I have been a big fan of Twitter for some months now, and there is no doubt that our business has benefitted enormously by the connections I have made online. As well as business connections though, there have been important personal connections, which in my view are just as important. People that I have connected to via Twitter and subsequently met in person have gone on to be good friends. And lastly there is the fascination of being connected to celebrities and being given a brief glimpse into their personal worlds – which is actually the main reason for this post!

Now I’m not a big celebrity stalker on Twitter but there are a few famous names that I do follow with interest. And, along with the rest of the civilised world, the main focus of my celebrity adoration has always been aimed at Stephen Fry. I think he is wonderful. He is so knowledgable and well read, so articulate and yet so funny. I have loved his comedy in Blackadder, his knowledge in QI, his brilliance as Wilde, his honesty in his documentaries about mental health, his enthusiam and wonder on his travels around America and in search of endangered animals. He is the one person I would most like to invite to dinner, or be stuck in a lift with. To all intents and purposes he is my hero. Have I made my point yet?  

I have tweeted @stephenfry a couple of times, generally in response to his clever 140 character witticisms, never daring to imagine he might ever actually reply. Then yesterday evening my Twitter dream came true. Quite bizarrely, earlier in the evening I had a post ‘retweeted’ by the Prime Minister’s wife. Sarah Brown. I felt hugely honoured and posted a message to that effect. A couple of people responded with RTs and comments, with other celebrities’ names being mentioned. To which my response was “Actually my goal has always been for @stephenfry to acknowledge my mere existence. Then life would be complete” Minutes later, and to much excited squealing and punching of the air I spotted the following response:

In the erudite words of my Twitter (and real life) pal Lesley Singleton – “OH. MY. GODDING. GOD!”

There then followed a barrage of congratulatory responses – to ME – saying how lucky and honoured I was to get a ‘Fry Tweet’. Anyone would have thought I’d just won the lottery, or an Olympic Gold medal at the very least! But what was so inexplicable was not how excited I was (that was OBVIOUS!) but how excited people were for ME! But on what other platform would I have ever had that kind of opportunity before? Years ago I might have handwritten a fan letter, posted it off to a fan club and then have waited for it a) to be read and b) to be responded to, which would have been both time-consuming and unlikely.

But now we have the chance to be connected in ‘real time’ to the people who inspire, amuse and fascinate us. Ordinary people can ‘chat’ to their heroes – they can express their admiration, show their support, ask questions, give feedback and even use their far reaching influence to publicise worthwhile causes and events.

And sometimes, there’s a 1/870,000 chance that they might get 140 character’s worth of their hero’s time

NB. Please excuse the indulgent nature of this blog post. I wanted to capture this golden Twitter moment for posterity! And Stephen, if you ever read this – thank you – you made a 30-something mummy VERY happy. Mwah!!!

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