Media 104 Blog - Self Branding and Micro-celebrities
New Zealand ACT Party Leader and Epsom Electorate ; David Seymour
David Seymour uses both Twitter and Facebook to engage with his wide range of audience. In terms of his profile, David Seymour can be classified as a micro-celbirty, as he has a large following across his social media platforms. He uses his social media platforms to disseminate information about his up and coming party campaign and to get his profile across to an even wider audience.
David Seymour’s Twitter profile (above)
David Seymour’s Facebook profile (above)
David Seymour has caught onto the idea of engaging with his potential voters online, where he is shown to be engaged and responsive when it comes to answering questions and concerns from citizens of New Zealand. He is an influencer for New Zealand politicians, to use social media platforms to communicate and showcase himself and his party.
While many people have found David Seymour’s social media platforms an area for them to be able to take the piss out of him, David Seymour has shown that he is able to hold his own, and doesn’t engage in the sarcastic side, rather responding practically and efficiently.
By presenting such a human and engaging face to the ACT Party, David Seymour is hoping to help rebuild ACT.
K.M Kuehn’s ‘Branding the Self on Yelp: Consumer Reviewing as Image Entrepreneurship’ states that as rating, reviewing, and “liking” become commonplace activities across the social web, the reputations of businesses (eg. ACT Party), services, and products become increasingly difficult to manage.
Consumer evaluations serve as a form of productive and participatory consumption inextricably tied to the market-driven practice of self-branding. David Seymour utilises this form of self-branding through Facebook, Twitter and even snapchat and Instagram. He has really pulled out all the stocks to get his image and voice seen and heard across the internet.
Viewed as an investment in one’s own creative or intellectual capital, consumer reviewing is regarded as an activity that might be parlayed for current or unspecified future gain. Accordingly, social production and self-branding are theorized here as mutually constituted sites of economic productivity.
