Tipjoy's experiment in virality on Twitter: Happy birthday Shaq | Hacker News Reader

Tipjoy's experiment in virality on Twitter: Happy birthday Shaq

happybirthdayshaq.com

26 pointsivankirigin21 comments

whoops. http://twitter.com/the_real_shaq : "Stay away fr. Happy Bday Shaq site. Nothin ta do wit me. Shudderdown. Shame shame All I want is friends, thank u all"

Why whoops? Burger King's Whopper campaign got shut down by Facebook, but that doesn't mean it wasn't successful.

Neat/funny idea, but Shaq doesn't need my money. Celebrity obsession is a foolish passion that I've never understood.

> Celebrity obsession is a foolish passion that I've never understood.

I think it's a form of escapism. Not everyone does it all the time but enough people do it that it's acceptable.

If he takes interest, he'll undoubtedly use it to buy the Twitter team lunch or give it to a charity. We also hear he's a really good tipper :-D

Have you seen his tweet stream? He keeps it more real than most regular people I know on Twitter, e.g. http://betaworks.com/post/80027230/shaq-keepin-it-so-real-it...

Here's the back story: http://sesquipedalis.blogspot.com/2009/02/finally-use-for-tw... (via @timoreilly)

Definitely keepin it real.

This is not to be confused with Shaq's virility, which from his tweets is undoubtedly impressive.

We were asked to take down the site. Sigh...

Can you say who? Shaq or Twitter?

Neither. Someone from the Phoenix Suns, note: http://twitter.com/tipjoy

We'll try to move it to be a charitable angle, rather than direct cash.

Did the site even mention the Suns anywhere, or do they literally own Shaq?

I'm actually curious about how that business works. We had a picture (remixed from Shaq's twitter profile page http://twitter.com/the_real_shaq ), with him in a Suns jersey. Presumably he has people both for his personal brand and also those for the team he leads. I doubt the Suns would care much about, for example, a pirate copy of his music or movies.

One thing is pretty clear: Shaq is authentic on twitter, but the account is managed and monitored by a number of interested parties. That is obvious when you think of him like any other brand, but has left me a bit jaded about it.

http://twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ/statuses/1285621312

http://twitter.com/tipjoy/status/1285707381

Honestly, I think your post is terrible. Didn't you think you could ask him first? Rather than "asking" publically? Your tweet to me reads like blackmail.

Blackmail, really? What were the terms of the blackmail?

I'm not saying the 140 char post is super clear. Part of the problem with twitter is an inability to increase the bandwidth of the conversation in-line.

You tweet essentially saying "its for charity, and if you want to be charitable let me know". If he doesn't respond, he looks like he doesn't want to be charitable, to the public. This is sort of like blackmail imho.

Failed:

http://twitter.com/tipjoy/status/1285537683

"a representative from the Phoenix Suns asked us. I presume the gifting / money site is what they didn't like."

Ouch. That sucks.

This reminds me of high school when people would safety pin dollar bills to the birthday boy/girl's shirt... but 'web 2.0'.

Great idea. Probably the best marketing ploy since Burger King's Facebook Whopper campaign, and Shaq was the perfect choice.

I have a strong distaste for using Twitter as a marketing tool, in particular "forced" viral marketing, as I call it (where you have to follow and/or tweet something in order to participate somehow... the "ViralTweets" software is the worst).

The Shaq thing is kind of clever, but if someone I followed spammed me with more spammy things I'm very likely to unfollow them.

yikes... http://twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ/status/1285621312

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