There is something amazing going on when Big Journalism (in this case Larry King Live on CNN) does their business transparently using social media tools. In this case, Larry King Live using Twitter to invite Kevin Smith on his show. Typically a producer would reach out to an celebrity's agent or manager to make the request. Or, in the case of Larry King, King might make a phone call directly to the potential guest, which make the use of Twitter in this case, novel and very interesting.
(As reader Hiro Pendragon notes, this could also be a savvy move by a publicist at Larry King Live who understands the PR value of having Larry King participate in the Twitter conversation directly instead of just using it as a broadcast tool. We previously blogged about how the US Ambassador to Kenya is failing to realize the potential of Twitter by using it solely as a broadcast medium.)
For those who missed out, writer, director, producer Kevin Smith, was ejected from a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco for purportedly being too large to fit in the seat. Smith, in turn, went "social," lambasting Southwest Airlines via Twitter. Gawker has a great write-up of the blow-up.
Soon enough, he had Good Morning America knocking on his front door.
Today, instead of having an assistant call Kevin Smith, the invite from Mr. King is sent via Twitter. Kevin Smith's response makes it sound like he would prefer to be interviewed by Oprah.
Kevin Smith later clarifies to DIP's Rita J. King that the Oprah reference was a joke. I thought the Oprah reference was funny too, but the fact that Larry King used Twitter to make the request was even funnier and was the point of this post.
Larry King, or whoever is managing his Twitter account, replies again, extending the invitation anew. A happy ending ... ?
5 comments:
obviously it was a joke, this is his second time today, you realy need to investigate your "news" better. and i wont tell you who it was before.
note that 2 seconds after your ultra quick post which was only to grab some media attention, he said himself that this was a joke.
Pretty sure that was a joke on Kevin's part...
Of course it was a joke.
What was and remains most interesting to me is that Larry King used Twitter to query Kevin Smith instead of calling him on the phone directly or going through his publicist or (most likely) having his producer contact Smith's agent.
@Joshua Agreed - either Larry King uses Twitter casually, or him and his publicist realized it was good publicity for his Twitter feed.
Thanks Hiro! Hat Tip to Larry King Live's publicist for grokking the power of engaging Kevin Smith via Twitter as a publicity tool for Larry King Live.
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