Drew's fourth blog post

The celebrity I chose to look at was Ryan Reynolds. He is one of my favorite people in Hollywood, and his tweets always make me laugh. I have followed him on Twitter for a long time now, but I never really looked into how he uses his social media and what his other social media accounts look like.

Twitter:

I started with his twitter page where he has just over 15 million followers. I was surprised at how infrequently he tweets when compared to other celebrities. He tweets maybe a couple times a week, but rarely more than a couple. The first thing that is obvious about his Twitter account is that he uses his platform to promote the two companies he owns: Aviation Gin and Mint Mobile. A majority of his tweets are advertisements that he has either made or stars in promoting his brands. Who can blame him though, 15 million followers, so 15 million free views for advertising (not including retweets).  

Another thing that is apparent through his tweets is his voice. Ryan is known as being a funny guy, and his advertisements and tweets can be hilarious. One of the things he is most known for is his beef with Hugh Jackman, and he uses twitter to call out Hugh often. He and Hugh will go back in forth in the replies every once in a while, giving all of twitter something to enjoy for a few hours.

Aside from the advertisement and Hugh Jackman beef, Ryan sometimes tweets about movies he had recently seen, giving really short but positive reviews to them. He hasn’t had any films staring him release recently, but when 6 Underground released on Netflix in December, he tweeted and retweeted post about the movie in order to promote it.

Another thing I was surprised at was his engagement with fans. When I went to his “Tweets & replies” page, I found that he replies a lot to people for a couple different reasons. Most commonly, he replies to fans who are complimenting either Mint Mobile or Aviation. This is a really smart idea on his part because it’s just more free advertising, but I’m sure his fans are shocked when they see that Ryan Reynolds replied to them. He also replies to people who want to meet him, which I thought was really cool.

Instagram:

Ryan has 34.9 million followers on Instagram. Much like his Twitter, Ryan uses his Insta to promote his Aviation Gin, Mint Mobile, and films. He does not post a whole lot on Insta, but still fairly regularly. Like his tweets, his voice can be heard through his captions and more often than not his captions are very funny. Perhaps what his Instagram is best known for is his annual “Happy Birthday” post about his wife Blake Lively. Every year Ryan uses pictures where he looks good and she looks blurry or cropped out.

It is harder to tell how Ryan’s engagement with fans is through Insta because Insta’s platform is not as personable as twitter’s is. He does not really reply to any comments people make on his pictures, and I did not find many cases where he comments on other peoples pictures.

His Instagram feels much more calculated than his twitter, with more post being ads or interviews he has done as promos for the movies he stars in.

Facebook:

Ryan’s Facebook page has 5.5 million followers. This is the page he posts the least about on, with only a few posts per month. Of all the accounts, this feels the least personal. All of the posts are about either films, Aviation Gin, or Mint Mobile. The posts also lack that typical Ryan Reynolds charm to them. This page feels like a company page that is run by an intern, as opposed to the other two accounts that feel like each post comes from him. This feeling might be the lack of fun pictures and comments that the other pages have, or it might just be the general appeal (or lack thereof) of Facebook. Facebook has never really felt like the place to go when a fan wants to connect with a celebrity.

Ryan Reynold’s social media presence isn’t really what I was expecting it to look like. I thought he was much more active when it came to Instagram and Twitter, but only a post or two a week is what he delivers. Some celebrities use their platforms to promote many of their personal beliefs, but Ryan uses his to mainly promote his two companies and I believe he does a really good job of doing so. His Aviation Gin advertisements have gone viral on more than one occasion (most recently with the Peloton bike girl) and his Mint Mobile ads are simple yet memorable. He has definitely built a brand with his social media and he uses his voice to draw in and entertain fans with his humor. The biggest surprise for me was the lack of creativity and entertainment from his Facebook page, but it is obvious that he puts more time into his other two accounts.

With over 55 million followers combined with his social media pages, there is not much I can suggest he do to improve his social media presence, but my only suggestion would be to increase the personal content. I have always enjoyed seeing celebrities tweet about their lives and what they do at home or to pass the time. Since he has such a good sense of humor, I think it would be entertaining if he tweeted more about his home life with Blake or his beef with Hugh. I think that when celebrities open up more about their personal lives, it helps fans connect to them more, which in turn would build a larger fanbase for Ryan.