What if there was a way to get paid up to $10,000 every time you tweeted? Fortunately there is—if you’re a famous celebrity with endorsement contracts.
Twitter is a social networking site that allows you to write what’s on your mind in 140 characters or fewer. The only way you can see someone else’s tweet is by “following” them on Twitter. If a famous person has a Twitter account, there is a little blue check next to their name to let the Twitter user know that this is the real celebrity and not a fake account, of which there are many.
Many of us follow celebrities but may not know that by following a famous person on Twitter, we may be increasing their income. Many of the most-followed Tweeters get paid every time they tweet certain things.
The company Twitter isn’t the one paying the person for tweeting; the celebrities are getting paid by the companies with whom they have endorsement contracts. For example, Kim Kardashian is the spokesmodel for the online shoe company ShoeDazzle.com. Every time she tweets something that mentions the website, that company pays her…$10,000!
“Is it really worth it to give Kim Kardashian $100,000 just to send out 10 tweets about your company?” wonders junior Mike Coppola.
Apparently it is. Since Kim Kardashian started tweeting about ShoeDazzle.com, the company has made over $13 million. Famous people tweeting about different companies helps the companies gain popularity. People see the celebrity praising a product or concept of a company. Because those who follow the celebrity are curious, they will spend the time looking it up for themselves, thus bringing traffic to the company website or store. It’s the modern-day version of hiring Peyton Manning to do Buick commercials, or Tiger Woods to wear a Nike swoosh on his golf hat.
According to an article on the website Vulture, companies like Old Navy, Toyota, and American Airlines determine how much to pay a celebrity that advertises for them by the number of followers the person has. For example, Snoop Dogg who has 6.3 million followers gets paid $8,000 a tweet, while Whitney Port who has only 800,000 followers gets paid $2,500 for every tweet. Even though both are getting the word out about the company, the person with more followers will get paid more since he or she is reaching more people.
“I was shocked when I found out that people get paid to tweet,” junior Eliza Sniatkowski explains. “They barely do anything and get paid thousands of dollars.”
Technology and social media websites have opened the doorway to new ways for companies to generate revenue through advertising in non-traditional ways, and in some cases have produced new ways of making a living—people can now get paid for pushing a few buttons on their phone or computer. In Kim Kardashian’s case, it’s over $71 per character!