This was so eye-opening for me! I don’t use Twitter and I don’t follow basketball, so I found it extremely surprising that I have observed a very similar trend in a completely different topic: K-pop. K-pop, if you don’t know, is Korean pop and over the years (with artists like Girls’ Generation and Psy) has spread all over the world. A lot of K-pop groups are actually comprised of 5, 7, or even 12 members, so there DEFINITELY are certain groups that are more in the spotlight because of specific individuals within those groups. Those individuals really carry the name of the group, provide financial income for them and their agency, and have the most followers on social media. So while I don’t have much to add to your observation, I thought it was really interesting to witness such a similar phenomenon in a completely different field.

I completely agree about your second bullet point, that fact that social media has become a strong player in business and advertising. To be honest, the first book I read that made me academically interested in social media is “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” by Gary Vaynerchuck. This book explores a number of social media platforms (Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest) through examples of how businesses have used those platforms to either benefit or hurt their business. One of the best examples that I remember till this day is from Oreo’s, who posted an ad for their product during the Superbowl blackout on Twitter (I believe). This was an extremely clever move because they were able to recognize the influx of traffic social media platforms would receive when the blackout happened.

Because of that book, I am now constantly re-reading the ads I encounter on my own social platforms. Instead of wondering how I am able to receive such relevant ads, I instead look at the type of content these businesses are producing, always eager to see how they phrase their advertising to cater to the specific demographics and “style” of each individual social platform.