MC Hammer Promotes Twitter, Facebook at Harvard

If you haven't been keeping tabs on MC Hammer recently, rest easy knowing that in addition to his current A&E show, 'Hammertime,' the energetic 90s rapper has kept busy by ruthlessly promoting his "brand" and simultaneously teaching others how to promote their brands just as efficiently.

Hammer, real name Stanley Kirk Burrell, appeared before a crowd of professionals at Harvard University yesterday (Aug. 31) to offer his input on the benefits of social media platforms. His involvement with the Gravity Summit conference on social media marketing gave him a chance to explain why sites like Twitter could be profitable in the market place.

"I'm both an entrepreneur and a brand,'' he said. "Being in the center of my universe is important to me. That's what Twitter lets me do. . . . I want to get out in front of the conversation.'' Hammer, who wasn't able to present an actual strategy for finding the profit margin in social networking sites, seemed to believe that his sheer enthusiasm was enough to sell the crowd. After declaring that he got involved with sites like Facebook and Twitter early on because of the number of users the sites attracted, he firmly declared to the crowd that there must be a way to "sell those people something!'' Prolific.

And when a curious member of the audience asked Hammer to weigh in on whether or not all musicians should make it a priority to use Twitter, the reality TV star responded with a -- er, well thought out answer, explaining that being in the public eye could be a bad idea for artists who lack credibility. "I happen to know that a lot of guys who are known for their love songs don't actually know anything about love,'' he said. Although it's unclear exactly what bit of knowledge Hammer bestowed upon the patient crowd, we can certainly derive from his Twitter account that he enjoyed his visit to the Ivy League school. "Wheels up !!! Leaving Boston.....Harvard.... loved it!" he wrote.