Updated: Valerie Bertinelli claims to have spoken with Betty White who didn’t know she had a Twitter account. “An account was opened on her behalf by her people,” Bertinelli tweeted, adding that White was just notified about it today. If that’s the case, the first three tweets would have been written by marketers, not Betty White.
Earlier: What better way to promote a new TV show than have its 90-year-old star join Twitter? That’s right, Betty White joined Twitter today, just one day before the premiere of her new show, “Off Their Rockers” on NBC.
“Hello Twitter! And they said it would never happen. Oh wait, that was me,” she said in her first tweet, followed an hour and a half later with a plug for her show with the caveat, “I’m new at this…;” Then this tweet:
Hey @RyanSeacrest – my new show airs tomorrow and I hear we’re in the same time slot.I’ve always dreamed of sharing a night with you…
— Betty White (@BettyMWhite) April 10, 2012
Two hours after she tweeted, she’s up to 20,000 followers.
You may remember the “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!” Facebook campaign back in 2010. She got the gig, and her appearance lit up Twitter. Fake Twitter accounts popped up all over the place (like this one), drawing thousands of followers.
Of course, these kinds of well-time promotional stunts are also great for Twitter, which wants to bring more big names to the service to attract more mainstream users. A poll published today concluded that 36% of Americans view Twitter unfavorably and another 34% are unsure of what they think, illustrating Twitter still has some marketing work to do.