I once studied with acting coach to the stars Cameron Thor and one of his favorite sayings was:
Treat your career like a cat
He said, “if you go running up to a cat and try to catch it, it runs away, but if you start working on something interesting, the cat always comes sniffing around to see what you’re doing”.
The point of using the internet and social media isn’t to hound casting directors for jobs. Instead you should be using the internet to showcase the excitement you have for your art and to support others in their work.
Do that and there will be a lot more cats sniffing around that ball of yarn you are playing with! Hey, I just realized “cats” is an anagram for “cast”!!
One other important point:
Anything you say can and will be used against you
This is a hard one for me. I spent years working in bars where off-color jokes and foul language were par for the course. Today it seems people make a sport of being offended by everything. Sometimes I wonder if they are really offended or if they just feel they get some power by acting indignant.
Justin Bieber got his start on YouTube and has worked hard to keep his image as politically correct as possible. Alec Baldwin on the other hand is routinely having heated battles with everyone and anyone on Twitter. And who can forget Gilbert Gottfried who lost a lucrative corporate voice gig by sending out a single Tweet!
Gilbert Gottfried–SHOCKING JAPAN TSUNAMI JOKES–TMZ
If you want a crash course in what not to do on FaceBook check out LameBook. Or maybe not is you are easily offended…
I remember one casting director “friended” me on Facebook. I was shocked when I went to her page and found that she had posted tons of pictured of her getting fall-down drunk with a bunch of cowboys at the Calgary Stampede.
It didn’t offend me, but I noticed she isn’t in that line of work anymore…
Since we work in a visual media and a picture is worth a thousand words as they say, I am going to stop talking and just post some examples of artist using social media.
Up Next: Some Examples
