How many followers do you have?

Long before the advent of Twitter, Nineteen Eight-Four, George Orwell’s brilliantly horrific psychic novel, imagined an oppressive world where Big Brother would be following your every move, thought and feeling.

But instead of a ubiquitous machine of political mind control, it’s a little yet seemingly liberated bird flying above the clouds that is changing how we navigate through the skies of society and media.

If you’ve been living in a Llanview coma and have no idea where the Twitterverse is located, here’s what all the fuss is about:

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and are publicly visible by default — however senders can restrict message delivery to their friends list. Users may subscribe to other authors’ tweets, which is known as following and subscribers are known as followers.

Thanks to this fascinating public portal into our lives, news is released as it happens and distributed virally. Show spoilers are posted as they are leaked and/or aired. Celebrities have cut out the middleman (ahem, publicists) to reach out to the press and their fan bases, often to their own detriment. Almost everyone’s daily step in life is recorded, which, as Real Time With Bill Maher observed during one of his monologues, has made everyone liars. Heck, some celebrities break off romantic relationships or feud with each other via Twitter. From a business standpoint, entertainment projects and products are marketed on a viral level. On a human level, in times of disasters or political upheaval, it’s the only source to turn to and has been known to save actual lives. In short, Twitter is one-stop shopping on a global scale.

So is Twitter a good or bad thing? Is it simply a fad that will eventually be replaced by another breakthrough technology? Or will it bring our global village together?

One of Twitter’s best and brightest players is Days of our Lives superstar and Venice creator Crystal Chappell, who boasts almost 20,000 followers.

After Guiding Light was cancelled, heartbroken Otalia fans flocked to Twitter to grieve, remember and celebrate all things Chappell. As a result, Chappell notes, “we created a community. The Twitter universe is a great way to communicate with people. And I generally love everyone I hang out with on Twitter. Our fans are extremely loyal and smart. They have taught me a lot. The gratitude, love, and support have been overwhelming at times.”

But all that lovey-dovey stuff aside, Chappell did something even smarter — the Emmy winner was one of the first media-savvy stars to see Twitter as a marketing tool to increase her cult following and promote her new web soap, Venice. Even before it aired, Venice was a bona fide hit.
Welovesoaps.net founder Roger Newcomb applauds Chappell's marketing prowess in this regard. “Chappell launched this hugely successful web soap on Twitter and cultivated her already large following in the process,” he recalls. “But you have to be dedicated like Crystal for it to have a big impact. You can’t just tweet once at 8 a.m. and expect a big following.”

Chappell laughs, admitting she’s “addicted,” especially “when I have a Red Bull in my hand.”

Gotham creator/producer/star Martha Byrne agrees that once you go Twitter there’s no going back. “For the web show world, Twitter is an absolute necessity,” she states. “In fact, when you pitch your show to studios they ask you how many followers you have and what social media outlets you’re on. The universe on Twitter is vast and infinite. The possibilities are endless but it’s almost a full-time job and sometimes addictive!”

A full-time job with rewards, observes Newcomb, who points out that Twitter also equals dollar and cents — and not just media sense. “You see it with movies especially,” he offers. “On opening Friday night, if people tweet that they hate a new movie, you see the sales drop off on Saturday night. Likewise in the daytime world, if people are saying General Hospital blows today, people on the west coast may just skip the episode all together.”

Which concerns producers and writers since fans and some press type verbatim what is happening on their screen. Why watch, some ask, when you can just read what is happening as it’s happening.

Well, for one, it would be akin to reading music instead of listening to it. But, naturally, the opposite is true as well.

As Soap Opera Digest/Weekly editorial director Lynn Leahey says, “If something exciting happens, although you’ve been alerted, you’re still going to watch. But you have to be careful. There has to be a filter because you don’t want to take the fun out of watching the soaps and spoil everything.”

Which is why Newcomb thinks soap publicity departments should take advantage of same-day buzz. “Like, ‘You need to watch General Hospital today because I can’t believe Tony Geary pulled that off!’ You’ll tune in to see his performance regardless of the spoiler.”

Indeed. Too bad Twitter wasn’t around when As The World Turns’s Luke and Noah kissed without any promotion or fanfare from CBS a couple of years ago. Many infuriated fans missed the anticipated moment — Twitter could have fixed all that.

Conversely, another plus is if a soap fan has no one in their life who watches daytime TV, they can engage in a community of friendship as they view Sudsville in real time (albeit virtually).

The biggest benefit is that Twitter has become a 24-hour news venue. Instead of surfing endless websites over and over again for a hit of breaking news, Twitter provides one space for all the news fit to tweet.

Leahey half-sighs, “While it’s a lot more work for us [in the print press], it’s a great way to get information and breaking news out immediately. It’s fantastic.”

But is it hurting the print world? How does one know whether or not to save a huge news exclusive for print or for Twitter?

Leahey answers, “There are some things we will hold until it appears in the magazine. Maybe it’s a storyline so we don’t ruin the surprise twist. Or maybe it’s a piece of casting information we hold because we know the actor hasn’t been notified yet. It’s a judgment call. Obviously, you want your news to break immediately but when we don’t, it’s because there are very good reasons behind that. Especially storylines.”
 
In terms of breaking immediate news, Twitter is also changing journalism in the same way blogs did five years ago. Leahey isn’t surprised. “Twitter changes the disbursement of information,” she says, “but the good thing about Twitter is because of the length allowed for a tweet, you can’t give everything away.”

It appears managing Twitter’s many facets and complexities has become an art form in itself.

One of Twitter’s most entertaining stars is The Young and the Restless’s Michael Muhney, who says the speed of which news is released may also affect its credibility.

He says, “With the Internet, people thought they were getting their information immediately. Now thanks to Twitter, we’re really getting our information as it’s [happening], sometimes to the detriment of the news because often there is no fact checking.”

Leahey concurs, saying Twitter works “on impulse. When you work on a magazine, stories go through several thoughtful editing levels but there’s little of that on a website because of the immediacy. When it’s out there, it’s too late to change anything. The lack of an editing process is Twitter’s [biggest weakness].”

No one is denying there hasn’t been a learning curve. For example, Muhney’s former Y&R co-star Kevin Schmidt was reportedly scolded last year for tweeting that he was taping scenes at a Newman’s funeral (it later turned out to be Victor’s beloved dog, Zapato), which prompted a memo to the cast forbidding leaking any story or casting information via Twitter.

Another casting guffaw caught on Twitter was when The Biggest Loser’s Jillian Michaels tweeted that James Franco was joining General Hospital after having dinner with Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo. It cost ABC publicity the chance to give the news to a big media outlet and/or control the information.

Is this the end of traditional publicity as we know it? Has Twitter cut out the middleman?
Newcomb says no. “I don’t think they’ll let themselves become irrelevant,” he chuckles. “ I think the people above the PR people aren’t savvy enough to figure who is irrelevant and who isn’t. Corporations are historically slow when it comes to technology their consumers are using — look at the music industry. It took them 15 years to make music available for purchase online. But you’ll need PR to spin, confirm or deny news filtered through Twitter. I don’t think ABC wanted to put the Disney Junior/SOAPnet news out that early but they knew it would leak soon on Twitter so they released it. PR is becoming more and more reactive than proactive. It’s more spin these days.”

“Ironically, it’s the actors who tweet the most who could probably use some PR oversight,” says Soap Opera Digest columnist Carolyn Hinsey. “While Michael Muhney clearly has a handle on how to use Twitter to his — and his show’s — advantage, Brett Claywell probably wishes he had had an editor when he tweeted that daytime was a ‘joke’ simply because he didn’t get an Emmy nomination. And don’t get me started on actors who give story away three months out because they can’t keep track of when the shows will air. That’s exactly when you need a publicist.”

Hinsey is referring to former One Life To Live star Brett Claywell, who reactively tweeted his disappointment over not making the final 2010 Daytime Emmy Award nomination ballot, only to apologize the next day.

Which is why as long as there are stars behaving badly there will always be a need for a publicist to clean up the mess. Degrassi publicist Iain Christiansen says the publicist is not an endangered species, but admits, “it’s changed the way we operate and how we promote our shows and stars. To me, there is much more opportunity to promote our shows and stars thanks to Twitter, but at the same time, it poses a lot more dangers.”

Byrne says, “You have to be careful with your privacy. Fans already know a lot about my day-to-day life so this takes it to a new level. You have to guard yourself just enough. I don’t post my political views. I don’t post anything controversial because it’s not about that. I talk about my charity, St. Jude’s, but I don’t want to get involved in a heated conversation about religion, politics or attacking people.”

GH’s Nancy Lee Grahn believes Twitter has given her a voice because she no longer has to rely on the biased corporate publicity machine. As one of the most followed soapsters online, the Emmy winner is addicted to the possibilities tweeting offers:

“I tweet so I have control over my own voice. Our publicity department picks and chooses whom they want to [promote and feature in the press] but on Twitter I get to say what I want. As most people know, I have very strong political opinions. The way I see it is we’re on a soap opera, we have a soapbox, so why not use it? I don’t take that responsibility lightly, however. I’m careful of what I write. Or I try to be careful of what I say. I constantly ask myself: Is it for the greater good or it for my own self-interest? I try not to be selfish or obnoxious with it. Like, who cares what I put on to wear to go grocery shopping? Instead, I like to focus on how Twitter can get some important political issues out there. Consequently, the Twitter community has made many strides. We’ve pounded several politicians on important issues like health care, etc.”

Muhney adds, “[As actors], we’ve been the product and the publicist could spin us any way they wanted as a product. But now we have a voice and can speak for ourselves. If you need to address a topic, promote a fundraiser or project, or you’ve been misquoted and need to clear something up … what Twitter gives us is the opportunity to [mass-]text message by proxy.”

Many press members contact actors for interviews via Twitter or Facebook these days, so the traditional publicity system seems to be redundant. As Byrne notes, Twitter may even take the place of the agent!

“One of my fans wants to campaign to get me on Dancing With The Stars. I said go for it — even though I have no shot. She tweeted Tom Bergeron and he responded to her. How cool is that?,” laughs Byrne. “There are so many places where fans are not being heard or being responded to that this is a nice venue and platform to be heard.”

Leahey confirms the soaps are on high alert. “On one hand, they really do recognize the publicity value,” she reports. “On one level, they want their actors to reach their fan bases [in this new, exciting, interactive way] but they are fearful that an actor may say something [inappropriate] that will go viral and be read by the entire universe. I don’t think we understood how broad a reach Twitter is. You may think you’re broadcasting your thoughts to a few thousand people, but thanks to re-tweeting, millions will pick it up. So I think the shows have to be protective that their [story or stars] aren’t  exposed.”

Muhney is careful not to bite the hand that feeds him. “At any given day, I’m walking around with three dozen secrets, whether it be the new actors being cast or story information, so as an actor you have to be careful not to leak anything and leave that to the publicity department of the show,” he says. “There’s a certain limit you can push with storyline teasers but it has to be done very carefully.”

Byrne nods, “Twitter should be policed so it’s beneficial to the show and star.” Again, it appears promoting celebrity or an art form on Twitter is an art form. For example, Newcomb points to Muhney’s controversial character as the perfect example.

“My family hates Adam Newman,” laughs Newcomb. “They wanted him off the show, but the people who follow Michael Muhney on Twitter see Adam differently because he’s such a nice and funny guy online. Even if stars have a Facebook page, for some reason, they’re more open personally on Twitter. My family doesn’t know that Michael does all this charity work. Maybe they’d like him if they knew more about him but they’re not Twitter.”

Muhney agrees that his career and image have benefited from his charming, witty antics online. “Many fans like to brag about how they know the difference between actor and character, but a lot of people don’t treat you like that. There’s a large contingent of people out there that do not make a clear divide between character and actor. With Twitter, you get to understand the humanity of a person, and share viewpoints. I believe Twitter now is what the telephone was then because it connected people right away from faraway locales. Now, all of a sudden, I’m having dialogue with someone from Michigan who watches Y&R.”

Perhaps it's Adam Newman who needs his own Twitter account.
Christiansen would agree. He tells us that he has plans for Degrassi characters to tweet. “It's a new world — this is where Twitter can really become an extension of our shows. And it's free marketing!” At least one soap is on board, too. Recently, All My Children’s Erica Kane created an account, albeit extremely lame.

Newcomb says, “Web soaps actively use Twitter as a tool to promote their shows but the network shows don’t even have Twitter accounts. And you have to be very clever. If you have a character like The Young and the Restless’s Drucilla Winters tweeting hilarious stuff, people will follow but if you tweet as a boring character with boring junk, people won’t be interested. It has to be the smart, wisecracking character who tweets. It’s like the person behind $#*! My Dad Says, who got his own show out of his daily tweets! World Turns’s Dr. Reid Oliver and Y&R’s Adam Newman would be great if they commented on and insulted all the Oakdale/Genoa City happenings. Publicists are resistant though. They’re always light years behind the trends.”

As for whether Adam Newman should tweet or not, Muhney laughs. “If he did tweet, I would most certainly be one of his followers. But anything Adam would tweet would be cryptic or duplicitous, so I wouldn’t believe most of what he would tweet.”

As for real life, Muhney suggests, “I would advise people not to tweet while you’re drunk, [under the influence], or recovering from surgery. Your words flow out there in the atmosphere for eternity.”

Twitter pooper!

 

 

 

 

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Nelson Branco is a Toronto freelance entertainment journalist, who regularly contributes to Hello! Canada, The National Post, The Los Angeles Times' theenvelope.com, TV Guide USA, tvguide.com, Inside Entertainment, OUT, and fab magazine, along with spearheading the soap coverage for TVGuide.ca's popular daytime TV hub. After graduating from Ryerson University in 1997, he moved from Toronto to New York in 1998 to take on the roles as senior news editor at Soap Opera Update. Branco first freelanced for Soap Opera Weekly as an intern in 1994, and after leaving Soap Update to help create and launch Bauer Publishing's In Touch Weekly in 2003, Branco continued to freelance occasionally for its sister publication, Soaps In Depth. Most recently, he helped create and launch Canada's first celebrity magazine, Weekly Scoop in 2005 as its news and entertainment director. Branco is also a contributor to a new TV show titled Planet Soap to air in Canada and America.