A roundup of some of our favourite celebs losing their Twitter virginity...
10 years ago Twitter was launched, giving users a chance to share their thoughts and insights (condensed into 140 characters) with people across the globe. It was a brand new era of social networking, of communicating with countless people on an international level - an opportunity to connect with people we would never otherwise have the opportunity to meet. Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass came up with the concept after a ‘daylong brainstorming session', but struggled to put a label on it. Was it microblogging? Was it just Facebook status updates without the rest of the profile? Ultimately it didn’t matter, because it was a new way of communicating that people were very excited about.
And who better to make the most of this platform, to rinse it of all it’s influential potential? Celebs, of course. These harbingers of social change, the weather vanes of popular opinion, were ready to jump on anything that would give them another virtual megaphone. So how did they launch themselves into the Twittersphere? And what does it say about them?
Some of them did it with understated apprehension. Some did it with customary flare. All probably did it with a PR breathing down their neck, muttering about ‘social relevance’. Here is a round up of some of our favourite celebrities taking their first shaky steps out onto the Twitter ice rink- and in some cases, a snapshot of the moment before they went on to become some of the most influential people on social media. We hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane as much as we did.
Co-founder Jack Dorsey was one of the first to sign up in 2006 - we wonder if he knew he was onto something with this first tweet?
Ellen DeGeneres summed up how most of us felt about this new confusing platform. She went on to garner 55.9 million followers, and has tweeted 12.1 thousand times to date.
Beyonce kept things Bey-fessional. She has since used the platform to grow her ever expanding empire, and promote various charitable causes.
Remember this?
Anna Kendrick was the victim of a conundrum that countless celebs would go on to face, and took matters into her own hands. Suddenly, celebrities had a whole new set of Twitter-related problems to deal with - as if they don't have enough on their plates already.
The then 15-year-old Disney popstar signed off with a smiley emoji, natch.
Cara reluctantly got on board with customary self awareness
Cheryl took a deep breath and jumped in...
This CIA tweet was everything.
The PM joined up with a promise not to tweet too much (phew).
We got him.
The HeForShe advocate got on board with a typically sweet message to fans. She has gone on to use the platform to be vocal about the causes that are close to her heart. That's the kind of tweeting we can get on with.
A relatively unknown Gigi Hadid sent a message from the plane with her sister Bella, garnering a modest 77 retweets and 62 likes - compared to 1.3k retweets and 5.1k likes for her most recent tweet...
The then-16-year-old One Direction heartthrob made thousands of girls around the world swoon in one fell tweet.
The former First Lady was up for the challenge, obvs.
Hugh Hefner proved that things at the Playboy Mansion are pretty much exactly as we all expected
Biebs synched up his social accounts, like all good media-savvy celebs
Katy Perry launched an account that would go on to become one of the most followed, with 84.8 million followers
The then-14-year-old Kardashian sister gets started young - 821 retweets for effectively tweeting a wave??
Kim gave the fans what they wanted
Kourtney struggled to get to grips
The Girls star asked us to be gentle
Leo used the platform like the true activist he is
Lil Wayne was largely incomprehensible
Ooh throwback
Mindy on Twitter was exactly like Mindy in real life
The How I Met Your Mother Star was a joker from the start
Nicole was apologetic
Obama was jubilant
Oprah was caps
Paris Hilton was cryptic...
Pink's first tweet was a fail
The billionaire business mogul didn't get a lot of love for his first tweet
The media magnate's grammar was questionable
Russell Brand was very Russell Brand
The Notebook heartthrob launched his mission to rid Twitter of Ryan impostors (side note: we'll take as many Ryan Goslings as we can get)
Tay finally gave the fans what they wanted, and a snapshot of the kind of down-to-earth gal she is
Tom Hanks injected some old school Hollywood class
And everyone's favourite indie actress took to the platform with customary reluctance