Tweet Your Way Into The Writer’s Room

Just like anything that achieves massive popularity, social media sites like Facebook & Twitter have their detractors. Lately, I’ve been hearing more and more writers whining about how you can’t get anything real done without meeting people face to face, making FB/Twitter “a waste of time”.

Try telling that to Chris Masi, aka the new writers assistant at “White Collar”.

See, Chris used Twitter to establish contact with WC showrunner Jeff Eastin and says it was a mixture of good timing, a little online schmoozing, and persistence that got him the gig. It probably didn’t hurt that he says “@JeffEastin is just a cool guy.”

I’ve touched on this in the past and you want to be very VERY careful approaching showrunners through social media channels. I know a lot of high profile writers go stealth on FB for exactly this reason. But tossing a flag up on Twitter to a writer who’s actively engaging his or her fans seems innocent enough. Just don’t go Rupert Pupkin and you should be safe.

I’ll also quickly note that the job Chris got is one of the most coveted positions any TV writer can score without actually being hired onto an actual writing staff. I don’t know about WC specifically, but this job usually leads to a shot at writing on the show down the road. Matthew Weiner at “Mad Men”, for instance, is famous for offering his WA’s just that opportunity. It’s a huge game-changer, in my opinion, that Chris got this without personally knowing someone on staff.

Congratulation, Chris! And good luck.