Ever find yourself overwhelmed by the abundance of social media outlets that are available today? Ever wonder what the do's and don'ts of social media are? As a model or actor, it's extremely important to know that you (maybe more than most people) are always in the public eye. Agents, casting directors, and managers have free reign of the internet so lets just say they have a little free time during the day and they decide to search for you on twitter, would your tweets be appropriate? You don't want them basing a casting decision off of your tweets or facebook posts, so its time to learn some social media etiquette. Below is a simple guide to social media etiquette from NAACT.
1. Don’t bash other people on your social media accounts. It doesn’t matter whether you refer to them by name; it makes you look petty. Once in a blue moon, people will forgive and forget. Do it all the time, and you’re [labelled] a whiner.
2. Be considerate when you decide whether to post, Tweet or share. I hear people saying “it’s my account, I’ll post what I want” all the time. To a certain extent, that’s true. You should be yourself. But you should also remember that other people have to sift through five million YouTube videos to see what their other friends said – just because you were in a Metallica kind of mood. Bombarding people’s news feeds with anything (whether it be videos or game updates) just isn’t polite.
3. Engage other people in conversation. Don’t just post updates and have conversations on your own wall, comment on your friends’ pictures and status updates, retweet their tweets and share their news stories. That’s the whole point of social media: to be social.
4. Don’t post embarrassing pictures and videos of your friends and then tag them. That’s just mean. Sure, sometimes they deserve it, but you can be the better person, can’t you? On the same token, don’t post embarrassing pictures of yourself either. Eager to show off a new tattoo in an inconspicuous place? Social media is not the venue.
5. Don’t share uber-personal details about your life. Remember that you’re sharing this info with people you used to work with or went to high school with and haven’t seen in 15 years. I don’t know you like that, and no offence, but I don’t want to know you like that.
In the video below, casting director Michael Cassara, currently casting a movie in our market, gives his opinion on how actors should use today's social media.
Hopefully these tips will make you think twice about what you post on your social media pages. What Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter posts do you enjoy seeing most? Are you posting things like that?
In regards to #2. You can "block" people who's posts you don't want to see. I have people who hate meme's, so they block the people who post meme's from their feeds.
Also, as an actor you should have a "personal" page and a "fan" page. I don't accept anyone on my personal page I don't know in real life. My fan page is for work, my personal page is for friends/relatives. On my fan page I only talk about work, on my personal page I'll talk about whatever I want to because it's private and only friends can see it. You can set up your account to only be viewed by the people you want to view it.
Posted by: Starina | 08/14/2012 at 03:06 PM
I've been on the internet since long before it became the "web" or contained a "cloud." Back then, 56kb/s was considered a technological miracle. In all those years I've learned one inescapable fact - if you don't want it where the world will see it, then DON'T post it anywhere on the internet or send it by e-mail. The word "regret" has been thoroughly enhanced by the internet.
The internet was developed as a communication device for the military in case of multi-theatre and multi area breaks in networks that were destroyed by an enemy (think atomic or terrorist attacks). If a message could not use one route to attain its destination, it would use another and another and another until it got through. With the number of independent servers and storage devices between you and someone else's computer, the odds of taking something back or erasing it entirely is just about zero. And, the more famous you are, the faster it's going to travel. So, BE CAREFUL. THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK.
Posted by: Jack Cook | 08/14/2012 at 03:22 PM