Ad Age: Is tweeting like copywriting in any way?
Mr. Clark: I’d say that tweeting is copywriting. More and more, writing for social media is part of a writer’s responsibilities on a given account. But if you mean is tweeting like classic advertising copywriting, I’d say there are similarities. The best Twitter accounts — or the ones I like, anyway — are blunt, funny, angry, rooted in observations about how we’re living our lives now, the absurdity of a lot of it. They’re human, in other words, like the best ad writing. It makes you feel something. And then there’s brevity, the need to express a full thought in a tight space.
Ad Age: What are some of your favorite tweets that you’ve written, or some of the most popular?
Mr. Clark: Ah, let me see, there are so many it’s hard to choose. … Just kidding. That would be pathetic, wouldn’t it, reminiscing about glorious tweets of yore? Honestly, the ones that stick with me are the ones I think are absolute knee-slappers but get zero response. A couple of weeks ago, when Path [the mobile-focused social-media network] announced it had raised $30 million in funding, I wrote: “$30 million has just joined Path — as with all such alerts, that’s the last you’ll see or hear of that $30 million.” Because no one I know uses Path anymore. All you get are auto updates that “so-and-so has joined Path,” and then nothing. Anyway, I amused myself immensely with that one, but the reaction was crickets and tumbleweeds.