DIY publicity using Facebook

Almost every actor I know has a Facebook Page, but I wonder if they really consider how best to use it.  One mistake I see them make is mixing professional contacts with family and non-business friends, and leaving their comments public. That runs the risk of posting something embarrassing or impolitic to their good buddy that is then read by a producer or casting director who doesn’t know them well.  Bad.  They also randomly collect hundreds, even thousands, of “friends,” which makes building business relationships almost impossible.  For career purposes, especially early in your career, FB isn’t about you it’s about your connections.

An acting coach gave me this advice about FB and it made me look at it in a whole new way.  Here’s what he said: Keep family and non-business friends on a separate FB page, because your family know and love you no matter what you say (well…almost.)  On your acting FB page, limit your friends to 100 carefully considered people who may be able to help you in some way with your acting career (hire you or pass your name along) and that you really want to know better; then rebalance the list periodically, taking people off who seem to be focused too much on something other than acting, filmmaking, or stage (i.e. your focus.) With just 100 focused friends you'll be sure to see their posts and have a chance to find common ground.

He also said not to post more than once a day and be sure it doesn’t sound like an obvious commercial or is a photo of your food (total self-focus can be annoying to others.) Do comment, however, on friends’ posts every day (they get a FB alert so they won’t miss it), but avoid responding to controversial, non-business-related issues, like politics.

FB is where you want to connect, find out what you have in common with others in the business, and build relationships.  If you have 3,500 "friends," and each friend has 3,500 "friends," it’s going to be very hard to make that happen. For one thing, with 3500 friends, their posts are hitting your wall so fast and furious that it's like a Twitter feed.  You'll see their posts only if you happen to be online when the post comes up.  And it works the same in the other direction with your posts.  Keep your friends list small, comment frequently, look for things you have in common. Facebook is two-way communication.

Also look at your FB privacy settings.  I set mine up so that when I comment on a friend’s post, only that friend and others on that particular thread will see it.  It isn’t broadly public to my own list.  My own postings go public, but I try to keep my follow-up comments specific to each person. If I want to talk about something specific or a non-business issue, and I know the person reasonably well, I shift to email.

Here’s what else I do…