Marwick, A,. Boyd, D, 2011. To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, vol. 17, pp. 140 – 158.

In this journal article co-written by Alice Marwick and Danah Boyd, they discuss the practice of being a celebrity and an active social media user — particularly focusing on Twitter use. They examine how, on Twitter, the idea of celebrity practice is exemplified through the “performance of ‘backstage’ access”. This creates what appears a personal and intimate connection with their audience and fans. All of this content appears to be personal information which further hones in on that idea of intimacy between the participant and follower. It’s discussed how they further use the social media platform to publicly acknowledge fans and use the colloquial language and make cultural references to create further affiliation and garner popularity with their audience. Warwick and Boyd continue discussing how interactions with other celebrity practitioners give the impression of candid and uncensored insights into the people behind their personas and real ‘friendships’ or fights. However, all of this has an element of uncertainty as to the true authenticity of the performances. This can appeal to those who are gossip hungry and love the game playing that comes along with that. This can be reflected back to our research by looking at the recent drama between the Kardashian-Wests and Taylor Swift, where Kim Kardashian-West posted video proof on her Snapchat account of Taylor Swift being caught out in a lie that had plagued Kanye West’s career for the past 7 months. Twitter exploded with the news, with hashtags of #KimExposedTaylorParty trending worldwide and making headlines for days and days to come. This whole ‘exposé’ seemed to give the world front row seats to what appeared genuine drama, when the authenticity and spontaneity of it all can obviously always be doubted. Marwick and Boyd finish off by stating that in order to successfully practice celebrity, fans must always recognise that there are power differentials that are intrinsic to the relationship.

Holt, D. 2016. Branding in The Age of Social Media, The Harvard Business Review, 4 March 2016, pp. 25

In Holt’s article in the Harvard Business Review, he dissects how the implementation of social media in everyday life was supposed to “usher in a golden age of branding”, but how that essentially failed. Where businesses and marketers initially thought that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram would let them bypass using more mainstream forms of media to directly and intimately connect with consumers. However, in all this revolutionary planning and spending billions in producing original content, the customers never showed up and, according to Holt, social media actually made some brands less significant. He further continues to analyse how the issue lies in that social media has transformed the way that culture works, in a way which happens to weaken certain branding techniques, instead uniting consumers and communities into — what Holt describes as — “Crowdcultures”. These Crowdcultures are extremely prolific cultural innovators, with the members producing their own content. These people and members are making videos in their own bedrooms, make-up tutorials, angry rants on injustices of the world, social commentary and are ranking top in the charts on YouTube, which brands cannot seem to crack. So, what room does this leave? Holt proposes that Crowdcultures “grease the wheels” for an alternative approach — cultural branding. This is the practice of a brand setting itself apart by promoting new ideology that springs from the crowd. Holt uses the examples of brands such as Dove who produced campaigns that spoke directly to the Crowdculture concerns of unhealthy beauty standards for women. From this, you can look at the idea of the Kardashian brand. Kris Jenner has championed a path for her children to garner fame in every media form possible — from Kim’s video game which rakes in millions every year, to having a paid subscription app for all the children, to Kylie Jenner’s cosmetics range. All of this is promoted and used in tandem with these new forms of social media to appeal to consumers and Crowdculture but also stand apart from all other contenders without such star power to their name.

Tracy, A., 2016. The Genius of Kim Kardashian, Vanity Fair, 10 June 2016.

Kim Kardashian’s name in 2016 is a household one. No matter the demographic, she in some way has infiltrated every person’s life in some shape or form. As the branding expert Robert K. Passikoff stated, “You would have had to be living in a cave in Nepal to have not been exposed in one way or another to the celebrity ilk of Kim Kardashian.” This is all very true, and Tracy’s article discusses the ways in which Kim Kardashian has leveraged her social media following — which, in case one was wondering, equals 155.4 million followers over Twitter, Instagram and Facebook — to create a personal brand that is arguably more influential than that of most Fortune 500 companies. Tracy explains how although her fame and notoriety were born from her non-business exploits instead of pure talent like many celebrities, her testament really lies in her ability to “spot trends and identify what people want before they even know they want it”. This can be exemplified by her unbelievably successful trio of mobile phone applications — from Kimoji, to Kim Kardashian West (her lifestyle app) and her mobile game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Tracy delves into how Kardashian-West differs herself from other reality stars who are also prolific over-sharers. This genius lies in applying the “freemium” business model to her own life, thereby which she strategically withholds content that she sells exclusively via in-app purchases. Tracy’s analysis of the effect of Kim Kardashian-West on her own personal brand through utilising the effectiveness and constant use of social media is interesting. Kardashian-West explained that it was “a tough decision to decide to go to the subscription base model because so much content on there from Instagram, and Twitter and everywhere else is free,” and so, Tracy points out that the mobile mogul has to work to provide unique experiences for fans who have so much access to the family’s everyday lives. This is all resulting in success for Kardashian-West, whose social media influence only keeps increasing and setting a standard for a new breed of celebrity.

Ingram, M, 2016. Why Kim Kardashian Is Almost as Smart About Social Media as Donald Trump. Fortune, 18 July 2016.

In this article by Matthew Ingram, he compares how Kim Kardashian-West has trumped even Donald Trump in manipulating the media and how it’s changed in recent times to use it to their advantage. Trump through being able to do an end run around traditional media coverage and being able to go directly to fans and his support base with his message due to his massive following on Twitter. Both Trump and Kardashian-West have gained benefit from an abundance of mainstream television coverage, but in the majority of cases, the coverage comes after they’ve released their own media content through their own respective social media channels, which “gives them an almost unprecedented amount of control over how the story evolves.” And what a power that is for two of the most ferociously loved and loathed celebrities of 2016. Ingram proceeds to discuss in detail the event of the latest Taylor Swift feud, which revolves around Kanye West’s ‘Famous’ and lyrics about the pop singer which she complained to be offensive and misogynistic. Ingram discusses how, although only tabloids would be concerned with the details, the way in which Kardashian-West responded used social media against Swift in an extremely effective manner. Ingram discusses this in detail, but summarises by describing how Kardashian-West relied on her social media network to do all the media distribution for her. He states that this shows that the mobile mogul is “not only a smart businesswoman who understands the power of mobile apps and gaming, but someone who appreciates the evolution of the media as well.” Continuing to discuss the changing nature of social media and direct distribution by the personalities themselves, he discusses how until recently all of this drama would have unfolded through tabloid magazines or a leaked, anonymous video to TMZ. However, this has changed to fit our ever frantically paced world where, now, all the action happens in real time on social media straight from the horse’s mouth. Ingram finishes by warning and naming the power of networked distribution and describes how it’ll only increase in future years with further platforms to utilise.