Blog 4

  I am not one to usually follow or subscribe to celebrities or companies on social media because I do not want my feed to be blown up with all the posting that they usually do. Even though celebrities are not a company, they still promote certain brands. I follow a handful of celebrities on Instagram and Twitter, but Facebook and Snapchat are primarily for friends and family only. When I am interested in what is going on in a celebrity's life, I simply look them up on Instagram because their pages are rarely private. I tend to do this a lot as I do like to keep up with some famous people, but I still do not follow them. Also, I enjoy looking at the explore page on Instagram because that is another way to find out a lot of interesting information on famous people and companies.

  I chose to access the social media account of a celebrity because I find celebrities way more interesting compared to companies. I picked Chris Harrison, the host of The Bachelor, because he is frequently on social media, and he is one of the few celebrities that I actually follow on Instagram. You can find Chris Harrison on Twitter with 674.9K followers and Instagram with 1.1 million followers. He uses the same handle for both accounts which is @chrisbharrison. I notice that he mainly posts on the days when his show is going to air on television, and he will post multiple times that day. Otherwise, he usually posts about once a day. He also posts a lot of advertisements which I am sure that is how he makes a lot of his money.

  Chris Harrison is the creator of Seagram's Escapes Tropical Rose, and he frequently posts about this product to persuade people to purchase it. He also has posted a few advertisements for Coin Master and uses the #ad so people know it is an advertisement. Overall, the main thing he posts is information and previews related to his show, The Bachelor. Chris Harrison also interacts a lot with other users. These users usually include his girlfriend, a reporter for Entertainment Tonight, and previous bachelor contenders. I would say about every other post either include him and his girlfriend, Lauren Zima, or him and someone from the Bachelor family. In the comments section, he will go back and forth with previous bachelor contestants. I do not usually see him commenting back to fans. I know that the television shows personal accounts will interact with fans, but he does not directly interact with fans. However, he does crash viewing parties of his show and will post those images on social media. 

  The tone of his posts is usually very upbeat and leaves you wanting to watch his show to see what happens. They are normally about love as he uploads pictures of his girlfriend and occasionally his kids. Many of his posts allow for others to comment on their opinion of what he is doing or how the show went that night. According to Fuchs, this could be called participatory culture which is when fans are invited to participate in the content that is being posted online (Fuchs, 2014). He also uses a few hashtags on each post usually promoting his show and to get it trending more. These hashtags allow others to see his post if they follow the hashtag and tweets to be linked if the topics are related (Bonilla & Rosa, 2015). He uses the hashtags mainly on Twitter. Hashtags are a way to market conversations on different platforms (Bonilla & Rosa, 2015). 

  On Twitter, he also promotes his book a lot. He uses the book as his cover photo, so when people go on his page, they can see the book. His Twitter and Instagram are both very similar to what he posts on each of the sites. Another thing he consistently posts about is his new ABC live event called Volcano Live.

"Fellas my suggestion to you is find you a woman that looks at you like @laurenzima looks at my #TropicalRose And watch me dish all things #TheBachelor tonight on @entertainmenttonight"

-Chris Harrison

  The quote above is from Chris Harrison's most recent Instagram post. The caption best represents his normal social media posts which include promoting his new drink and his show while showing off his girlfriend.

  He could improve his social media presence by not posting so much a day and cut back on the advertisements if possible. I only say this because as a follower, I find it extremely annoying to see an advertisement and for my feed to be blown up by one person. Also, it would be nice to post more of his personal life on social media compared to the many posts about his work life. He does post a lot with his girlfriend, but they are more for business purposes. Posting more about his personal life will allow fans to feel like they personally know him instead of him just being a celebrity figure.

  After really going in-depth on his social media, I questioned why I actually follow him. However, I enjoy seeing pictures that he would post with other bachelor contestants, and I like the updates that he gives about his show. I found it ironic that I was writing this blog post while watching him host The Bachelor. Overall, lurking on his social media accounts made me realize I am a die-hard Chris Harrison fan and always will be. #TheBachelor

References:

Bonilla, Y., & Rosa, J. (2015). #Ferguson: Digital protest, hashtag ethnography, and the racial politics of social media in the United States. American Ethnologist, 42(1), 4–17. doi: 10.1111/amet.12112

Fuchs, C. (2014). Social media: A critical introduction. London: SAGE Publications. doi:   10.4135/9781446270066