Hollywood is Cracking down on Celebrity Tweeting:

In the US, From college stadiums to newsrooms to the NFL, the establishment continues to assess how to best deal with social media.

Now, Hollywood execs are moving in on Hollywood talent, imposing restrictions designed to prevent news from leaking out of celebrity Twitter and Facebook accounts.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, studios like Disney and DreamWorks are adding clauses to contracts that forbid talent from sharing confidential information or pre-empting a studio press release via social media sites.

The heart of the issue, reports THR: “Until relatively recently, getting an ill-advised word out to the wider public required a TV camera or a gossip columnist; social media eliminates the middleman and enables an actor, musician or sports personality, to broadcast to millions in an instant.”

Mind you, such confidentiality is already implied in many contracts, but apparently with news being leaked via social media accounts, execs feel that many new specific clauses are now required. But are they? Assuming they’ll be able to quiet people whose job it is to make headlines seems naive, especially when in most cases, the talent has all the leverage.  However it may be a case of tough love for many celebrities, as they may not have that leverage any more, if they have there career effectively destroyed by the  ever more interlinked mass of Social Networking sites.

And even if Paula Abdul declaring she’s leaving American Idol or Chad Ochocinco telling fans about his team reaching a deal with their first round pick doesn’t allow their respective organizations to put the PR spin they’d like on stories, is it such a big deal? Such events give fans a sense of connection, which makes them more likely to watch TV shows or buy football tickets. After all, we tune in for the talent, not for the executives, and is that not just effectively good Word of Mouth Marketing.

In my mind it is only the more negative sides of Social Media that celebrities have to worry about, ie far less privacy, and having to think even more about the long term effects of virtually all of there actions on a daily basis.  Here in the UK, we are already experiencing the era of the celebrity Faux Pas and I predict that this is going to grow even further, perhaps it is now time that Celebs of all brands, started leaving, social media marketing upto those who know what they are doing, Their PR Agents. Regards….. Toby, IT Bloke – London.