With a staggering 3.4 million retweets on Twitter, television host and comedian Ellen Degeneres’ recent Oscars ‘selfie’ is the perfect example of just how far a single message or photo can reach thanks to social media.
In the unlikely event that you haven’t spotted it yet, it involves Bradley Cooper holding a camera phone with the likes of Kevin Spacey, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Julia Roberts to name a few squeezing into a shot. This was subsequently uploaded to Twitter and went viral – arguably a small understatement.
Although the 3.4 million retweet figure alone may not mean much, when we compare it to other statistics it has an interesting complex. At the start of 2014 there were roughly 115 active Twitter users – which means that just under 3 percent of the active Twitter population retweeted this. What we must remember is that this is the percentage of people who have actively engaged with the tweet – the selfie will have appeared on practically an unmeasurable amount of Twitter feeds.
It serves as a quirky reminder to business about the importance of social media and how it can be a valuable resource. Make you content fun, fresh and engaging and give people a reason to share your ideas – social media is only going to get bigger!
