Tweet This: Social Media Guarantees

From the ABA Journal:

Movie studios and marketers are recognizing the power of social media with new contract clauses for stars with Twitter and Facebook requirements.

Some studios contracts now require actors to make best efforts to use social media to support their work, an unidentified lawyer tells the New York Times. And companies paying for celebrity endorsements are writing social media guarantees into contracts, Advertising Age reported last year.

"We're starting to hear in negotiations, ‘We'd like to include X number of tweets or Facebook postings,' " Peter Hess, co-head of commercial endorsements for Creative Artists Agency, told Advertising Age.

The Times profiled a new company called theAudience that helps manage the social media presence for celebrities, movie marketers and record labels. According to the story, a star with a huge online following has more leverage when negotiating compensation packages to star in a movie or endorse a product.

[Meredith R. Miller]