Kim Kardashian cashes in at top of Twitter rich list

Twitter has taken product placement to a new level with advertisers handing celebrities who use the social micro-blogging site thousands of dollars to mention their products.
 
It has emerged that Kim Kardashian, the American reality television star, commands at least $10,000 per post. Many of Kardashian's tweets are mundane - "I must have pinched a nerve in my neck... I need a massage" - but when she mentions advertisers such as Nestle or the fast-food chain Carl's Jr, she receives four-figure sums.
 
It may seem like silly money for posting 140-character messages, but considering Kardashian has almost 2.8 million followers, it is arguably a smart move on behalf of the advertisers.
 
According to the US website the Daily Beast, Kardashian heads a Top Ten of celebrity Twitter-based endorsers. Others on the list include the young rapper Soulja Boy and the reality TV 'love doctor' Dr Drew Pinsky, second and third respectively. With around 1.8 million followers each, they, too, can earn up to $10,000 a post. Meanwhile DJ Samantha Ronson, the former girlfriend of actress Lindsay Lohan, has only been tweeting for 10 months yet can earn more than $7,000 for plugging her gigs at various clubs.
 
You don't even need to be a bona fide celebrity to make this sort of money. One of Twitter's top earners - at number 16, with 51,147 followers - is 'Fake Rob Pattinson'. He is paid as much as $5,000 for pushing products while pretending to be the heart-throb Twilight star.
 
The Los Angeles-based outfit Ad.ly is one of several new companies seeking to match Twitter advertisers to celebrities. It is designing a "pricing algorithm" to assess the value of someone's audience depending on how many followers they have and how many of those people are actually listening.
 
But there are two catches.

First, under US advertising laws, sponsored tweets must be fully disclosed by the person who owns the Twitter account. Late last year Serena Wiliams drew flak when she casually tweeted about Nabisco's 100 Calorie Packs, which she is paid to endorse.
 
Second, there is the risk of celebrities' Twitter followers feeling exploited. On hearing last week that Kim Kardashian earned $10,000 for tweeting endorsements, many of her followers seemed crushed. "Kim Kardashian has an influence value of $10K per tweet. THAT's what's wrong w/ society," one user wrote.

Tweeted another: "How is it Kim Kardashian makes $10K per tweet and the rest of us don't even see a penny?"
 
Tech guru Anil Dash warns: "There's a very high risk of antagonising your followers, and it's very, very easy to unfollow." ·