Q&A - Helen Klein Ross, Shorty Award Winner for @BettyDraper
Following in the footsteps of Carri Bugbee who won a Shorty Award last year for tweeting as Peggy Olson, Helen Klein Ross has picked up a Shorty Award this year for tweeting as Betty Draper. For this exclusive interview, Ross kindly put her daily trips to the '60s aside to talk about her success as @BettyDraper. All answers are 140 characters or less...of course.
Q: What made you want to start tweeting as Betty Draper when your background (as a female copywriter) sounds more like Peggy's?
A: Before I was a real life Peggy Olson, I was Sally Draper growing up in suburban 60s. Loved the idea of giving voice to housewives of the era
Q: How often do you tweet?
A: I try for at least once a day. Hardest part of a Twitter presence isn't setting it up but keeping it up. As companies are learning.
Q: Does writing for Betty transport you to the Mad Men era?
A: Actually, it's made me focus on brand opportunities today which I'll be talking about next week at SXSW with @Roger_Sterling aka @bissell.
Q: How do you keep completely in character as Betty?
A: I watch shows with a laptop and record bits of dialogue in a file that also contains character insights from this blog and Basket of Kisses.
Q: You currently have over 24,000 followers. When did the Twitter account get its greatest influx of new followers?
A: It's a steady build but follow-ship increases during hosted twitter events like parties and the tweaser we did the nite of Season 3 premiere
Q: Do you know Carri Bugbee, last year's winner for @PeggyOlson?
A: Yes, Carri and I began talking by phone when Mad Men on Twitter first became a phenomenon.
Q: Other than meeting Grover, what was the best part of the Shorty Awards?
A: Getting to chat with so many innovative tweeters. Had fun sitting between @FrankAdman and @ComcastBonnie. We joked we sat in the lucky row.
Q: Why do you think you won in the Innovative category?
A: I give a '60s character a social life today where she engages with fans between episodes/seasons. Betty has a blog and Linked In, too.
Helen Kelin Ross, you are the reason i sign on to my twitter account!!!!! i love, love, love, betty's tweets - love the tongue and cheek and love that your tweets mimic January's speaking rhythm - it's as if i can picture her actually announcing that she is cutting the cheese ball! did i mention that i love your tweets??
bravaah HKR
Cory, thanks for taking time for this, and for the fun questions. Which I loved having to answer in 140 appropriate characters ;)
@j9mac Appreciate your comment. And your generous read! Funny, I put tweets out there day after day never knowing who (if anyone!) is reading them. I do try to keep @BettyDraper's voice consistent with the brilliant brooding pre-conscious character conceived by Matt Weiner and his team.
Will you be at SXSW next week by chance? If so, come by a panel called "Rules of Brand Fiction from Twittering Madmen." I'm hosting it with @Roger_Sterling (aka @Bissell). We're thinking of making the session interactive by serving Mad Men martinis. Now, off to crack open my Betty Crocker cookbook to see what Betts is making for dinner ;)
HKR - thanks for the invitation - sounds like it will be a fun time - unfortunatley i will be in NJ "carla- free" caring for my three little ones. please enjoy those martinis and come back to the MM boards and let us know how it went!
ha ha - it's unfortunate that i cannot spell unfortunately - must start previewing