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As part of this year's Red Nose Day, Comic Relief has launched Twit Relief – or #twitrelief as you might have seen it referred to on Twitter.

It's the UK's first online auction of celebrity 'superfollows' where well-known tweeters will 'follow' the winning bidder in aid of Comic Relief. If you haven't yet delved into the Twittersphere and want to find out more, take a look at our article What is Twitter? by WebWise regular Guy Clapperton.

Lord of the Tweets himself Stephen Fry has already passed the £1,000 mark for his follow alone, despite the fact that the winner will be added to a seemingly not-so-exclusive list of 50,000 accounts which Stephen already follows. Yet where celebrities have such large audiences, a follow from them, without promise of friendship or even a cup of tea, is an accolade in itself. Twitter is a way of stamping your personality on the internet and if you've done some of the work yourself through a clever blog and regular updates, a celebrity follow can bring more attention to your own online brand.

Critics, like web personality Rob Manuel, are saying Twit Relief has "unexpectedly reignited class war" with others branding it an ego trip for the celebs involved. Yet with many offering a range of extras – from getting drunk with them to guided tours around a TV studio – they surely can't be that confident in the strength of their Twitter currency.

I spoke to a few of the super-tweeters taking part in the auction about their Twitter habits and was surprised to hear that rather than take the occasional fleeting glance at tweets from followers, they do in fact read all the ones that come their way. Oh dear. This means that presenter of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s 'The Supersizers Eat', Giles Coren, must have seen my invite for a drink when he tweeted he was dining just 30 seconds from my flat. In my head he'd reply 'sure why not?' In reality I was a creepy stranger offering to ply him with alcohol in an East London flat. Eek! Needless to say he didn't reply.

The sense of a status divide is exacerbated by the simple truth that no one likes to be ignored and with some global megastars accruing up to 10,000 followers for every person they follow, there can't possibly be enough time for them to even read all their tweets, let alone reply. I struggle to find the energy to phone my own grandmother so I'd find being polite to 30+ people an hour challenging to say the least.

"If you've got a lot of followers, part of the pleasure is sharing stuff with them they might not come across in any other way" - Caitlin Moran

There's no doubting that some use Twitter to elevate their celebrity throne, or to promote their own products from perfumes to albums, but for many others, it's a genuine way of saying what's on their mind and engaging with their audience.

Times columnist Caitlin Moran has amassed almost 70,000 followers yet says she still reads all the tweets she receives, and estimates she replies to about one in twenty. Fellow writer India Knight has a substantial following of 30,000 and says she responds to about 75% of all tweets. Yet Knight doesn't seem to take her tweets too seriously. "How much are my tweets worth? Absolutely nothing, they're disposable nonsense" she tells me - "great in the moment, but completely ephemeral! Still, I hope my lot raises as much as it possibly can. Money buys malaria tablets so how can that be anything other than a good thing?"

"I love receiving and responding to quirky tweets. It’s all part of the joy of Twitter" - Jon Snow

I caught Jon Snow as he was about to board a flight to Japan to cover another tragedy that is now also at the heart of a global campaign for donations. The Channel 4 News presenter has passed 56,000 followers and reads all tweets that come his way, noting that most he responds to are about his choice of tie. When I ask him how much his tweets are worth, it's evident he's not taking part in Twit Relief to massage his ego. "I think I'd pay about 5p for my follow, but I'm throwing in an extra of a guided tour around the newsrooms, so let's say oh, five thousand pounds! It's all for a very good cause."

Class divide or no class divide, if a celebrity's followers are willing to donate to charity for a Twitter nod, then surely it's a market we shouldn't feel too worried about exploiting.

Hajar is part of the WebWise production team and has also made award-winning programmes for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio. In her spare time she loves reading, writing and singing.