When I learned that Miley Cyrus had deleted her Twitter account, I was not terribly surprised. Several celebrities have done the same over the months for one reason or another. Here's Miley's rap video about why she deleted her Twitter account.
Watching Miley delete her Twitter account made me think about how easy it is for some people (read: celebrities) to ditch a million current and future customers on Twitter without a second thought. Of course they can do this because they have legions of media representatives, fan clubs and product licensing agreements to keep the momentum going, with or without Twitter.
The Media Is (Was?) Miley
While I can understand Miley's decision, I think she will come to regret it. In her video, she says that traditional media outlets were distorting her Tweets to create fodder for their tabloids. In other words, the media was relying on Miley's Twitter feed for their stories, which means that Miley “scooped” them every time.
Twitter gave Miley the opportunity to be the media where she was concerned. In other words, with Twitter, she was both the story and the source of the story — the original publisher. By deleting her Twitter account, while she'll still enjoy millions of followers in a traditional sense, Miley has terminated one of the most efficient and cost effective communications tools at her disposal.
I predict that Miley will miss the benefits of controlling her message in this way. I predict that she will miss the ability to use Twitter to speak for herself on her own terms, and that she will return to someday soon, ready to give it another try.
Update: On March 29, 2011, Miley re-opened her Twitter account and has been using it daily ever since.
Question: What do you think? Is my prediction fair? Way off? Do you think Miley will miss the outlet Twitter provided for her?
