Follow These Celebs On Twitter, Everyone!

Last weekend I blogged about the Gumpathon -- the British and American Marines running across America to raise funds for injured soldiers from both countries. After I wrote that post, I had an idea. I follow a number of famous people on Twitter -- some more famous than others, obviously -- and have seen times when they retweeted messages from their followers. Sometimes it's just a funny comment, sometimes they're congratulations on some accomplishment (hit record, movie, etc.), sometimes they're requests for birthday greetings, and of course, sometimes they're posts with a cause.

So I decided to tweet a number of these people I follow with this request: "Can you pls RT this link about @TheGumpathon? They're raising $$ for injured soldiers. Thanks!" I was going to do it with every celebrity I follow, but cut the list down somewhat. Some of the cuts were because either they haven't been active on Twitter lately, or at all. The few celebs that actually follow me back I also left off the list, since they would have had my link already in their timeline (although I have no expectations that they'd actually click on it). Other choices were just arbitrary. I ended up with a total of 50 Twitter accounts, and by late Sunday night I sent out all 50 tweets (and two or three others to non-celeb accounts as well).

My request upset John Mayer so much that he quit Twitter.
Others did not react at all. I'm aware that many celebrity accounts are created and/or handled by publicists, agents, etc. And in the cases of those with a huge number of followers (say, Lady Gaga) their timelines are surely overwhelmed by posts from their fans so it would be only too easy for my tweet to fall through the cracks.. So I didn't have great expectations about what kind of a reply I would get. But I did get seven retweets out of the 50 (and some retweets by their followers as well). And this helped the Gumpathon post get 256 hits so far -- even though Google only recently added that stats page I talked about, I am sure that is easily the most-viewed post on my blog to date. I hope it helps them get some donations.


My thanks to those who retweeted my link:

• Michael Cudlitz (on the TV show "Southland")
• Eric Millegan (formerly on "Bones")
• Ongina (from "RuPaul's Drag Race" and "RuPaul's Drag U")
• Phillies outfielder Raul Ibanez
• former Flyer Scottie Upshall
• Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes To Hollywood front man)
• Wilson Cruz (from "My So-Called Life" and "Noah's Arc")

As a result of my tweets I also got two followers, including another celebrity! It's possible they did retweet the message and I missed it, so I want to acknowledge them as well: music producer and co-founder of Chic Nile Rodgers, and the NOH8 Campaign (which I hope comes to Philadelphia for a photo shoot at some point -- they're in DC on Monday, so they're not far...).