As an actor, you are your brand and although your agent will ‘market’ you it is often up to you to do the majority of your pushing and marketing.
Your web presence really can be your shop window and having a website is a great way of selling yourself online, but Social Media is a massive and free opportunity for you to sell yourself to agents, directors, casting directors, to direct them to your website and show them who you are and what you do.
Here are our top three reasons an actor needs to use social media:
Become a Worldwide Sensation
-
In the days when I started out, Spotlight was a series of huge directories which gathered dust on Casting Directors bulging shelves, the internet was just a baby. To get seen by anyone you needed to ‘put on a show’. This was a mammoth task, you needed to find a venue, to find other cast members, to get a director, a technical team, to market the show, to invite the industry. And then you were lucky if a handful of them came to see you, if they could fit you into their diaries and if you were the right side of the river!
Since the internet has exploded it has made this whole process so much easier, the tools are out there to help you ‘put on a show’, use Casting Call Pro to cast, and use Facebook and Twitter to promote and market, to create the buzz. Even with all this help you are still in a hit and miss exercise, staging a play or event can be costly with little reward.
However you could easily use YouTube to show off your work, your voice clips, your showreel, and have a stylish, simple website showcasing this and also offering exactly what the casting industry needs. Send this out to the right people by email, and use Facebook and Twitter to market your site. Your message and voice will be heard right across the globe, and chances are you will be seen by far more people than would have ventured to a small room above a pub in South East London!
Network with your Neighbours
-
I have always said that the acting world is a community and you need to knock on doors and get to know your neighbours. Social Media is perfect for doing this. It allows you to come into contact with people who you might never had to chance to interact with otherwise.
On my twitter account I am in touch with casting directors in the US, learning about how they do things on that side of the pond, what differences and similarities are there to the way we work over here, I learn so much from them and in turn they learn from me. You are able to keep in touch with directors you have worked with, build up a rapport and keep you in their minds for next time.
When you watch something which moves you or interests you, see if you can find the director or casting director on Twitter, drop them a note telling them what you thought and then follow them, you are making connections that you would never have had a chance to before. This might not lead on to work but by opening your door and meeting your neighbours you are getting out there into the community and staying linked to the industry.
The connections online you make with other actors are also of tremendous value, you are building a support network, you are able to find out who’s doing what where, you can support each other, and you might even come together for artistic collaborations.
-
Today, everyone will head to google to search for answers. We all do it. I am sure if you are auditioning for a director one of the first things you do is google his or her name and learn all you can about them and their work. What makes you think a director is any different? Google yourself and see what they will find. Shocked at the results?
You can dominate the first page of google search results really easily. Get yourself a great website from www.actordesign.co.uk we can make sure that what the industry finds is what you want them to find, we can sell you in the right way, to the right people, at the right time.
But don’t stop there. Get a Facebook Page, where people can follow you as an actor. Make it different from your regular Facebook page, this is your industry, your business, don’t let prospective employers find photographs of you pissed with your mates. Create a Twitter account, follow the right people, interact with them, add to their conversations and build up a loyal following. Get your showreel, and any clips, onto YouTube.
Pretty soon, when anyone googles your name they will find what you want them to see, and you will be in charge of your shop window.
Building a Fanbase on Twitter and Facebook can be great to help you get work. A director when casting, might be having to make a decision between you and another actor. If you have a Twitter account with 500 followers, and a Facebook page with 800 fans, you become a more desirable prospect for them. You will be able to market the production to your followers and help the director spread the word. Never underestimate the power of social media marketing.
So what are you waiting for? Get started now! Get yourself over to Twitter and start Tweeting. Sort out your Facebook Page. Check out YouTube and Vimeo. And if you are really serious then invest in a made to measure website from Actor Design and we can help you create the results you are after.
However you build your web presence remember to keep it professional. Keep your images, branding, headshots, clean modern and professional. Keep everything up to date. And keep your eye on your Google results so you can check how the world will see you is how you want to be seen.
TRUE STORY
A friend was following some independent film directors on Twitter, they mentioned their up and coming project and that they were about to start looking at casting.
He also followed a great casting director.
He had never actually ‘met’ either party but he put them in touch with each other.
Both were so pleased with the relationship he had helped build that they invited my friend along to audition. He got the part and spent 6 weeks away filming a feature due for release next year.
A friend was following some independent film directors on Twitter, they mentioned their up and coming project and that they were about to start looking at casting.
He also followed a great casting director.
He had never actually ‘met’ either party but he put them in touch with each other.
Both were so pleased with the relationship he had helped build that they invited my friend along to audition. He got the part and spent 6 weeks away filming a feature due for release next year.
Image from
