I’m just starting to use Twitter.
Can someone explain to me how it works? I want to tweet photos to a celebrity.
I know the first step is to follow them. Do I then post my tweet
on their page or mine? Should my tweet show up on their page? (it doesn’t).
Thanks.
I don’t think you have to follow them unless their account is set up to force that. Generally you find their page via they’re “@“ handle, and somewhere on the left there’ll be a “tweet to @xxxx” button.
Also keep in mind that depending on how big a name this person is, he/she may have people running social media for them and “triaging” all communications. So your intended recipient might not actually see it for a while.
Just start your tweet with @celebrityname, and it’ll appear in their mentions. You don’t need to be following them.
Whether the celeb notices it or not depends on a couple of factors:
- Do they even look at their mentions, or their feed at all?
- Do they have one or more of the quality filters turned on? These filters hide messages from eg default eggs, users who haven’t validated their account etc
You never know who’s going to respond. I’ve had short, friendly chats with Russell Crowe and Joyce Carol Oates on twitter, and many more replies from various blue ticks.
I don’t tweet, so this is more of a question than an answer, but can you actually tweet to someone? That is, in the sense that you can send an email to someone. I’m thinking “no”. It might be better to think of tweeting at someone, and then hoping they hear you.
Twitter has a “Direct Message” (or “DM”) function, but I don’t use it.
I’ve had brief, friendly conversations with a couple of C-Listers (including Chris Kattan) myself. During college football season, Eric Stonestreet (Cam on Modern Family) will engage users talking about college football.
It’s especially satisfying when a celebrity retweets your message. It’s seen by everyone. Potentially hundreds of thousands for a big name.
I’ve tweeted a couple directors and a DIY host. The DIY person retweeted my message.
Thanks, everyone. Your experiences are so interesting!
But can I go to the recipient’s page and see my tweet there?
What’s DIY host? All I can come up with is the guy who gives you a cart when you walk into Home Depot.
It’s surprising actually just how many celebrities will answer a tweet. Unless they have an astronomical number of followers then, as said above, they’ll employ people to manage their tweets and if you do get a reply it’s likely to be a stock response from one of the staff.
If I didn’t just get wooshed, it would be a host of a DIY show. Like Norm Abrams or Bob Villa (both real but retired from TV hosting), or Tim Taylor (fictional but more fun).
It all depends – some people don’t show all the tweets they get from people (I imagine celebs get a LOT), so if you don’t see it there, don’t freak out. They might only display the ones that they like or answer.
I’ve had some of mine displayed, and even answered. I even had a few shown during a hockey game!
I also got blocked by Jeremy Roenick. He has a tendency to get drunk and get into flame wars with hockey fans on Twitter. It’s hilarious to watch.
B-list or C list celebrities will follow you back and have conversations on occasion. A listers (or once were) will too, if they are not too popular or snobs. When I had used Twitter I’ve talked to Pam Grier, William Sadler (‘Heywood’ from Shawshank Redemption/Head terrorist from Die Hard 2, etc…), Mitch Pileggi (Skinner, from X-Files), Tony Todd (Candyman), A few from the American Pie movies (Jason Biggs, Tara Reid, Eddie Kaye Thomas) and that really hot CNN anchor (Brooke Baldwin). I’ve also been blocked by a couple, and a Family Guy producer because of my political views (HAH!) and some don’t respond at all. That being said, the blue check mark next to their name means that it is their verified account, but as mentioned above, some may have scripted responses and some may be personal (its quite obvious to tell). The “holy shit a celebrity talked to me” moment fades pretty quick, still really fun though. My favorite follow was James Woods, purely for the fact that he presents valid facts every single time someone argues with him and shuts them up. Its just fun to watch. Especially with celebrities that participate in any activism stuff in any form… I love watching them argue.
Brock Ciarlelli, the actor who plays Brad on The Middle, retweeted one of mine! There was a hashtag going around, something like #TellACelebrityWhyYouLoveThem. I mentioned that the scene where Brad came out* to Sue brought me to tears. He was apparently quite impressed with that.
*Since Sue, everybody in Orson, and the doctor who delivered him, knew that Brad is gay, he hardly “came out.” But you get the drift.
I got a “like” from Felicia Day yesterday. I’m giddy.
And had a brief conversation with the Soska Sisters, directors of American Mary and hosts of GSN’s Hellevator. We were talking about our favorite songs in Little Shop of Horrors.
There’s two ways:
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You can “Direct Message” them, which is basically like an instant message conversation.
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You can “Mention” them in your own tweet, using the @ symbol followed by their user name.
There’s a lot of permissions related to both of those options. Usually DMs are disabled unless the two parties are mutual-followers, for example. (A follows B, and B also follows A-- unlikely your celeb is going to be following you.)
With option 2), Mentions, keep in mind Mention tweets are 100% public, shown to everybody. (Even people who you have blocked can see them simply by logging-out.) Do not tweet anything private using that method, or you’ll be embarrassed sooner or later.
EDIT: since people are giving stories, I was blocked by one of the hosts of Mystery Science Theater 3000 for saying he should shut up about his Kickstarter (which he’d been flogging like 3 times an hour) since it had already been funded, hah.
Or Richard “Al Borland” Karn, who was so typecast that his post-Home Improvement career has mostly been shilling DIY-related products (and hosting gameshows).
More broadly, there’s an entire cable channel (DIY Network) featuring such shows, so it could be one of their show’s hosts, as well.
I generally go to their twitter page and then use the big button to tweet at them.
And, no, it doesn’t show up on their page. It will show up in their feed, but I’ve never found it anywhere on their page.
That said, if you reply to a tweet, then it will show up on the page if you click on the top tweet. It will list all replies.
Slightly off topic, I love that there’s this quaint little corner of the Internet that time forgot, where in a thread about how to use ubiquitous social media, someone asks what a DIY host is, and another responds “Y’know, like Bob Villa.” 
Thanks everyone for your responses!