Has twitter had a positive or negative influence on the entertainment industry?

As the saying goes, there's "no such thing as bad publicity". When it comes to Twitter and the entertainment industry this famous saying is not always the case. When Twitter is used in a positive way, amazing things can happen but in the blink of an eye a negative wave of tweets can instantly spread around the world causing teams of people to jump into damage control mode.

If you look at the Top Twitter users based on followers, you can see practically all of them are in the “Entertainment Industry” I personally lean towards thinking there are more positives than negatives around its usage in the entertainment industry. If I read great things about something I will explore it further. If I read negative things about something I will still investigate further and keep an open mind, but not everyone is like me, they believe everything they read on the Internet. This can lead to exploitation.

Being able to instantly get information, reviews etc. and be part of the online Twitter experience allows us to participate in a way you can’t do with regular entertainment mediums e.g. TV, radio or magazines.  TV’s are being made to be more interactive though.

You have to be smart when using such mediums as Twitter. We need to constantly keep in mind that the entertainment industry is all about money. They will do anything in their power to get it. After reading this article it becomes apparent that the entertainment industry monitors Twitter using such programs as these and make changes accordingly. For example, if a new movie is coming out and there is a Twitter buzz going on and they see people are not being positive about it then the film companies can change the outcome of the movie to please the masses. On the negative side to this it could stop the creativity of the filmmakers and their original vision. They may be forced by the entertainment companies to comply with the people’s wishes. This might deter new and upcoming actors, authors and musicians etc. as they may be manipulated or molded into something they are not just to please the fans. This happened before Twitter came along but not to the same extent.

Twitter is a cheap and effective way of promoting music, movies and books etc. This means newcomers have a chance to be heard by thousands or millions of people where before resources and money would have been a major barrier. Using Twitter this way might mean people lose their jobs in conventional entertainment careers but there will also be new jobs to be had.

In the future I see Twitter becoming an even bigger influence on the entertainment industry. I see us all becoming a live interactive audience 24hrs a day, as social media is embedded into our TV sets and everyday life. There are no limits as to what the future holds for Twitter and its competitors. Bring it on, that’s what I say.

References:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maggie-furlong/tv-networks-on-twitter_b_1525489.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/movie-marketing-social-listening-facebook-twitter-295833

http://www.marketingvox.com/twitter-hits-right-notes-for-music-industry-044503/?utm_campaign=rssfeed

http://www.thetotaltwitter.com/twitter-good-or-bad.html

http://jimgrygar.byethost12.com/60-twitter-tools-to-track-tweets/

http://twitaholic.com/