A Response…‘SEZL: 50 Before 50 Number 2 Getting A Tweet From
Russell Crowe’ at sezl.wordpress.com (no copyright infringement intended).
Okay I will admit it…I love reading Russell Crowe Twitter
timeline highlights. I always have. Back in the day when he had 50 000
followers and I was a bit of a fan I would read all of his tweets and tweet him
on a regular basis. Today, well I am not really a fan and haven’t tweeted him
since he fell off the pedestal I put him on in April 2011. Today, he has over
1.5 million followers and as some habits are hard to break, I still read his
Twitter highlights. Many of the fans who tweeted him way back when he had 50
000 followers are still there today, but many have moved on failing to get the
response they wanted.
Every now and then I will pick up interesting articles and
comments tweeted by some of his fans. For example, the blog post written by a
fan Sezl titled ‘50 Challenges Before I
Am 50’ Number 2 ‘Get Russell Crowe to tweet me’. There are not many
accomplishments I can say that I have achieved in this part of the fandom world
but that is one of them. Yes, I was tweeted once by Russell Crowe (before I was
50) way back when he had 50 000 fans. I can’t even remember what the tweet was
about now. But it was the only one I received from another Twitter account.
I have also had the dubious honour of being blocked by
Russell Crowe somewhere along the line and joining the large number of people
in the ‘I’ve been blocked by Russell Crowe club’. I was blocked without knowing
the reason why and years before I started to write this blog. It wasn’t done in
front of a million or so followers I was just blocked. I have watched with
interest other fans also get blocked in front of millions of followers and give a
great sigh of relief that it wasn’t me. After that I realised I was going to make it in
the village. I didn’t have the skill some people have in sucking up to men like
Russell Crowe or the persistence.
So off I went in 2011 never to tweet him again, nor to watch
or buy another Russell Crowe film (except Winter’s Tale) and of course never to
buy another South Sydney membership or merchandise. I didn’t bother to go to the
Indoor Garden Party in Australia. Being blocked by Russell Crowe and as a
consequence of being placed on the never to be tweeted list by some of his
friends was the main reason I started to write this blog. Today, I am off
social media but I am still interested in those that are, in particular those
in fandoms.
So it is within this context I read with interest the story
of this fan’s ambition to be tweeted by Russell Crowe. The fan makes some interesting comments about
tweeting Russell Crowe and famous people in general. Yes we have all been here.
“The idea of this blog is to
post when I’ve achieved an item on my list, but I’m going to be honest with
you, I wish I hadn’t included Number Two: Get Russell Crowe to tweet me.
I’ve thought about it – I’ve even half-heartedly sent a couple of tentative
tweets, but really, there’s no way to get Russell Crowe to tweet me without
sounding rude or looking desperate. Russell Crowe has 1.5 million followers –
his Twitter feed is a fast-flowing river and only the most persistent, or
well-timed tweets stand any chance of getting a response. Imagine being at a
party with 1.5 million guests and attempting to flirt with the host. You can
glance meaningfully across the room, flaunt your cleavage and laugh
extravagantly at his jokes all you like, but there’s no certain way of getting
his attention unless you do something so outrageous you run the risk of being
escorted from the building by security and prevented by law from ever going
near him again.
On Twitter there are certain
ruses for getting Russell’s attention – a hashtag campaign on the lines of
‘#getrussellcrowetotweetsezl’, for instance, or an alert set up to notify me
any time Russell is mentioned or tweets or is retweeted, so I can log on at
midnight and barge into whatever conversation he’s
having. And there’s always the Twitter equivalent of laughing
extravagantly at his jokes – tagging each of his posts with ‘LOL’ or a smiley
emoticon. But all of these are pretty feeble and ultimately meaningless.
The very few times someone famous has replied to one of my tweets has been when
I’ve had something to say that they’ve found genuinely interesting. Engaging Russell
Crowe in idle online chit chat is, therefore, a possibility, but looking at his
Twitter feed, we have little in common. I know he co-owns the Rabbitohs, but
beyond the vague sense that’s a sports team, I’d be unable to use this fragment
of information to sustain any kind of exchange that’d make Russell sit up and
go ‘Crikey – this @sezl chick is worth getting to know!’
The fan concludes …Now I’ve explained what it is about Russell, I
feel a little happier about my decision not to get him to tweet me. I’m
quite content to read his ‘Guess where I am now?’ tweets and not
feel the urge to send him 200 replies in the space of a minute. And even if he
did reply, what would I say then … ‘You were great in Gladiator …’? And he’d wish he hadn’t bothered.”
It is difficult to know how to tweet celebrities like
Russell Crowe and to take the constant rejection when we are not tweeted back. While I am the last fan to give advice on how
to get a tweet from Russell Crowe some fans perhaps miss the point to Russell
Crowe and being in the online village he has created. There are lots of
wonderful things about Twitter and being in the Russell Crowe village for his
fans.
If the fan enjoys Russell Crowe films there are plenty of
social media friends to be made. Many of these people share a love of all
things Russell Crowe and their friends and have travelled half way across the
world to meet each other and have become real life friends. Russell Crowe is
the reason they have all come together. Some of them have met Russell Crowe and
been tweeted by him.
While it is great to be recognised by celebrities, it
shouldn’t be the main reason for using social media. If they respond then that
is great but it should be enjoyable and fun. If it isn’t anymore then it is
time to move on. Tweeting and getting a response is like any form of
competition, it is a combination of skill, luck, being in the right place at
the right time and persistence. It is also about being yourself. A fan has to
be in it to have a chance of winning a response in social media.
