
Tipjoy's experiment in virality on Twitter: Happy birthday Shaq - ivankirigin
http://happybirthdayshaq.com/
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rwebb
whoops. <http://twitter.com/the_real_shaq> : "Stay away fr. Happy Bday Shaq
site. Nothin ta do wit me. Shudderdown. Shame shame All I want is friends,
thank u all"

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jfornear
Why whoops? Burger King's Whopper campaign got shut down by Facebook, but that
doesn't mean it wasn't successful.

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brk
Neat/funny idea, but Shaq doesn't need my money. Celebrity obsession is a
foolish passion that I've never understood.

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ivankirigin
If he takes interest, he'll undoubtedly use it to buy the Twitter team lunch
or give it to a charity. We also hear he's a really good tipper :-D

Have you seen his tweet stream? He keeps it more real than most regular people
I know on Twitter, e.g. [http://betaworks.com/post/80027230/shaq-keepin-it-so-
real-it...](http://betaworks.com/post/80027230/shaq-keepin-it-so-real-its-
scary)

~~~
aditya
Here's the back story: [http://sesquipedalis.blogspot.com/2009/02/finally-use-
for-tw...](http://sesquipedalis.blogspot.com/2009/02/finally-use-for-
twitter.html) (via @timoreilly)

Definitely keepin it real.

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ivankirigin
This is not to be confused with Shaq's virility, which from his tweets is
undoubtedly impressive.

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ivankirigin
We were asked to take down the site. Sigh...

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alaskamiller
Can you say who? Shaq or Twitter?

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ivankirigin
Neither. Someone from the Phoenix Suns, note: <http://twitter.com/tipjoy>

We'll try to move it to be a charitable angle, rather than direct cash.

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tlrobinson
Did the site even mention the Suns anywhere, or do they literally own Shaq?

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ivankirigin
I'm actually curious about how that business works. We had a picture (remixed
from Shaq's twitter profile page <http://twitter.com/the_real_shaq> ), with
him in a Suns jersey. Presumably he has people both for his personal brand and
also those for the team he leads. I doubt the Suns would care much about, for
example, a pirate copy of his music or movies.

One thing is pretty clear: Shaq is authentic on twitter, but the account is
managed and monitored by a number of interested parties. That is obvious when
you think of him like any other brand, but has left me a bit jaded about it.

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swombat
Failed:

<http://twitter.com/tipjoy/status/1285537683>

"a representative from the Phoenix Suns asked us. I presume the gifting /
money site is what they didn't like."

Ouch. That sucks.

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jfornear
This reminds me of high school when people would safety pin dollar bills to
the birthday boy/girl's shirt... but 'web 2.0'.

Great idea. Probably the best marketing ploy since Burger King's Facebook
Whopper campaign, and Shaq was the perfect choice.

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tlrobinson
I have a strong distaste for using Twitter as a marketing tool, in particular
"forced" viral marketing, as I call it (where you _have_ to follow and/or
tweet something in order to participate somehow... the "ViralTweets" software
is the worst).

The Shaq thing is kind of clever, but if someone I followed spammed me with
more spammy things I'm very likely to unfollow them.

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nihaar
yikes... <http://twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ/status/1285621312>

