Kim Kardashian: Social Media Queen
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Kim Kardashian is considered one of the current Social Media Queens. In fact, much of her success has been attributed to her proficiency in utilizing social media.
She maintains a social networking profile in Facebook (KimKardashian), and previously in MySpace (kimsaprincess). Her Facebook page currently has 6,766,058 likes. Her MySpace profile has no updates since June 2009.
Microblogging services used in her website include identi.ca, bentio.com, Twitter and Yammer. She is very active in Twitter where she has 11,233,238 followers as of today. She uses her Twitter page (kimkardashian), not just to share her thoughts and ideas, but also to conduct research for her products. According to "Kim Kardashian Inc.":
"When she was deciding on a color for her Kim Kardashian perfume bottle, she asked her followers on Twitter whether they preferred a hot pink or a light pink. (It was light pink, by far.) 'Twitter is the most amazing focus group out there,' she said."
Kim Kardashian's official blog under Celebuzz.com serves as her official website. In Celebuzz.com, Kim Kardashian is considered a "Celebuzz Celeb Blogger". Surprisingly, doing a Google search for KimKardashian.com leads you to kimkardashian.celebuzz.com. I find it surprising that Kim has her own domain name, which redirects to Celebuzz.com, but not to a site on her own server.
Her website's navigation is composed of HOME, BLOG, PHOTOS, VIDEOS, CALENDAR, STORE, BIO, PRESS and a SIGN IN/JOIN button. In the BLOG section, Kim shares her life, including her different business endeavors. The PHOTOS and VIDEOS section contain personal photos and home videos. In the PHOTOS section, there are Facebook, Twitter, Email and Share links. The BOOKMARK & SHARE link has 335 bookmarking and sharing websites. In the VIDEOS section, there are Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Email and Share links as well. The CALENDAR feature is basically empty and useless. The STORE has two links - one to her official store, another to "Kim's Collection for Skechers". The BIO part is self-explanatory. In the PRESS section, it showed Kim's numerous press appearances, magazine covers, etcetera.
Social bookmarking used in her website include CiteULike, Connotea, Delicious, Digg, Diigo, Faves, folkd, GiveALink.org, Mister Wong, Newsvine, Oneview, Reddit, Squidoo, and StumbleUpon.
Most content include text, images and videos. The tone is informal, chatty, and personal. Kim provides up-to-date web content that works well for distribution via RSS feeds. She posts in Twitter practically on a daily basis. Of course, Kim supposedly earns a reported $25,000 per product-related tweet, which probably makes it more appealing for her to tweet.
In terms of accuracy, her content is as accurate as she wants it to be, written using the first-person point of view. The content is useful to her followers, so they know what she's up to, where she's been, and what her new projects are. As for professional appearance, her official website appears similar to her sisters' websites, complete with the black background. As for user-friendliness, the navigation in her website makes it easy to find information. However, the CONTACT INFORMATION lurks at the bottom of the page, making it fairly easy to miss, instead of readily accessible from the site's navigation bar.
Overall, her social media efforts - Facebook, Twitter and blog - cross-reference one another. What appears in her blog is referred to in her Facebook and Twitter pages, so fans get pretty much the same information.
7 comments:
KK has indeed managed to utilize social media very effectively. It is in fact her most powerful tool. I think the power in it is that when people get that alert it feels like she is contacting them directly. When she does something like ask for advise on a color and takes the suggestion, her followers feel like they have a real stake in the matter. Very smart PR on her part.
I used to follow Kim and her sisters on Twitter, but the constant self-promotion became overwhelming and annoying. One by one - starting with Kim - I "unfollowed" the Kardashians thinking I'd be able to avoid them (which, of course, was completely foolish to believe, lol).
11+ million? Really? That's how many people follow this person? Amazing. Just goes to show the power of social media I guess. Is she really that compelling? I don't get it.
I used to follow all the Kardashians on Twitter too, but just like Kylene said, I found them extremely overwhelming. So considering I'm not a huge Kardashian fan, I started "unfollowing," but for some reason I stuck with Kim. There is something about her tweets that I find genuine, at least when it comes to caring about her family and fans. She just always seems so proud of whatever her family members are doing at that point. I think a lot of people see that side of her through social media, and it's a side that you don't see when you just look at her as a reality star.
While I'm not surprised she gets paid to promote products, it does point out the interesting cross that celebrities have where they are a person, so you expect personal tweets but they are also a business so they will tweet about products or remove tweets that reflect how they feel if there is a public backlash (Ashton Kutcher) and potential damage to their 'brand'
Im not a fan of KK, but I have to said, more than 11 millon people follow her is unbelievable, and now with her divorce is getting better, for her of course.
A good rundown of her social media/blogging, etc. Statements like, "The tone is informal, chatty, and personal" offer some analysis on your part.
Mostly, though, it's just lists, and I'd like more of your thinking. For instance, when you say, "I find it surprising that Kim has her own domain name, which redirects to Celebuzz.com, but not to a site on her own server," why do you think this? There could be many reasons, but what's yours.
Finally, what do you make of all the similarities between her efforts and of the fact that, "Overall, her social media efforts - Facebook, Twitter and blog - cross-reference one another. What appears in her blog is referred to in her Facebook and Twitter pages, so fans get pretty much the same information." What does this say about her attitudes toward her fans and her brand?
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