Since Twitter is a platform that we’ll be using to communicate with peers and professors in our COMM 464 course, I thought it would be fitting to do my first blog post on how influential celebrities can be through this medium. I was scrolling through my daily dose of Buzzfeed when I came across a post about Zach Goudie, a CBC journalist, that had written an article on the CBC website detailing his experience of being retweeted by Taylor Swift.

While the pop sensation is well-known for her feel-good female empowerment tracks and relatable lyrics of love, she is actually also a social media guru. She has the fourth most followed Twitter account behind Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Barack Obama. Backed by her army of 63.6 million followers, the poor CBC journalist was unprepared for the effect that a simple retweet from Tay-tay could bring upon him.

“With a single touch of Swift’s finger, the audience for my tweet increased by orders of magnitude,” wrote Goudie in his article. He mentions how he generally averages between 1,000 to 2,000 impressions but after Taylor’s retweet this number shot up to more than 1.5 million. This alone reflects the power that celebrities like T-Swift wield through the click of a button. Not only do they have the ability to communicate with millions of people at a time, they can also divert their followers’ attention to certain issues, educate them and be a hub of information. It is certainly remarkable how social media has magnified the impact that celebrities are able to have on the general public with this article being a prime example.

If you’re trying to grow your Twitter platform, getting retweeted by a celebrity may just be the boost you need. So how do you make your tweet stand out? Goudie provides a couple of tips. He suggests always including the Twitter handle of the person mentioned, being a quick distributor of timely information and word your tweet in a clear and concise manner. Try it out and let me know if any of you get retweeted by a Twitter influencer like T-Swizzle.

Check out Zach’s article here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/taylor-swift-effect-zach-goudie-s-digital-brush-with-the-world-s-biggest-pop-star-1.3235865