MTV’s Ridiculous $100,000 Tweets

Will MTV get its money’s worth from its first-ever “Twitter jockey”

MTV made 23-year-old blogger Gabi Gregg its first "Twitter jockey" following a widely publicized contest. Gregg is getting a six-figure salary as part of her new gig, but what is MTV getting from Gregg? Today was her first day on the job, and so far, it's hard to see what, if any, contribution Gregg will make to the network.

In one of her first Tweets on the job, Gregg said her duties would be to "tweet abt mtv events, news, interviews, everyday life, etc !" Sadly, her spelling and grammar didn't get better from there and none of her subsequent Tweets actually provide much info about anything going on at the network. 

Gregg has two different Twitter accounts– @gabifresh and @MTVTJ. Since getting the job Sunday night, she has sent a total of 104 Tweets from her two accounts. About 75 percent of those Tweets involved Gregg thanking followers who congratulated her on the new gig. Gregg also spent a lot of time Tweeting about how busy she was. 

It's unclear exactly how or why Gregg is so busy. Though she tweeted multiple times about how she's supposed to serve as, "the liason between the mtv audience/fans & the network!" Gregg didn't exactly provide readers with any useful information in her first  day on the job. 

Gregg's inaugural Tweets contained the following information about her and her network:

-Today she was wearing skinny jeans, a "sequins top" and a blazer.

-Gregg needs a manicure.

-MTV employees all work in cubicles that are contained in an office building

-Gregg doesn't have any time for her "haters."

Gregg had at least one opportunity to actually do something useful for her followers, but she completely dropped the ball. Two readers sent her Twitter messages asking if MTV is currently hiring. In both cases, Gregg responded to these readers with variations of "lol i have NO idea" and a link to the MTV careers web site. You'd think someone being paid $100,000 to be a link to the network and its audience would ask one of her superiors for the right answer rather than sending out an uninformed, giggly Tweet. 

Twitter is at it's best when it allows an interactive, real-time flow of useful information. It's at it's worst when it's used for poorly-spelled overshares about the minutiae of someone's daily life. It's only Gregg's first day on the job, so perhaps there's room for improvement, but so far, it looks like MTV's effort to build its brand on Twitter has a lot more to do with the worst aspects of the site than its potential. 

In other words, Gabi Gregg is shaping up to be a digital age version of Jesse Camp.  

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