Pay For Celebs To Tweet For You (And Charity)

Want to be re-tweeted by Justin Bieber? How about a Twitter “follow” from Cher, or a shout-out from Soulja Boy?

TwitChange, a Twitter-based fundraiser that started Wednesday and runs through September 25, is giving users of the micro-blogging site a chance to get personal with more than 150 celebrities while helping troubled children in Haiti. The campaign, backed heavily by actress Eva Longoria, was the brainchild of Shaun King, an Atlanta minister and activist. His charity, A Home in Haiti, got a huge boost when Longoria picked up the phone and called this year.

He pitched the idea of the first Twitter charity auction to her. The “Desperate Housewives” star, who’s active on Twitter with more than 700,000 followers, helped hatch the plan, he said.

“At first, I was kind of skeptical,” King said Thursday. “I believed she wanted to be involved, but I didn’t know how it would make this kind of difference.

“But she got very, very involved. She’s more into philanthropy than she is everything else; she acts and models and everything else so she can do philanthropy.” Less than 24 hours after the start of the campaign, which uses eBay auctions, the effort had raised between $75,000 and $100,000, King said. He said that an exact total was hard to nail down because it’s always changing.

Most celebrities offer four kinds of auctions on the site. People can donate to be followed on Twitter by the celeb, to get one of their messages “re-tweeted” by them, get mentioned in a post by the star or all three. Many celebrities are offering bonuses like phone calls, autographs, merchandise and other gifts for their top bidders.

Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White, for example, will give his top bidder front-row seats next to him for to the company’s next martial-arts event, as well as plane tickets and hotel fare. As of Thursday morning, he had a $4,550 pledge for the package. Singer LeAnn Rimes will be giving away an autographed microphone, and motivational speaker Tony Robbins is giving a trip for two to Fiji.