Stephen Fry sparks media frenzy over quitting Twitter tweet
So Stephen Fry has decided to stay on Twitter! The world rejoices (quite rightly!) However, the most bewildering aspect of the whole ‘Stephen Fry threatens to quit Twitter’ saga is that anyone is bewildered that it became a story that has been splashed by newspapers on and offline.
In a nutshell, a twitter called @BrumPlum told national treasure and Twitter darling @StephenFry that he found his tweets ‘a bit boring’ – and catching the celebrity at a low point, Fry tweeted a reply that he was going to retire from Twitter.
Of course Fry was deluged with tweets urging him to stay and indeed he appears to have changed his mind. The poor guy who said he was boring was also deluged by furious tweets, not least from Fry’s co-star and fellow Twitter,@AlanDavies1, who was apparently quite offensive to @BrumPlum in Fry’s defence.
Before the web ink has even focused into pixels Fry and his critic had made up – which wasn’t reported with such speed, and all is quiet in the Twitter tree until the next excitement sends everyone a-flutter!
What is surprising is that so many people, not least the author of the tweet that kicked this off (who blogs his bewilderment on an adult-orientated blog – possibly not safe for work) are so surprised that this has happened.
Fry is a much-loved celebrity and will be followed by every journalist using Twitter and looking for that tweet that can provide the hook for a tenuous story.
There is lays the real lesson from this episode. Anyone venturing on to not only Twitter, but into any publicly accessible region of social networking needs to comprehend that every day more and more journalists discover that here is a rich seam of gossip gold that their readers (the vast majority of who do not use any social network) will clamour for.
This was one of the reasons Miley Cyrus quit Twitter – if she mentioned she had a zit the teenage popstar’s observation was turned into a major news story, let alone being controversial with her 140 characters.
It is becoming ever simpler for journalists to discover conversations appearing on social networking websites and will quickly turn them into stories. It is an important consideration for anyone with a reputation to protect.
Speaking of reputations, nice to enhace that of vpjayant who kindly allowed the use of this photo of Stephen Fry under Flickr's Creative Commons Licence - thanks!