Brian Brandenburg remembers growing up in New York and waiting outside the player's parking lot at Yankee Stadium to score an autograph, or at least catch a glimpse, of one of his favorite baseball players.
He wanted to connect with his idols, and capture a moment he could tell his friends and family about. But as Brandenburg got older, he started to see a shift in how fans view celebrity experiences, and noticed at a recent family reunion when one of his nieces swore that Miley Cyrus had tweeted to her.
Whether or not she actually got a tweet from Cyrus (it wasn't an @ tweet, but Cyrus did tweet something similar to something Brandenburg's niece Tweeted at her, yada yada), Brandenburg saw how excited his teenaged nieces and nephews got just by the idea that a celebrity was interacting with them on Twitter.
So a year and a half ago he launched FaamUs, a platform where fans can purchase custom Twitter shoutouts from celebrities. Chicago-based FaamUs (pronounced Famous) lets users search for available celebrities, craft a specific message for the celebrity to tweet, and chose the day and time for the tweet to be sent.
Celebrities can accept or reject the request, edit the message if needed, and schedule the tweet through the FaamUs platform.
Brandenburg said the startup is in the "celebrity acquisition phase," and it currently has WWE star Kurt Angle and former Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman on the platform. Prices for the Twitter shoutouts vary and are negotiated with the celebrity, but an Angle tweet currently costs $10, with a Rodman shoutout costing $99; FaamUs takes a percentage of the transaction.
Here are a couple examples:
@pjpbydasea Come on man! Kevin B's new beard is trending in South Florida! Can't beat it my man. https://t.co/Pjylhr446d
— Dennis Rodman (@dennisrodman) March 1, 2016
Just wanted to give a happy birthday shoutout to @KJB_74 ! Remember, age doesn't matter, heart does! https://t.co/5BgJ6d6r45
— Kurt Angle (@RealKurtAngle) January 20, 2016
Brandenburg said a lot of people are using FaamUs to give celebrity tweets as gifts, like a wrestling fan buying a Kurt Angle Twitter shoutout for their little bother.
"Twitter is the face and voice of a celebrity," Brandenburg said. "I absolutely see it as the new virtual autograph."
A tweet as a form of memorabilia might sound strange to some, but following celebrities and writing to them on Twitter has become today's version of sending fan mail or waiting in the player's parking lot. When a celebrity has hundred of thousands, or millions, of followers, a personal shoutout can make a fan feel special, Brandenburg explained.
Brandenburg said the startup has generated particular interest from wrestling fans, and FaamUs could dive into niche Twitter communities to help fans connect with the celebrities that matter most to them. Ideally, FaamUs would have 50 to 100 wrestling stars on its platform who could earn money by sending purchased tweets, he said. The startup can also print the celeb's tweet on a t-shirt for an additional price.
FaamUs, which is based in 1871, plans to continue bringing on celebrities to the platform and growing its user base. Brandenburg said the company is currently raising a friends and family round of funding, and is eyeing a seed round in the near future.
