8 reasons why you can’t afford the luxury of not doing social media

I have been working with some actors and one said  ‘I am not into social media, I don’t do it’ and I spent the next twenty minutes arguing social media’s importance in establishing yourself as your brand as a creative. Whether you are an actor, musician, writer, painter or filmmaker I can’t see how putting a small amount of time each day or week to update the world on your work and progress, can be at all damaging to you.

Yes, people get obsessed and can waste their lives on Facebook as opposed to using their valuable time to make the art they want, true you can get over-dramatic as you see your ex partner doing ‘cooler’ stuff than you (particularly if you stalk them via their Facebook page) but a disciplined amount of scheduled time fully focused on building your ‘brand’ is vital.

Marysia’s Eight Top Reasons Why You Must Use Social Media As A Creative

1. ) You direct future employers and press on what to look for in your life.

When you send off a CV or an enquiry re a show or an exhibition including a link to your updated website, Facebook and Twitter they can see what else you have been up to. You can direct them where to look if they want more information. That way they may be pleasantly surprised to find you worked with an old friend of theirs, or on a project they loved. They can see you are an actual working creative, focused on moving their career forward in the myriad ways you chose to. Plus they may see elements in your work that they did not know they wanted but now intrigues them.

• 2) Targeted social media posts deflect from the dodgy Facebook pictures your friends have tagged you in.

  If you regularly update your website, twitter and Facebook feeds with news on what you have been up to from Soundcloud clips, production stills & shows you are in then that is what first comes up on a google search. There are social media services who will basically try and bury any non-positive news about you by ensuring that there are enough news and updates about you that any bad press or Facebook pics are six pages back in Google search!

  • 3) You can voice your own opinion and craft your own brand.

  If you are sick of playing ‘rude girls’ or whatever your stereotype casting is then publicising your delve into Victorian period drama helps broaden people’s perceptions of you.
  I always seem to play yummy mummies and crazy strong women but I have always been cast in straight relationships, yet for the first time ever I played characters who were in lesbian relationships in two seperate projects in an eight day period. I don’t think that one’s sexual preference has any leanings on how one is a professional but it is interesting that on Bank Holiday Saturday I played a small but fantastic part as an author who had written about her love affair in Scarred At Last -( they are just starting their Kickstarter funding campaign) to get the whole feature film made.)
  
  Then the following weekend with the self titled Sordid Pop Electronica artist I was in a music video playing the  partner against the artist Krista Papista, in some serious fashionista outfits.
  

  I will never know the exact impact of the projects I do but the more types I play, the more places my work get seen and the more work of mine different groups of people see, it can only be a good thing for me as a working actress.

  • 4)Your social media presence is a positive power others can use to springboard a project.

  In a world where having ‘named’ cast means it is easier to raise funding and also far easier to sell the finished product via standard distribution channels across the world you want as much ‘reach’ as possible. I am not saying they won’t hire you because you are not on Facebook but I do know when it comes to the publicity angle of promoting a project producers will always use the faces of ‘famous’ actors or those who have an active social media base & active followers who will all tweet & re tweet any production news. If you are not famous (apart from in your own lunchtime) having a group of people from fans to fellow creatives who all help promote each other’s work really does give a slight edge on any non- social media active competition.
  There is so much choice of great creatives that just as sportswomen get an Olympic medal on a tenth of a second difference so you having an outreach audience you are in touch with can only help get the projects you are involved in out there and it might make you maybe a tenth of a second more attractive for the production team if they can’t decide between you and someone else.

  • 5) You can use your social media presence to fund your own projects.

  So many film schools graduation projects seem to also be running a Kickstarter campaign, partly I am sure for the experience as well as the extra money.  ‘Sunday Dinner With The Morgans ‘ was such a short I did earlier this year playing opposite Paul Clayton the actor.
  They were incredibly professional about it, particularly the producer Jack Pollington, approaching named actors (aka Paul Clayton) and then raising the required monies on Kickstarter. They then used the money to further promote the project. Film festivals are expensive to enter in but somehow our short Sunday Dinner is being screened at four US Film Festivals this month (Sept 2014) and the director Alex Forbes and Jack the producer are currently crossing the States attending the festivals, promoting it and their own skills. I have just heard today it won Northeast festival Best Student Award.   I have been seeing Tweets from the various festivals mentioning the film

  Hence once you have a presence you can then leverage it for your own projects. Start blogging, tweeting, sound clouding, YouTubing as you go on each project and when you need some extra fire power to raise funds for your own work it’s already partially built

  • 6)It keeps you motivated.
    By blogging, tweeting, Instagramming work in progress you keep a great online diary of your work. At times when the phone has stopped ringing or your last project did not get the attention you wanted then you can go back and see what you have achieved in the last months or years. A creative life is rarely instant success followed by a never ending stream  of great work and acclaim. The downs are lessened by appreciating the moments in your work, including the three months you locked yourself up to get a project finished. The odd Instagram picture of a sunset the day you finished a song or a chapter freezes the beautiful moments in life, not just the highs of applause and red carpets but the actual joy of the creative work & living moment to moment .
  • 7) You get work by being connected via social media.
    From actual casting calls on Twitter (I saw Rikki Beadle-Blair, the director/actor actively tweeting about need ing young male actors for a one -off performance at the Bush Theatre yesterday) to keeping your tweets and status updates interesting and relevant means that your newsletter may just pop your name into someone’s inbox just as they need someone like you in their project.
  • 8) You’ll get more press for the projects that you are in, so you can maximise the impact each project you do has on your career.

  I was in a fantastic trailer for a Chekhov play ‘The Seagull’ I did. Matt Aucott made such a great trailer that both he and I have used clips in our own showreels. I was one of 5 women in the cast, and admittedly playing a pretty big role as Irina Arkadina. Whilst I was not in the room when the production team including the director James Mackenzie-Thorpe decided who was to be in the trailer it was let slip that the fact I blog, podcast, tweet etc meant that the trailer they made and I was in, they knew I would be active in promoting it.
  

  Equally the afore-mentioned ‘Sunday Dinner With The Morgans’ short with all its film festival acceptance badges I can and have been tweeting about etc, so people are re- reminded of my work as an actor and I am using this great news at present as I am writing to casting directors with my new showreel.

   

  You don’t have the luxury of not doing it! I would love to hear actual stories of getting work directly or indeed indirectly through social media.

  
  Tags: 8 days, actor, Alex Forbes, Bush Theatre, Chekhov, director, Facebook, Film festival, Google, Irina Arkadina, Jack Pollington, James Mackenzie Thorpe, Krista Papista, Marysia, Matt Aucott, partner, Paul Clayton, producer, rikki beadle-blair, social media, Social network service, Soundcloud, three months, twenty minutes, twitter, US, Web 2.0, Work in progress, writer