Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Kobe Bryant Turns a Boring Video Into a Social Media Event

Twitter has 200 million users, but pays a lot of attention to a handful of celebrities who use the platform. Ditto for Facebook, which is making a renewed push to convince famous people to talk to its billion users.

So watch as super-savvy social media star Kobe Bryant splits the difference.

Here’s a tweet this morning from Bryant, who has a day job playing for the L.A. Lakers:

And here’s the payoff: A clip posted via Facebook’s Instagram a few hours later:

In case you don’t pay much attention to Bryant’s on-the-court exploits, that dullsville video is important because it shows his progress following what might have been a career-ending leg injury last spring.

It’s also important to Facebook and Twitter because both companies have been courting Bryant. Facebook execs are proud that Bryant took to Facebook to rant about his injury in April, posting a compelling screed in the wee hours; Twitter types love that he used their platform to pop off, in real time, about the games the team played without him.

For what it’s worth: So far Bryant’s teaser generated more 5,100 retweets and favorites on Twitter. On Instagram, the clip has generated more than 105,000 Likes and comments.

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First the NSA came for, well, jeez pretty much everybody’s data at this point, and I said nothing because wait how does this joke work

— Parker Higgins via Twitter