Many of my friends know I am a huge fan of the show Sons of Anarchy. I stalk follow most of the actors on Twitter, and every now and then, I’ll like a tweet or leave a comment on an account. I will never forget when I first followed Katey Sagal, and within five minutes, I received a tweet from her. She thanked me for following her, and urged me to join her email list. At first, I thought she’d been hacked because I’ve never, ever had a celebrity respond to me with a tweet.
Now granted, she could have very well hired staff to tweet for her, or set up some sort of automatic response to new followers.
I don’t care.
In my mind, Katey Sagal was talking to me via Twitter.
A few days later, I tweeted a picture of myself at Halloween, dressed as Katey’s Sons of Anarchy character, “Gemma.” She responded!!
Whoa! Be still my heart! She gained a fan for life. She has an autobiography out called “Grace Notes,” and all I can say is “take my money.”
It doesn’t matter if Katey sent me the tweet herself, or hired staff to respond to people. She is making a genuine effort to connect with her fans. I have to believe this engagement is upping her book sales, and translating to her new show Superior Donuts.
Walking Dead actor Daniel Newman is another one who got it right. He has been a cast member for the past two seasons as a resident of the “Kingdom.” His stuff came across my feed, and I quickly followed him. A few minutes later, I received a message from Daniel. He thanked me for the follow, and urged me to follow him on Instagram. He even said he’d respond to messages. Cool! Then, he followed me back. My heart went pitter-patter.
Was this an automatic response to everyone who follows him on Twitter?
Don’t care.
Again, I felt he was making a genuine connection with his fans. Now, I look for him on Walking Dead episodes, and keep up with all that is Daniel Newman.
I honestly feel this type of one-on-one engagement gives fans all of the feels. My take away?
- If someone follows you on Twitter or Linkedin, make a genuine effort to follow them back. (Sometimes folks slip through the cracks, and that’s understandable. Do your best to follow up.)
- Try your best to respond to all comments.
- Support your fans/followers. For instance, if a fellow blogger is following me, you better believe I will do my best to read, like and comment on their articles.
- Show folks some love. They’ll show you some love right back.
Now, I’m off to stalk follow some members of Duran Duran!
PR Gumbo 
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