Reflection on Social Media Case 2: Ellen Degeneres and most Re-Tweeted Photo

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The picture that Ellen Degeneres posted to twitter was a pure example of the power that celebrities have within the sphere of social media. The picture that was taken was semi planned but also had a sense of spontaneity to it. Within hours the picture went viral, becoming the most-re-tweeted post in the history of Twitter. I think that people loved the idea and look of how spontaneous the selfie really was. I myself re-tweeted that photo when it was going around the Twitter sphere. At the time, my reason for re-tweeting it was mostly because there were so many re-tweets already that it seemed like it was just something that you did… Which makes me think that that might be why there were so many re-tweets in the first place, because everyone was doing it… Although this photo went viral and was liked so much for its spontaneity, some groups speculated that the photo was actually product placement for the new Galaxy smart phone, which was something that was interesting to me and also made me wonder what the intentions were behind the famous Oscar selfie. Was it just a spontaneous photo of Ellen and a few of her famous friends, or was this the perfect subliminal message for everyone to want this new phone?
On the other end of the spectrum there is the chicken nugget tweet. This was one of the more funny tweets/challenges that I had seen on twitter. Wendy’s offered Wilkerson a year of free nuggets if he reached a re-tweet total of 18 million, this challenge soon went viral and began its journey to actually surpass Ellen’s record of most re-tweets. Once that happened the Wendy’s marketing officer sent out a tweet confirming that he had definitely fairly won a year of free nuggets. This was one of the craziest things that I had ever seen happen on Twitter.

Something to put into consideration is how Wilkerson’s tweet (the nugget "tweeter") went viral so quickly. It made sense that Ellen’s photo was such a hit, because everyone in that photo had their own follow/fan base before. They were well known members of society. But that is exactly what is so interesting to me about the nuggets tweet. Wilkerson wasn’t famous and yet somehow went above and beyond the re-tweets that Ellen had received. This was just another demonstration of how social media’s influence is everywhere and can reach anyone.  

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 31, 2018 at 12:31 PM

    It's an interesting point you bring up about people re-tweeting posts because "everyone is doing it." The power of peer pressure goes beyond verbal language and it definitely plays a huge role in social media as well. I also had the same question about Wilkerson's tweet and how it went so popular so fast! But I think you had some great thoughts on this case. Thank you!

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  2. UnknownJanuary 31, 2018 at 1:25 PM

    Great job Keslie! I really loved your post and the points you made about the fact that most of the time people re-tweet something that is going viral just because everyone else is doing it, and it's kind of the cool thing to do. I agree with you that it's crazy how information can spread like wildfire and become viral from either a celebrity or an average person because of social media.

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