The Twitterati: Carmen Soo
March 2011
Get By Emma Chong
Part three of our Twitterati interviews leading up to Twestival KL 2011 this March 24, we talk to model and actress Carmen Soo. Follow her on Twitter at @carmensoo
Why do you use Twitter?
Actually it was a really funny journey on my part, because I started this in June 2009, and I remember everyone already had been on Twitter for months. I refused to because I thought: I’m already so busy with SMSes, emails, Facebook, it takes up quite a lot of my time already and I refused to bend to the trend [laughs]. But in June I had an operation and I had to rest for two months. So Elaine [Daly] came to visit me and insisted that I start. She started a Twitter account for me, and within a few weeks I realised that it’s a very good way to keep in touch with my fans and friends in Philippines. I quickly realised how beneficial it is, how it makes the world so much smaller.
You’ve got 120,000 followers – did that happen overnight or was it a gradual thing?
Definitely gradual. When I start a project, for example I hosted a six-day live variety show in the Philippines, and in that three months my numbers increased quite a bit. And when the show ended, it slowed down a bit, and when I did another show again, it picked up again. Same thing as my website, during the show that I hosted, my website crashed. It passed out.
What’s one thing you’ll never tweet about?
Very personal stuff, I’d say. Like for safety I don’t always say when I’m leaving the house, or when I’m going home, or when I’m alone. I don’t want to keep to a certain routine where I become predictable. And when I fly I don’t always say where I’m going, I might not even tweet that I’m flying, I might say something to divert them and then next thing you know ‘Oh hi, I’m in Singapore now!". I don’t always say pretty much everything I’m doing, there are days when I tweet about thoughts rather than what I’m actually doing. There are days where I’m sitting down with a group of people and may not say ‘I’m eating with these people’. You know? I don’t make a point to develop a habit of reporting everything I do. And also when I’m shooting something then I don’t really wanna say what it is, and I like it to just come out on its own.
What is it that you like about Twitter?
I like that you get an instant reaction; for example: ‘do you like my new photo?’ and you get an instant reaction. And you see immediately what people like about you (or don’t). I like that it makes the world so much smaller, and I get to show a lot of people what Philippines is like, my life is like, and I show Filipinos a lot about Malaysia. It’s a way of talking about food, where I go, what I do, what movie I watched, it’s a way to show them Malaysia. Because I think I may have more Filipino followers than I have Malaysian.
Source: TimeOutKL
