Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist and is the author of The Girls' Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop doing it wrong. Send your problems to her – confidentiality is assured, unless you want to use your drama as a ticket to Internet microfame.

Ello Mrs. Landers,
Should I follow fans back on my band's Twitter account? Is it weird to do that? Is it okay if I don't read all their tweets and reply to them?

Regards,
Mr. Knights
]

Dear MK,
It's ultimately a matter of personal preference about how your band uses social media. I am not a huge believer in the courtesy follow and certainly not doing engineered social media for your band; even when it's “effective”, it's often corny or annoying.

Think about all the artists you have unfollowed once you realized your feed was just them constantly RT-ing people – – “I LOVE U MR KNIGHTS PLZ RT THIS [winking heart emoji]” alternating with ticket sales announcements. It's kind of the worst. Also weird would be if you follow them back and then spam them with DMs that your album is dropping and stuff like that. Do not anything purely to cultivate a “connection” that might further benefit you.

Then again, think about how it feels when someone whose music you like or even love follows you back. Maybe your internetting style is about providing good feelings and non-exploitive fan connections? In that case do it. Follow who you want and use Twitter authentically, like a normal person – and not like a wack promotional robot.

Yours,
Fan

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