Acting, Artist Marketing, Branding, Social Media
To be or not to be on social media, that is the question. We’re here to say that the answer is definitely to be. Social media is an undeniably powerful networking tool and an absolutely essential aspect of creating your personal brand as an actor. But if that isn’t enough to convince you, here are 5 reasons why actors should be on social media:
Make New Connections
The most obvious and most important aspect of social media is engaging with other people and making connections. Reaching out to potential followers and like-minded individuals through liking, commenting and even creating a 1 on 1 dialogue is a great way to build a network. You can meet new fans, fellow actors who you admire, as well as casting directors and agents who can get you in the audition room. Making connections has never been easier than it is now; using relevant hashtags and posting on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram or Twitter can bring you new, relevant followers fast. Social media is a party and the only way to meet new people is through interaction, so don’t be shy!
[Tweet “Social media is a party and the only way to meet new people is through interaction, so don’t be shy!”]
It’s Your Online Resume
Using IMDb Pro can give you the chance to showcase the work you’ve done as an actor, including the roles you’ve earned, training you’ve gone through and education you have under your belt that qualifies you to be the amazing actor that you are! Using sites like YouTube or Facebook are also great for uploading direct photo and video content to demonstrate your talent and personality, showing people what it is that sets you apart from everyone else out there. Also, having an online resume/portfolio showing off your experience gives those with work opportunities a much higher chance of finding you and all that talent of yours!
Connect with Your Fans
Having a relationship with your fans and showing them some love and appreciation is a great way to keep them around, and possibly even bring some new fans in along the way. Reply to comments, share interesting content if it’s relevant to you, give fans a follow back, and advertise upcoming performances. Let people easily know when, where and what you’ll be performing, and how they can come to see you. Don’t be afraid to thank people for coming out; if you noticed specific individuals in attendance, reach out and show your gratitude. Be there for your fans and they’ll be there for you!
Find Work
Finding work with social media is much easier than finding it without. Making connections with the right people and having an online resume can boost your chances of finding work opportunities significantly, and many people looking for talent will post notices on social media sites quite frequently. Social media also presents entirely new opportunities for work in itself. YouTube web series, vlogs, sketches and more are all popular potential options where many now-famous actors got their start in the entertainment industry. It also gives you the freedom to make your own decisions and express your own creativity in a medium that has proven to be quite popular in online communities.
Find Communities
These are a great way to find alike people with similar interests. They could be a community of theatre actors, a community of film students looking for talent for their next short film, or even a community of fans who just appreciate acting and enjoy talking about what’s trending in the world of entertainment. The point is, these are groups of individuals who already like what you like and are talking to each other about it. If you insert yourself into these discussions, you can dramatically increase your chances of finding new followers, work opportunities, exciting offers and more!
Social media is only growing bigger and more prevalent in our world, and it is definitely here to stay. Having an online presence opens up more doors for possibility, provides a better outlet for building a name for yourself, and is essential for self-promotion…so what are you waiting for?
Artist Marketing, Branding, Entrepreneurship, Facebook, Instagram, Social Media, Twitter, Youtube
With every new year comes a whole lot of new year’s resolutions; these can often be hard to stick to, and sometimes are even difficult to come up with in the first place. So for all of you artists out there, we’ve put together a list of 5 relatively simple to follow social media new year’s resolutions that will be sure to keep you stress free, all while helping you earn new fans and followers!
Spend 30 Minutes Per Day on Social Media
Seems simple enough, right? Spending a minimum of 30 minutes a day on social media can help you see a dramatic change in your online presence. Use this time to check your major social platforms, talk to current followers, reach out to potential fans/collaborators, and post new content. Dedicating this small amount of time every day may not seem like much, but it can really make the difference in the long run.
Engage More With Your Followers
Why do you think it’s called social media? If you’re only using your social channels to post content, you’re only fighting half the battle. Engaging and conversing with followers and fans on social media is an absolutely crucial way to build your fanbase. Respond to comments on your posts, thank followers for sharing your content, and use hashtag searches to find relevant posts and accounts where you can create your own conversations.
[Tweet “Why do you think it’s called social media? If you’re only using your social channels to post content, you’re only fighting half the battle.”]
Find Your Best Social Platform, and OWN It
Although being present on multiple social platforms and having a huge following on various channels would obviously be ideal, it isn’t a necessity – especially if you’re just starting out. Do some research to find out who your core demographic is, and what social platform they typically use the most. Also think about which platform would be best to promote your specific type of work and reach potential followers. For a rundown on different popular social platforms and what each is best for, take a look at our post here.
Learn a new Social Platform
This one may seem a little overwhelming, but partnered with our first resolution idea, it’s quite easily achievable. Many platforms make things simple with user-friendly interfaces and designs, and there are more than enough tutorials and articles on the internet that are available to help with almost any problem you may face. Just be sure to learn a platform that is going to work with your goals as well as the artwork you’re creating. Not sure where to start? Here are a few suggestions for up and coming social networks that speak to artists. If you’re a musician, have some fun with Musical.ly , the social network dedicated to music lovers. If you’re an actor, YouTuber or any kind of content creator who loves live video, check out Hype, which is a combination of Vine meets Snapchat meets Facebook Live! If you’re looking for a professional platform to showcase your creative work (think LinkedIn for artists) Behance, is a great tool to display your portfolio while connecting with other artists.
Put Some Money Into Paid Social Ads
Paid advertisements on social channels are an amazing way to boost your follower growth, as well as put your work in front of eyes that may have never seen it otherwise. And the best part about paid ads, is that you get to choose exactly how much money you want to spend, and exactly when you want to stop. With only a few dollars a day, you can put out content that can help you see a significant change in the way you use social media.
Hopefully this list puts your mind at ease a little bit when it comes to thinking of that New Year’s resolution; just stay focused and stay determined and you’ll be sure to see results. But most importantly, Happy New Year!
Artist Marketing, Branding, Facebook, Instagram, Music Marketing, Social Media, Twitter
As all things slowly start to hop aboard the digital train, music promotion has already boarded and is finding its seat. Music streaming and digital sales are edging out physical merchandising and advertising more and more each day, and having an online presence for your music is now a must-have. But it doesn’t have to be so hard! We’ve put together a list of what we believe to be 5 of The Best Social Media Sites for Musicians to get you started. Let’s dive in.
Soundcloud is an enormous community of artists and one of the best platforms to share tracks, receive feedback, build a fan base, and find other musicians. Many artists such as Post Malone and Bryson Tiller actually started their careers off the backbone of Soundcloud and were discovered straight from the site itself. With the music scene shifting more towards streaming rather than direct physical sales, this is a great platform to be taking advantage of.
Some of the great features of Soundcloud are:
- Users can like and repost your tracks. Similar to Twitter, when someone reposts your track, it will show up on their personal stream and allow their followers to see it, ultimately putting your music in front of more sets of eyes – Score!
- Comments on tracks are time stamped at the specific time in the song in which they were posted, giving you a neat way of seeing what specific part of your track made people want to comment.
Real-time comments are one of the many great features offered by Soundcloud.
- Statistics on when your tracks are getting plays, reposts, likes and comments are free with any basic account. Paid accounts can offer more valuable statistics such as plays by country & city, the names of the users who are playing your music the most, and which social networks and websites people are coming from to get to your songs.
Just like Soundcloud, Bandcamp is another one of the best social media sites for musicians, labels and fans to get together and share music. While Soundcloud is more social media based with commenting and reposting, Bandcamp is skewed towards creating a more well-rounded sales platform for your music and brand, and is home to more full length albums, merch sales, and more.
Some interesting features offered by Bandcamp include:
- Setting a price or a “pay what you think is fair” option for your music so that you can start making money off of your track instantly. You can even create your own discount and promo codes!
- New artist recommendations that can automatically put your music in front of new fans, ultimately growing your potential follower base without having to lift a finger.
- In depth statistics showing what’s being purchased and when, where fans are coming from and more. A paid account can even link your Bandcamp statistics with Google Analytics for some serious data collection.
- The ability to sell merchandise! You can bundle together your music and merch to make different packages available at different price points.
Although not directly related to music promotion, Facebook is an excellent platform to build a central hub for fans to reach out and have discussions, learn about upcoming shows, singles and more. With over 2 BILLION active users every month, it is also a great place to share content that has the potential to go viral.
Facebook offers many great page management tools that make it easy for you to highlight important info and find new fans;
- The use of a strong header image that shows upcoming singles, gig dates etc. is a great way to advertise important events without actually showing people an advertisement.
Here’s an example of a good promotional header image.
- The ability to pin posts allows you to pin popular content that is performing well to the top of your page where it can stay until you decide otherwise (perhaps a new video or single?)
- Pro Tip: Previous posts that have performed well can be used to grow your fan base by simply clicking on the ‘likes’ button to see who has liked the post, then clicking the ‘invite’ button to invite those likers directly to become fans of your page.
When it comes to directly communicating with fans, fellow musicians, and even labels, Twitter is absolutely one of the best social media sites for musicians to be on. Creating a dialogue and engaging with those that are most important to you is an amazing way to build your fan base, get in touch with other artists for potential collaborations, and even get discovered by labels (fingers crossed!)
In order to get on top of the Twitter game, knowing how to get the most out of the platform as well as it’s features is crucial;
- Start utilizing Twitter Lists. This feature allows you to categorize people/accounts into specific groups of your choosing. Make a group for labels of interest, number one fans, music blogs, favourite artists etc. so that certain people of interest can be found in one place with ease.
Twitter Lists is located in the drop down menu when clicking on your profile icon.
- Pay attention to trending hashtags! Stay current and be aware if any of the content you are uploading will naturally relate to trending topics.
- Reach out to other artists to build relationships, music blogs for possible features, and stay up to date on what your competition is doing.
- Insert links at the beginning of your tweets rather than the end; they are more likely to get clicked on that way. Also be sure to use calls to action! If you ask for a retweet, there’s a better chance you’ll get it.
[Tweet “Reach out to other artists to build relationships, music blogs for possible features, and stay up to date on what your competition is doing.”]
Instagram is one of the most popular and active platforms today, so not taking advantage of it would be a huge missed opportunity. Being the major platform for photo and video content, creating a brand for music on this platform and showing off behind the scenes footage of new song development, musician life, live performances and more is a great way to get your music heard.
Some important tips for using Instagram are to:
- Use relevant hashtags. Up to 30 hashtags can be included in a post and can easily be hidden in the first comment of your post instead of the caption to avoid the look of being too ‘hashtag-crazy’.
- Use the ‘story’ feature located at the top of the app to post a photo or video that lasts 24 hours and shows people what you’re up to in the moment. You can also start live videos from here!
- Follow other artists, labels, and music blogs. By now I’m sure you’re seeing a pattern. Building relationships is CRUCIAL on every platform and is one of the most important aspects of ALL kinds of marketing!
[Tweet “Building relationships is CRUCIAL on every platform and is one of the most important aspects of ALL kinds of marketing!”]
The world of digital music promotion can sometimes be a little overwhelming, especially when it seems like there is an endless number of websites and apps claiming to be the “be all and end all” for selling your work. But realistically, there is no one platform that is best to use, and instead you’ll find that creating a consistent presence across multiple platforms is the best method for successful music marketing. Hopefully this list gets you started off in the right direction, but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send us an email :).
Artist Marketing, Branding, Social Media
Showcasing your art on social media for the first time can definitely seem a little overwhelming, especially when there are so many myths surrounding artist marketing that paint it in a bad light. But we’re here today to debunk those myths and let you know why marketing your work on social platforms is a smart move, as well as an essential part of being an artist today. Think of this as a little sneak peek of our #ArtistMarketing webinar on Jul 25 @3pm
1. Using Social media for Artist Marketing is “Selling Out”
This is probably one of the biggest things we hear from our clients at SMA. While you may think that putting your work up on social media is the equivalent to selling your soul to the big marketing machine, it really isn’t. It’s simply the way that things are done today, and it’s an absolute critical process in getting your work in front of the right sets of eyes. Merely using word of mouth and telling friends and family is just not enough anymore.
The tools now exist to show your art to the right audience with ease, and plenty of artists are taking advantage of this. If you are truly serious about turning your passion into paychecks, then accepting this reality and getting on the same level of your competition is a necessity. With proper planning and execution, your online artist portfolio can still hold true to your creative self image, and after time, the only thing you’ll see that your selling is your work itself.
2. Artist Marketing Takes Too Much Time
Would you say you have at least 10 mins of free time in a given day? Then you have enough time to market your art. Social media platforms have made it extremely easy to navigate and utilize their advertising tools with plenty of helpful tutorials and extremely user friendly interfaces.
Creating an advertisement on one of these tools typically takes no longer than 10 minutes if you know the type of audience you are looking to reach. After your ad has been created, checking it’s performance each week takes next to no time at all and can give valuable insights into how your post is doing, who is engaging with you, and ultimately who your new fans are.
Using social media management tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer are also great ways to help manage your time. Tools like these allow for posts to be scheduled with ease across multiple platforms at once, and allow you to monitor engagements and analytics of various social platforms all from one place; talk about a time saver!
Reserve my spot!
3. Artist Marketing Costs Too Much Money
If you have enough money to go buy that grande Starbucks latté every morning before work, then finding the money to market your art is the least of your worries! Paid advertising on social media can cost as little as a few dollars a day.
When creating a paid advertisement on social media, you get to set the maximum budget you wish to spend on that ad. Based off of the goals you aim to achieve as well as the advertising tool you are using, a specific algorithm will be used to put your ad in front of your target audience as frequently and efficiently as possible while staying within that set budget.
[Tweet “If you have enough money to go buy that grande Starbucks latté every morning before work, then finding the money to market your art is the least of your worries”]
4. People Online Might Steal My Art and Sell it as Their Own
If you’re just starting out in the world of social media and marketing your art, then this really isn’t something that you have to worry about. Unless you are a big time artist with an enormous following of thousands of fans, then worrying about somebody stealing your work and claiming it to be their own is not a pressing issue.
This almost certainly won’t happen
However, if it is concerning for you, using something like a watermark on your pictures or a disclaimer at the beginning of a musical track is something that can easily and quickly be done to prevent people from hijacking your masterpieces. Just keep in mind that an Instagram feed doesn’t look so pretty with watermarks. Consider the risk and act on it.
5. There’s Too Much Competition Stopping My Art From Reaching the Right People
We aren’t going to lie to you, you will have a lot of competition. But by using social media marketing tools to finely tune and define your target audience, getting your work to the right people is definitely an attainable goal.
Social media advertising tools such as Facebook Ads have changed the way that advertising is being done. Every time you go on a social media platform, you’re giving very valuable data about the pages you visit, your interests, hobbies, location, and so much more. All of this data is then utilized by these advertising tools to make finding the right target audience and marketing your work an absolute breeze.
For example, say you want to market your indie rock band that has a style inspired by artists like The Smiths and The Pixies; you can then use Facebook Ads to target people who are 1) Into indie rock, 2) Fans of The Smiths, and 3) Fans of the Pixies. This only scrapes the surface of the targeting options given to you on these social media advertising tools, but the end goal is a specific target that is best suited for your work.
See, artist marketing doesn’t seem so overwhelming now does it? We hope that this list eliminated some of the fears you may have had about presenting your work on social media, and that you feel confident and ready to create an online presence for your art. Thanks for reading and if you’re interested in taking your #ArtistMarketing skills to the next level – you don’t want to miss this webinar:
Reserve my spot!
Branding, Pinterest, Social Media
It often seems that Pinterest is one of those social media platforms that can tend to fly under the radar for most brands. But to those who know how to use it, it can prove to be an amazing way to gain awareness and build a following in an online community that is filled to the brim with potential customers. Here are 10 of the Most Popular Pinterest Categories to be aware of in 2017.
It seems strange that there was once a time where the only recipes you knew were those passed on by friends and family, stored away in hardcopy on the pantry shelf. Today, the ‘Food and Drink’ category is one of the most popular Pinterest categories there is. Food bloggers can pin recipes, restaurants can pin their signature dishes, and every scrumptious find can be shared amongst friends and family at the touch of a button.
Now is the era of do it yourselfers! Whether it’s converting old junk into new treasures or making awesome crafts from scratch, having something that you’ve created yourself gives it so much more meaning, doesn’t it? For the resourceful types looking to sell their homemade crafts, or help others to make their own masterpieces, this is a great platform to let those creative juices flow.
Is this rug the right colour? What about these drapes? What in the world is Mid – Century Modern?
The majority of people aren’t interior designers/decorators, and when they’re in need of décor inspiration, they turn to sites like Pinterest for ideas. If you’re in the business of home décor, renovations, or any kind of interior design, then posting design tips, room themes and other decorating ideas to this enormous community is something that you should definitely be taking advantage of.
Women’s Fashion has always been one of the most popular Pinterest categories, and it is a great place to sell clothing. People are constantly on the hunt for what’s trending and what’s hot, and seeing pin after pin of new outfits and styles gets people in the buying mood! If you own a clothing store or make your own clothes by hand, this a fantastic way to build a following and showcase your designs to those who like to stay current.
Sometimes things get a little tough, sometimes they get very tough, but regardless of where your day falls on that spectrum, inspirational quotes are there to help! They’re also a great way to make your brand more personable. Showing your audience something other than your products/services lets them see your brand as one that cares about it’s customers, and you can’t put a price on that.
Staying healthy and staying fit is always important, but with more and more fitness apps launching regularly and an increased awareness of the benefits of an active lifestyle, this is a category that is growing in popularity every day. If you’re a personal trainer, a dietician, or in any other profession related to keeping in shape, then pinning posts like workout routines and methods for staying healthy are great examples of ways to reach your target audience.
It’s a no brainer that humor ended up as one of the most popular Pinterest categories on this list – I mean who doesn’t love a good meme to pick them up or a funny animal pic to brighten their day. This is another great way to personify your brand, and if you’re really clever, finding a way to somehow incorporate your brand into your funny posts can definitely make for a win-win situation.
In my experience, I’ve never met someone who doesn’t have at least SOME degree of wanderlust waiting to be fulfilled. Travel is a biggie on Pinterest, and if you’re a travel agent or even a travel blogger, posting gorgeous shots of locations and landscapes along with destination ideas/trip tips is a sure way to get into the heads and hearts of travel hungry followers.
Take me with you!
Welcome to the digital age! For all of you social media marketers and digital strategists, the ‘Technology’ category on Pinterest is a great way to make an impact with potential followers. Pinning infographics on relevant hashtags, strategies, social media tactics and more are all excellent ways to self promote and show potential clients that you’re someone who knows their tech.
Last but certainly not least on our list is the always popular ‘Hair and Beauty’ category. From nail art to spectacular hairdos, this category is a big one for anyone looking to showcase their cosmetic work. If you’re a make up artist, hairstylist, manicurist, or do any work under the ‘beauty’ umbrella, then this a fantastic place to let people see your talents and to build a following!
That concludes our “10 of the Most Popular Pinterest Categories” list, but take note that there are plenty of other categories with considerable followings, so take the time to research, plan, and post on those that would benefit your business the most. Hopefully this post will get you started off on the right track!
Which categories do you find yourself repining frequently? Share in the comments below!
Artist Marketing, Branding, Instagram, Social Media
