In the first decade of its existence, Twitter has proven itself more than merely a time-sucking distraction that allows users to post their misspelled thoughts about politics and culture, 140 characters at a time. These days, with its immediacy and perceived intimacy, Twitter is also an important marketing and networking tool. Numerous celebrities have been willing to put their integrity on the market, so to speak, by allowing ads in their Twitter feeds. But just how much are these stars worth? What’s a fair price for each sponsored tweet? For Twitter’s 10th anniversary, a site called Webfluential has released its own free calculator that will make just such determinations. It’s easy to use: Just type in the Twitter handle of a famous person, choose dollars or pounds, then click calculate. The site will cough up a numerical per-tweet estimate.
The Daily Dot tested out the calculator by entering the screen names of the top 12 “hyperinfluencers” of YouTube, including Tyler Oakley, PewDiePie, and Ingrid Nilsen. Unsurprisingly, their tweets could potentially be worth a nice chunk of change. With 5.11 million followers, Oakley could command $15,895 to $19,430 per tweet. That would buy a lot of horn rim glasses and hair coloring. But the great thing about Webfluential’s calculator is that it can be used for any celebrity with a Twitter account. What’s a fair price for a sponsored tweet from Red Sox slugger David “Big Papi” Ortiz? Well, less than PewDiePie, but nothing to sneeze at either.
Gilbert Gottfried’s name has to be worth something, right? Sure, sort of.
Adele fares quite a bit better here and also provides a good excuse to choose pounds instead of dollars for a change.
Readers will naturally be tempted to type their own Twitter handles into the calculator and see what the fabulous machine spits out. They should keep their expectations in check, however. After all, not everyone can be Tay Zonday.
Or William Shatner.