Reflection on Social Media Case 2: Ellen Degeneres and most Re-Tweeted Photo

In 2014, Ellen DeGeneres posted a selfie with a slew of celebrities after the academy awards with the intent to get it break the record for number of retweets.

And it did.

Of course it did. Ellen DeGeneres is famous. Everyone in the picture is famous. Everyone that loves Ellen is going to retweet the photo. Everyone that loves Brad Pitt is going to retweet the photo. And then you have her promoting people to retweet the photo on her show. Hence, the photo becomes the most retweeted tweet.

Until #NuggsForCarter came along.

April 1, 2017 likely happened like any normal day: a kid named Carter wanted some delicious Wendy’s chicken nuggets (which I honestly don’t know if I have ever had). So he asks Wendy’s how many times he would have to be retweeted to get chicken nuggets for a year. They answered him with a number that is really big: 18 million.

Wendy’s, COME ON! This kid is only 16. At that point, Ellen Degeneres’ photo still held the record of most retweeted photo and it was almost 3.5 million and she is famous.

But Carter was ready to give it a good try. He said, “Consider it done.”

Carter didn’t end up getting to 18 million retweets, but Wendy’s did grant him a year of free chicken nuggets after he beat Ellen DeGeneres for the most retweets.

So what does this all mean? It all comes down to a question of what does it mean to have something be popular and when does something turn viral.

This blog post goes over a few of the reasons why Ellen’s picture was so popular:

1She Took a Selfie: Normal humans take selfies, so if celebrities take selfies, then they must be kinda normal like the rest of us!
 The People in the Selfie: Again, every single one of these people are huge stars on their own right.


So, Ellen’s photo was popular, not necessarily viral. Carter’s nugget tweet had more of the markings of a viral tweet because it came from obscurity. It was one kid trying to get nuggets and suddenly the world wanted to help him.

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 1, 2018 at 1:04 PM

    Hey Emily, great post! I liked how you emphasized how celebrities have certain attractions about them. Fans follow them and love to support them so it was obvious the tweet would show good results. Like in class how we discussed the video was popular because it already had a predetermined fanbase supporting it. I also liked your discussion on the Wendy's guy and how different the public response was. People genuinely wanted to help an unknown guy reach his goal and I believe that i far more inspiring then famous people utilizing their reputations. Great job and enjoyed the pictures!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownFebruary 1, 2018 at 3:53 PM

    I really like your take on this case study Emily! You explain the difference between viral and popular so well! Why do you think Carter's post got so much attention so fast? Do you think he already had a fan base before his Wendy's post? I wonder if this request would have worked for anyone that had asked for it or if it was just Carter's luck.

    ReplyDelete

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