has someone managing her tweets for her. We almost hear about a social media crises every other day; therefore maybe Vanderpump wants to avoid that by not interacting with fans in general.

Despite what strategy Lisa Vanderpump uses to maintain her fame, we know that it is certainly working out for her. Even though Lisa may not directly talk to her fans, she still stays very active on her Twitter profile. She clearly knows that this dog lover, sexy entrepreneur image she has created for herself is what fans want to see, so she continues to portray that on her social media accounts.

Sources:

Marwick, Alice, and Danah Boyd. 2011. "To See And Be Seen: Celebrity Practice On Twitter". http://www.tiara.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/marwick_boyd_to_see_and_be_seen.pdf.

Vanderpump, Lisa (LisaVanderpump). Retweet. Tweet.