Bruce Campbell, for those of you who are blissfully unaware of such things, was an actor boy in 80s com-horror movies and other such capers. Among other things, he was Autolycus in Hercules in the 1990s, and is now in Burn Notice as ex-MarineNavy Seal, Sam Axe. To many, he is a cult hero.

But this post is not about that.

This post is about how @groovybruce has taken the boring celebrity tweet (and there are so many of them) and made his tweets engaging, interesting and relevant to other tweeters, and at the same time, built his brand.

Bruce responds

While Bruce doesn’t follow many of us ordinary folk, he does respond. Not to everyone and to everything, mind you. But when he does, it’s very cool. Somewhere along the line, fans started tweeting Bruce questions and comments, and he’d @reply to them in response. Other fans caught on (as well as non-fans who became fans). And of course, Twitter being the narcissistic medium that it is, you want to see if Bruce tweets you back, because you see him @replying to others. It took me a month of tweeting to hook him, but I got there!

Bruce is personal

The wonderful thing about being @replied by Bruce is that he personalises his response to you. In the feedbyte below, he has told someone not to eff up their second marriage, and extended sympathy to someone having cancer surgery. And anyone who is on Twitter knows that @replying is sometimes not easy. You have to edit the message to make it fit the 140 character limit. That Bruce bothers at all shows that he actually cares about his fans.

Bruce creates content

When he’s not responding to tweets, he posts cool photos from his archives and from the set of Burn Notice, as well as fan photos, for example. It’s just what fans want to see: an insight or a glimpse into his world. And the wonderful thing is, Bruce isn’t afraid to share it. He has personalised his tweets and made them relevant. He is smart and funny. And this is exactly why his tweets are so interesting. He connects his world with ours, and invites us in.

Last word

In many ways, Bruce is a real version of the Old Spice Guy. And while he is essentially building the brand of Bruce Campbell via his @groovybruce Twitter account, he is delighting his minions at the same time.

So if you are on Twitter and you’re not following @groovybruce, shame on you. You are missing out on some very entertaining brand building.