Despite social media evolving into an egotistical scrapbook of all our best and fabulous times and features… it is still a powerful marketing and PR tool to enhance your acting career. After the technological revolution and the birth of the digital native, people started to have a revelation in many forms. In 2006, FB and Twitter were created, and social media becomes more prominent in everyday life. If you didn’t have a profile, you didn’t exist in the digital world. If you didn’t exist in the digital world, “then who are you… really?”. As the world turns, social media allows anyone to talk to everyone. Despite accessibility to almost everything becoming the newest daily obsession, this gives everyone access to knowledge, networking, marketing and creation, and it allows the power of broadcasting to sit in the palm of the hands of almost everyone.

How to use social media for your acting career:

Develop your brand and become visible-

As an actor or actress, your talent is our product and you are you brand.  With social media you can get yourself connected, and social media connection is about dialogue. If knowing this and using it correctly, it can make you more visible across the world as people tune into what you have to say.  Before creating a dialogue and becoming visible, one of the most important questions to ask yourself is: are you ready? Is your social media game up and ready to be seen? Make sure to have up to date photos and information on all fronts.  

Use it to make connections and become familiar-

When you are in a social setting, it would be strange to go carelessly up to everyone you see,  tell them who you are, your goals in life and then give them a sales pitch to sell yourself and ask them to follow you. >>CRINGE<< So why do this on social media? Let's face it, not many people knew the strategy of social media until the secret of "social media strategy" became public, but when we compare online communication with real interpersonal communication it helps us to understand what really makes us memorable. While we can't have the body language and eye contact or ability to charm with our cute little laughs online as we can face to face, (except maybe with skype or video chat), it takes a little more work to be creative and catch someone's attention behind typed words.   Connect with people who believe in the same things that you do, and give them compliments or show them an article that may interest them. Connecting with people through social media is not just about selling yourself, or showing off, but showing genuine interest in the other person or the audience. Try that with the people around you today both online and in walking reality and see how that plays out. 

Create your own content-

With the introduction of YouTube to the general public everyone can broadcast themselves and stand up for the things they believe in or show their abilities.  Moving more into the contemporary, it is not only fashion that is our identity, but it is also our digital games.   People are becoming the star of their own show whether it is following worthy or not. Despite hatred and negativity being a big part of social media, there are still people on the positive and uplifting side that are there in the midst of all the criticism, and those are the ones to listen to while taking into mind pieces of criticism that are actually good to take in.  This allows people to grow and become better and stronger and get on the right path to becoming the kind of actor, actress, performer, comedian or entertainer that they strive to be. My most general rule is, to just keep creating no matter what. 

A few tips to make sure that you use your social media effectively:

Foundation: Make sure that you name on each social media platform is the same. This allows people to find you, and to get a clear vision of who you are as an actor. Unless you have conceptual idea where your alter egos have social media as well, it is good to have all social medias as you/yourself so that people can find you on all fronts. Linking your alter ego profiles within your main allows people to find you first, unless your strategy is to hide the real you and let your alter sit center stage.  Main point is to have all social media profiles spelled the same and matching so that you can be searched properly. 

Post Consistently: This means post small daily, weekly or monthly posts to the extent that you can without feeling stressed. Can only do one post per week? Then make it count!  I know how difficult it is to post on a regular basis, but it is good to understand that it is about something called "Organic reach".  Organic reach is the number of people you reach without paying to boost an advertisement or post. If you post every day, the more people will see you, and if it is interesting, they most likely will come back or even like or comment on your page.  Posting every day and strategically will maximize your organic reach. 

Don't annoy the shit out of your friends: Alright, as a half Leo star sign, I know, personally, just how lovely it may feel to boast our successes and our amazingly flabbergasting fabulosity...ahem.... but there is a limit to what your audience can take. Most of us entertainers can truly understand how exciting this field can be, but we also must know how annoying it is when it is all about "ME ME ME".  when your social media strategy becomes a self-promotion game.  If you were on an amazing cast for an awesome production, who was the director? Who were your colleagues? Make posts about the other people during your shoot and brag about their fabulosity.  That will take the "I'm so fabulous" of your posts and give the spotlight to others.  That is not only a sign of humility, but respect to those around you who also made the production a success. To put it into numbers, 1 in 4 photos should be self-promotion and the rest are more fun and talks about other categories versus self-promotion. 

Don't show images that would hurt your image:  Drink so much in Thailand that you woke up handcuffed to a bed post realizing it was a prostitute, but you didn't have your wallet? Trip so hard in Bali that you found yourself worshiping a spider monkey on the beach and followed him into a jungle only to be thrown in jail for God only knows what? Unless you are up for these types of psychedelic roles, then leave the evidence out of your social media game, and maybe leave these experiences for around the campfire, an amazing best seller book on amazon, or a self-directed movie about your experiences.  If you want to be an actor that is considered representable, then no footage of these experiences should be publicized on your social media.  Unless you are a method actor that represents addiction, party unpredictability and non-representability, I'd say when in doubt, leave it out. 

Think about variety and aesthetics- Lastly, it is important to create interesting content to be successful in your social media game. 

 People are visual creatures and love posts that are appealing to the eye. One of the best ways to make a theme is to have a color scheme and a main topic. Consistency and coordination is proven in data analytics that these two characteristics give a greater impact on your audience but it is also important to keep it creative!

Inspiration links for this article:

https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/the-complete-history-of-social-media-infographic.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luWM3BQTLNA

https://www.auburnadvertising.com/articles/86-the-importance-of-consistency-in-social-media-marketing