It has come to my attention that we have reached a critical juncture in our society. People, and by people I mean celebrities, have been engaging fans and haters alike on social networks to some foolish to disastrous results. From the Ian Bohen tomfoolery to Dylan O’Brien casually replying to a fan who said they wanted to rape him if The Purge was real, things have just gone to shit (well not really but go with me here). I found myself the past two days, wanting it to go on forever cause I found it hilarious and wanting it to end out of mercy for their mentions. However, I’m a giving person, so I decided to help these social network challenged celebs out with a few tips to maximize your potential.
1. Tweet interesting things. Yes you may be a celebrity, and yes we do enjoy you telling us what fancy places you eat, drink, and lay your head. But you will quickly get unfollowed if that’s all you have to offer. Be witty, tweet cool news stories or commentary on things happening in the world or pop culture. It’s awesome seeing Keahu Kahuanuai tweet about his visits to NASA or watching Retta hilariously recap a show. That’s what everyone should be doing!
2. Interact with fans. There’s nothing more annoying than a celeb who doesn’t interact with their fans. You don’t have to follow everyone who tweets you but you can certainly engage with them. A Q&A here and there, reflagging some interesting fan art, replying to a die hards tweet can go along way with keeping yourself in constant communication with the people who support your career.
3. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Twitter and Tumblr are not the places to try and be high and mighty, and your instagram feed shouldn’t be full of quotes. Have fun with these mediums.
4. Learn how to apologize if you say something stupid. Lord how I wish I could sit down with Ian Bohen and get him to realize all he had to do is say he was sorry for offending anyone and move on to tweeting about the Giants, instagraming photos of himself, and promoting projects. Celebs, by virtual of their very public status, can offend people just by saying “I woke up this morning” so it’s best to learn how to apologize (even if you don’t mean it). Which leads into my final point…
5. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT broach any hot button topics, tweet replies to foolish things, or engage in arguments unless you are willing to deal with the consequences, intended or otherwise. I am not going to go back into detail of the events of the past few days but God almighty do celebs step in it and try and act shocked when people clap back. Even little old me has to deal with the consequences of the things I say, regardless of whether or not I meant to. You are in the public eye and if you have the strength to type the tweet, send the blog post, record the vine, you need to have the strength to deal with any flack you might get. I don’t mind celebrities commenting on controversial topics, I actually like to know what they are thinking, however celebs SHOULD NOT broach things like rape, misogyny, gender roles, LGBT issues, or anything else relating to social justice unless you are prepared to deal with the foolishness that will come along with it. Your passive aggressive blog posts or deleted tweets are no good here. Man/Woman/Both up and calmly explain you opinion. Also don’t try and tackle multiple hot button topics at the same time. It never works.
For further reading tumblr user FannishTalk also offers some good tips.