I remember a time when social media was pretty much limited to letters to the editor of the local newspaper. There was no thought about Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok (what the hell is Tik Tok?). Someone once made the point that he was thankful to be old because there’s no proof of the crazy things he did in his youth. I concur…for reasons no one will ever know!
Now we have all those social media apps mentioned in the foregoing, and probably some I’m not familiar with. The question now comes, is social media helpful to the actor?
Well, yes…and no.
Social media is very important in that it allows you to network with other actors, promote your brand, share advice, support fellow actors, and share your latest achievements. There are several Facebook pages for the various regions in our country that are designed for the actor. You can request to join them and network with your fellow actors.
A word of advice. Be careful that you are sharing and not grand standing. Continually posting the same “Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!” will not win many friends. I have also seen several Facebook pages specifically for actors where an actor will constantly post the link to his/her IMDb page to get others to link to it. The idea of constantly posting that link is to boost their Starmeter ranking which, in my opinion, indicates they are not a professional actor (See my blog on the IMDb Starmeter).
Casting Directors do check on our social media. This gives them an idea of who we are and how we may behave and interact with others on set. If all you do is post negative material, you may be labeled as a negative person and difficult to work with. Avoid being argumentative. If someone writes something offensive to you, just continue scrolling or block that individual. Do not get caught up in a Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter) war.
Beth Melsky is a respected Casting Director in New York and has been in the business for many years. She writes an excellent blog about cleaning up your social media that I would strongly recommend actors read.
Remember, what you post on social media reflects who you are.
Be the best!
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