Taking a page from the P. Diddy playbook, Ben Stiller is combining his comedic talents with his public relations savvy and making a run at social media marketing powerhouse networks like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. With the kind of star power that lends itself to gaining lots of followers/ fans/ friends or viewers on any of those networks, he is having considerable success.

The great thing for Stiller as well is that he is a comedian, and that gives him the breadth of material and approach where he can do comedy or serious and it will work on social media marketing, as it will be something his current fanbase will respond to if it is comedy and it will only serve to expand his media presence if it is serious.

P. Diddy said that new stars need to know how to work a Facebook Fan Page, and Stiller is showing that current stars can do a lot with each of the two mediums. All of these social media marketing tools are networks that he can use to promote both his own personal brand of comedy or his production company- Red Hour. In fact, his twitter handle is @RedHourBen. Mashable wrote a great post highlighting a short video he did with Ryan Seacrest (or should I say, @ryanseacrest) where Stiller gets Seacrest to visit him with a false promise of talking about a movie idea and rather asks him, in that classic Stiller way, if he could maybe give @RedHourBen a “shout out” on Twitter- you know, just for fun, no biggie…

The rest is great Twitter comedy, keying on one of the core issues that will start to come up for anyone as they get more involved with social media- who do you promote with your presence? How do you ask someone else to promote you and what you do? And comedy is a great way to reveal that truth- there is no hard and fast rule as it is each person for themselves.

Just as social media marketing guidelines and best practices will continue to evolve, so will the way we interact with each other offline about our online presences- and that will only intensify with the rise of personal branding and the importance of an online presence in your offline work and reputation.

The most telling thing about Stiller’s presence on these networks is that he is there, he is doing it in conjunction with his production company, and he is transferring all of his Hollywood stardom and gusto to social media. It highlights, in fact, not that some people are doing it, but how few celebrities are still on these different networks.

Popular Media with Facebook Celebrities and Twitter Celebrities

Scott