This one is for all who take on the challenges of being an Actor.
Whether you went to school for acting or you dove headfirst into it, it’s easy to forget to also treat yourself like a small business. I know…using the word ‘business’ with acting (or any art) can come off as ‘dirty’ to many people. It’s important that you build awareness for yourself as a brand though. You have to start off as your strongest advocate because no one else will.
This focus on social presence is nothing new but bringing it online becoming the norm. Many productions are now looking at the social influencer presence of an actor, not just the talent. This influencer presence can be easily seen in indie film productions and when submitting films to festivals. One of the more popular questions that are asked during these situations is, “How many social media followers do you have?”
It seems fairly left field as an actor when you’re expecting to list all of the great experiences you’ve had, the dedication you possess and show off that awesome headshot. No matter the marketing and sales aspects that underline this emerging focus, it’s still important to invest in yourself to show others you are serious about what you do. So how can an actor create a social influencer presence?
Let me say that it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to work on it like anything else but in order to help you with this building process; here are 5 tools you can start using today!
1. Feedly –
“Feedly is a news aggregator application for various web browsers and mobile devices running iOS and Android, also available as a cloud-based service. It compiles news feeds from a variety of online sources for the user to customize and share with others.”
When I’m teaching social media classes, I always tell my students that people look to digitally connect to interesting people that they may not have the opportunity to ever connect with in real life. These people are interesting because of what they do and what they share.
What content can you share to make it worth the time investment for someone to engage with you? Feedly is a great tool to have to find the right content that engages and starts conversations! Instead of searching through every crevice Google to find interesting information, Feedly will compile the best articles for you based on your interests and media source subscriptions.
“In digital age, information come to you.”
2. Followerwonk –
“Followerwonk is a social analytics megatool that digs through Twitter data. Use it to track your follower gains and losses, compare Twitter accounts, do global searches in Twitter bios, and analyze any account’s followers!”
If you build it, he (or in this case, they) won’t come. Even though you have a social media profile, it doesn’t mean people will be lining up to follow. As this is about being social, people want connections so it is just as important that you are extending your hand out to follow them as well.
One great tool to help you find online influencers, people within your industry and those that currently follow you, is Followerwonk by Moz.
Sometimes it can be difficult to find the right people based on the content they share so Followerwonk can help you by searching for specific keywords (like actor, talent agent, or director) that are listed in their bio section. It also can organize profiles by engagement and follow.
Maybe it’s time to ‘wonk’ on the wild side?
3. Quuu.co –
“Quuu is a content curation platform, allowing you to select relevant interest categories and automatically (or manually) send hand-curated content to your Buffer queues.”
As an actor, your schedule can easily feel like more like a chaotic circus than a smooth-running machine. You’re juggling auditions, performances, workshops, events and much more; so why add more than you have to? Quuu can help you cut down the time it takes to curate content for your account by doing it for you! You choose what topics you would share and they will create as well as schedule it all for you.
4. Buffer –
“Buffer is a software application for the web and mobile, designed to manage accounts in social networks, by providing the means for a user to schedule posts to Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.”
If you can’t already tell, there is a theme of tools that helps save you time. Buffer is another great example of this. You can schedule all the content you want to share in advance and Buffer will launch it for you so you can focus in on other things (like that audition piece you’ve been procrastinating on). Also, if you get a paid subscription, they will also offer content suggestions that you can easily schedule with just one click!
5. Canva –
“Canva is a free graphic-design tool website, founded in 2012. It has an easy to use drag-and-drop interface and provides access to over a million photographs, graphics, and fonts. It is used by non-designers as well as professionals. The tools can be used for both web and print media design and graphics.”
It’s time to make the whole social world your canvas with Canva! It’s important that you give some life to your posts as posts with visual content gets far higher engagement than text alone. You can create collages, event images, memes and much more. With Canva, you don’t have to be a Photoshop editing pro (you just need some time and creativity).
Bonus Tip:
Never purchase followers! There are several “services” that will get you “followers” if you pay. Most of the accounts that follow you are fake and they will most likely become deactivated over time. The goal is to get real people that actually engage with your content.
Make sure to learn more about digital media and how to make great content, with this
article from Waverley Knobs!
http://waverleyknobs.com/2016/04/28/what-is-digital-media-and-how-you-can-benefit/
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