MC Hammer: Twitter shortens distance between brand, fans

90s rapper, reborn as social networking entrepreneur, evangelizes about brand-building via tweets

Remember MC Hammer, the rapper with the pajama pants whose single, “U Can’t Touch This,” blasted through boom boxes 20 years ago? He’s now the sage voice of social networking, and you’d be smart to follow his wisdom about making the most of Twitter. Seriously.

Hammer, who’s reinvented himself as an entertainment entrepreneur, is such a social networking success story that he was called on to deliver the keynote address at Adweek’s Social Media Strategies conference in San Francisco earlier this week. He’s the cofounder of DanceJam, a social network focused on music and dancing, has 1.4 million followers on Twitter, and is an avid blogger. He’s also acutely aware of the power of social networking to build and transform a brand.

“I know that if I engage with people without a moderator, and as a personal brand, they’ll get to know me better,” Hammer told the crowd. “I tweet for the human interaction.”