Kim Kardashian’s First Tweet Included an Important Disclaimer
Social media has always been a key promotional vehicle for the Kardashian-Jenner clan, and Kim Kardashian is no exception.
The Keeping Up With the Kardashians celebrity uses Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms almost daily to make major announcements, hawk sponsored posts, and share her thoughts directly with her fans. In fact, Kardashian once admitted that social media earned her more money than her appearances on her eponymous reality TV series.
In homage of social media’s outsized influence on her career, Kardashian once re-shared her very first tweet — and it included a very important legal disclaimer to everyone reading it at the time.
Kardashian launched her career based on media attention and viral buzz
Even before the advent of modern social media made generating headlines easier and more accessible, Kardashian has always been a savvy entrepreneur who recognized early on the importance of creating media attention.
Piggybacking off of the fame of her friend Paris Hilton, Kardashian leveraged Hilton’s then-popular reality TV series, plus Kardashian’s personal video scandal, to build hype around her name.
Ted Harbert, who was the CEO of E! Networks at the time of Kardashian’s career breakthrough, says those two factors were key. “There was a bit of the stuff with Kim hanging around Paris Hilton and, of course, the [sex tape],” he told the Hollywood Reporter. “That was sort of world news.”
With the world watching, Kardashian and her family leveraged the media hype to get a reality show on E! and the rest is history. “Reality television, female body image, social media and, above all, the economy of celebrity were forever changed,” notes the outlet.
Kardashian and her family have significant social media clout
Kardashian joined Facebook in January 2009. And according to The Guardian, Kardashian first posted on Instagram in 2012.
Since then, the entire Kardashian-Jenner clan have turned their social media accounts into media juggernauts. “With a combined social media reach of 700 million-plus followers and five insanely profitable apps, the family mints millions from a hodgepodge of endorsement deals, paid appearances and can’t-stay-in-stock products,” explains the Hollywood Reporter back in 2017.
“I totally attribute my career to social media,” the star told Entertainment Tonight a few years ago.
Today, Kardashian’s social media reach is so big that MarketWatch once noted how Kardashian’s social media activity can even influence the stock market.
And Kardashian’s Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media accounts may be one reason why the family decided to cancel Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
“When we first started, there was no Instagram or Snapchat or other social media platforms,” Kardashian’s mother and business manager Kris Jenner told WWD. “Now there are so many, the viewer doesn’t have to wait three or four months to see an episode. We can give them all of the information anyone would ever want to know in real-time. […] Social media is the fastest and most controlled way to get the message out.”
Kim Kardashian posted her first tweet in 2009
In retrospect, Kardashian’s first post on Twitter is tame and laid back compared to the business focus and viral nature of her current social media activity.
Back on March 21, 2009, Kardashian joined Twitter and wrote: “Hey guys it’s Kim Kardashian! I finally signed up for Twitter!”
Because Kardashian’s career was just starting to take off with some people pretending to be her on the then-new platform, she also included a disclaimer: “There are a few fakes so just know this is the real me!!!”
Today, Kardashian has 69.3 million Twitter followers, and regularly retweets her sisters, shares fashion shots and selfies, and promotes her latest brand partnerships.
