Digital Royalty

Let’s not kid ourselves, being featured in Vanity Fair is an honor. Controversy aside, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity. I have to admit, when I heard the news I immediately called a family member and dropped a Ron Burgundy, “I don’t know how to put this, but I’m kind of a big deal.”

There’s a bigger story and higher objective to the six of us that were featured: @FeliciaDay @PRSarahEvans @Pop17 @JuliaRoy @AdventureGirl @DigitalRoyalty. It’s more than just an article gone wrong. It’s a missed opportunity for the publication, their readers and those featured.

Since it’s web debut, the Digital Royalty team has been sitting around the office gossiping about all of the chatter surrounding the article as we watch American Idol and brush each other’s hair. Not. End sarcasm here (with a cheer).

Actually, we’ve been listening. It’s one of the things we do best. We’ve been monitoring the discussion because we all have a voice when it comes to social media. Let’s take a look at what’s going on from a bird’s eye view. The photo above represents a portion of the Vanity Fair online brand relative to the “America’s Tweethearts” article. We at Digital Royalty call it an online ecosystem. It’s very simple. Red is bad. Green is good. Vanity Fair is the epicenter. Stats show that people online are talking about this story three times more than the VF cover story on Tiger Woods. The tonality they’re using to describe the “America’s Tweethearts” article is nearly 70% overtly negative. Some of the most frequently used words which appear in the ecosystems’s semantic cloud include “hate”, “wrong”, “VFfail” and “rant”. Sentiment and semantics speak for themselves. Readers feel that Vanity Fair doesn’t get it.

Over the past few days, I have been intrigued with the voice behind the Vanity Fair twitter account. They’ve recognized a handful of the people that have strongly opposed their very own Tweethearts article by responding to their new haters and acknowledging valid points. It appears someone inside those traditional Vanity Fair walls ‘gets it’ and could probably turn this around given the proper counsel and support from above.

The topic of social media behind closed corporate doors can lead to heated debate. Believe me, I’ve been there.

Most ‘traditional’ media outlets cringed and were originally threatened by this zany monster called social media. They hoped it was just a trend. The media outlets that have embraced new forms of digital communication and found ways to converge mediums to leverage their brand’s influence probably have a better time sleeping at night.

Here’s what has kept me up the past few nights. Here’s where I call twullshit. Unlike assumptions made in the article, the fact is that all six women featured are more than just twitter handles. They are pioneers. Individuals and companies are making money off of Twitter. Maybe I wasn’t clear during the two-hour, one-on-one interview when I explained that I’ve built a business around this exact topic. My firm works with some of the most progressive, A-list brands who garner national and international media attention on a regular basis because of their social media strategies. In addition, Twitter is one of the key communication tools we use to generate revenue for our clients through e-commerce, endorsement/sponsorship deals and ticket sales.

For the sake of Vanity Fair, a publication I’ve respected and subscribed to for years, I hope that the human behind the @VanityFairMag avatar can be the catalyst for an evolution.

When I speak nationally about the value of social media and how to monetize it, I leave my cheerleading megaphone behind. Two months ago I showed the VF writer some tools and discussed Digital Royalty strategies, measurement philosophies and case studies. Well, now I’m the writer. Ironically, I’m applying those tools to the situation her article has created. There is a science to social media.

Until next time… you stay classy, Tweethearts.

Photo Credit: Michael Halsband

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