Can Snookie Save Your Law Practice? Celebrity Endorsements on Twitter

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If you own a television set, you are undoubtedly aware that the nation has been deluged with Charlie Sheen news. You'll hear people say that they are sick of hearing about him, yet the evidence points to the contrary. In the matter of a few days, Sheen amassed over 2 million followers on his twitter account.  Yours truly became follower 2,234,437.  In his last post, the forlorn thespian posted the following:

charliesheen I'm looking to hire a #winning INTERN with #TigerBlood. Apply here –http://bit.ly/hykQQF #TigerBloodIntern #internship #ad

Sheen had included a link to internships.com.   I never heard of the website until I ran across it in his tweet.  I would imagine over two million of his tweet followers also visited the site.  You can't buy publicity like that.  Or can you?  The self described "unemployed winner", may not be so crazy after all.  Sheen signed on with a company called Ad.ly to make a couple of bucks off of his tweets.
    

Ad.ly has found a creative way to for companies to market themselves on twitter and facebook.  With a network of over 1000 celebrities at their disposal, Ad.ly can give your business a jump start for a fee of as little as $200 per tweet.  The more followers a celebrity has, the more expensive the tweet will cost you.  One tweet can run you into the low five figure range.  Many of the celebrities have quite a reach.  Soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo has over 20 million twitter followers throughout the world.  Rapper 50 Cent has over 8 million. It got me to thinking.  Could this work for a law firm?   Would it violate ethics rules?  It's bad enough lawyers advertise on billboards and buses, is this the next frontier?

Imagine Paris Hilton or Snoop Dogg tweeting about your criminal defense firm. Or Debbie Gibson tweeting about your family law practice.  I am sure it would create some buzz.  So how do you do it?

Could Snookie Help Your Law Firm's Marketing Efforts?

To begin, simply choose a celebrity in your price range.  The company can match one with you based on your campaign objectives and your target audience.  For example, a white shoe securities firm might not choose Snookie to tweet about them.   But maybe you would want Nick Swisher from the Yankees. You can also create endorsement campaigns involving ten to fifty celebrities.  Over one day to a period of three months, the celebrities would give custom tweets and status updates about your business.  The company's in house copywriting team would write every endorsement to ensure that it met your campaign objectives.  They make it authentic to the voice of the celebrity.  According to the company, pricing is based on a flat fee per celebrity.  They base the price on a variety of factors including the size of the celebrity's fan base, the prior performance of the celebrities and the level of engagement between the celeb and his or her fans.


The company has been used by a variety of leading  companies including Sony, Microsoft, AT&T, Toyota, American Airlines and Best Buy.  Of course before you decide to use the company, check with your local bar ethics rules.