We’ve been waiting for the Charlie Sheen brouhaha to die down a little bit before we commented on it, but we aren’t so sure that it will anytime soon.
Charlie was already the highest-paid television actor on “Two and a Half Men.” Yes, we know. Many of you don’t like the show and/or think that Charlie’s character on the show too closely resembles his real-life persona. We aren’t going to argue about the value of the show. (Although Warner Bros. and CBS say they are losing millions of dollars by canceling the rest of the season of “Two and a Half Men.”)
What amazed us this past week was the launch of @CharlieSheen, his verified Twitter account, and the snowball effect it’s had on the social media world.
Between March 1 and 2, in 25 hours and 17 minutes, Charlie scored one million followers even though he had tweeted less than a dozen times. Ad.ly, a company that focuses on celebrity endorsements via Facebook and Twitter, verified Charlie’s account and even spent a couple of hours on the phone with the “unemployed” TV star explaining Twitter topics like replies, followers and hashtags. Then, Ad.ly quickly let the public know about the account’s launch.
Charlie’s quickly following fan base made Twitter history and scored him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the fastest anyone has garnered one million followers.
After what seems like a two-week long parade of endless radio and TV interviews, Charlie’s “words of wisdom” were finding their place on Twitter. Phrases and words like #winning and #TeamSheen are everywhere on Twitter timelines and #tigerblood has been trending for almost a week now.
Ad.ly says the actor’s use of the account could lead to a $1 million paycheck for him. (Don’t kid yourself. Charlie is getting paid to tweet like many celebrities before him.) We’ve also been watching websites pop up selling pro and con Charlie Sheen products.
Not bad for an out-of-work guy, huh? Sure, there are the countless jokes and negativity out there too; but, all in all, we have to admit this is a pretty good marketing strategy. Could it be that Charlie is now more popular than ever before? And, if so, isn’t he #WINNING?
(By the way, as of this post, Charlie has 1,766,718 followers … since March 1.)
Just for fun, we’re including a “Feedback Friday” poll on this (even though it’s Saturday). We’d love to hear your thoughts!
Daily News Twist 
Jim Raffel
March 12, 2011
I just find it disturbing that 1.7 million people find him worth following. Maybe he really does have Tiger Blood!
Admin
March 12, 2011
Like him or hate him, he’s everywhere. He picked the right time to launch a Twitter account. That’s for sure!