Tag Archives: Facebook

Money News

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  1. On Tuesday The Bank of Canada left interest rates untouched for the 15th consecutive time (the longest pause since the 1950′s). It also trimmed its projections for the economy in 2012 and 2013, while reiterating that whenever it does make its first move since September, 2010, it will be to raise borrowing costs, not cut them.
  2. BNN is reporting that according to an investigation by the U.S. Senate, HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, “did business with companies linked to terrorism, failed to guard against money-laundering in Mexico and bypassed U.S. sanctions against Iran”.
  3. Canadians are now richer than Americans. The Globe and Mail reports, “over the past five years, net worth per Canadian household has exceeded net worth per American household (total combined value of liquid and real estate assets minus debt) for the first time.” We have lower unemployment too…
  4. Un-like. An analyst reported Tuesday that not only has Facebook felt a drop in users in 14 of the 23 countries in which it has more than a 50% market penetration, but the number of users in the U.S. fell by 1.1% in the last 6 months. Personally I find Facebook to be a dizzy mess that is full of advertising and narcissists making politically correct proclamations.
  5. Looks like the Sears that closed in Vancouver’s Pacific Centre mall will be replaced by U.S. department store Nordstrom. They are also opening stores in Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto.
  6. The S&P/TSX composite was up 1.07% this week after resource stocks rose Thursday as commodity prices picked up on hopes that central bankers are ready to help with stimulus in the future.
  7. The Dow Jones was off its Thursday highs to end the week up 0.61% after data showed sales of existing homes in June fell by 5.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.37 million, much lower than the 4.65 million that was expected.

Money News

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  • Canadians who shop in the States will get a break soon. June 1st the new, higher, duty-free limits announced in the federal budget kick in. The duty-free limit for stays of more than 24 hours will be boosted to $200 from $50. Limits for visits longer than 48 hours will be increased to $800. The previous limits were $400 for a week and $750 for more than a week. According to a BMO Capital Markets report released Thursday.“Our latest random sampling of a basket of goods finds that Canadian retail prices are roughly 14% above U.S. levels, before taxes and adjusted for the exchange rate.”
  • Bank of Nova Scotia’s landmark red tower in downtown Toronto has been sold for $1.27-billion, the highest price yet paid for a Canadian office building. Although it was common in decades past for banks to own their headquarters, a series of real estate sales over the years left Scotiabank as the only of Canada’s Big Six lenders to own its headquarters.
  • On Thursday shares of Research In Motion fell to $10.89, its lowest level since the end of 2003, after a top sales executive in charge of the company’s global sales strategy quit the company.
  • Stocks were higher this week with the S&P 500 index rising 1.8% in the States and in Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index ended the week 2.6% higher.
  • There was some upbeat economic news in the United States: The University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index broke free of expectations and rose to 79.3 – its highest reading since October 2007 and its ninth straight increase.
  • Investors were more focused on Europe though, where Spanish regulators suspended trading in Bankia SA, Spain’s fourth-largest lender, ahead of what is expected to be a €19-billion bailout by the government as it attempts to steady the country’s financial turmoil.
  • Facebook shares fell another 3.4% on Friday. The shares have fallen a total of 16% from their initial public offering price of $38 (U.S.) last Friday amid a flood of complaints about the IPO process.

The Actor’s Internet part III

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I once studied with acting coach to the stars Cameron Thor and one of his favorite sayings was:

facebook engancha

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.

English: to fill

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

The Actor’s Internet part II

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Cover of "Facebook For Dummies"

The topic of promoting your business on the internet is too vast to cover in a blog post. I would recommend going to the library and taking out Facebook for Dummies, Twitter for Dummies, and YouTube for Dummies just to get a running start.

I also recently read a great book by Gary Vaynerchuk called Crush It! In it he explains how to promote yourself and your business online and “cash in on your passion”.

No matter what you think of social media, I think it’s safe to assume a couple of things.
  1. It’s here to stay.
  2. It’s a powerful way to promote yourself as an actor.

Back in the good old days of Hollywood, a young pretty girl would be sipping a soda at the local diner and be discovered by an agent who made them into a movie star. Word got around that this was happening and soon wanna be movie stars were arriving by the busload in Hollywood. They would get up in the morning, do their hair and makeup, put on their best dress and then head down to the diner and wait for their “big break”.

Problem was, you never knew exactly which diner the big shot Hollywood agent was going to have his lunch in. Also, if you spent all day hanging out in a diner, it didn’t leave a lot of time to hold down a job or work on your craft.

Luckily today’s actor can hang out in a virtual diner 24 hours a day without even leaving the house. In fact they can wait for their “big break” in several different locations all at the same time! Continue reading →