Congratulations Actor! You've taken your career into your own hands. You made your first project and it took a great deal of bravery and guts to jump into a whole new ball game. Ah, where do I start? I've never done this before? I don't have any behind the camera skills, but you spent countless hours of your own free time studying this new beast. The feeling of completing a new project is ugh-mazing. It feels like Christmas morning and you know the gift you've been begging for is under the tree just waiting to be opened. You can't wait to share your success with everyone. Your project is complete, now you're done, time to take a nap and go about the rest of your days. NOPE..here comes the fun part, promoting.
So, you share it with your friends and family. Maybe you post it on Facebook once or twice. But, the struggle is, not everybody gets online everyday, so perhaps those people will never see it. Or, so many other people have made posts within that hour, your project may get lost in the crowd.
Let's remember the blog I posted a few weeks ago when I talked about how casting directors cast people who have a strong following. A low view count on a video means you are not getting seen, therefore, you're still not building a following. If you are just looking for new reel footage, or to practice a character, then great, but you will not be "discovered" by someone just randomly deciding to click on your video.
Here's what I have been doing. Has it been working, yes, maybe, I think so, I don't know. I have linked my twitter and Facebook together so that I don't have to post on each site. I can post whatever I want to twitter and it will automatically post on Facebook. BAM, its that easy. I have also been scoping out people who may have an interest in my video and sharing it with them. For me, it's people who enjoy comedy, women film makers, actor friends/non friends, people who I have donated to their projects, people who have supported me, and to be honest, when someone I don't know randomly send me a direct message asking if I can vote for them in a contest, I reply with a "sure, can you retweet this video for me?" and then the favor has been returned. You know what else is kind of cool, because I have been posting so often friends who I haven't spoken to in years have seen my video, commented, and even helped me on my mission to reach X amount of followers by sharing it on their pages. Because of that, I have also been extended into their network of friends and gaining new followers. How cool is that?
On the flip side, posting the same video every so often, many people can consider this spamming. They may even block you. So, I'm reaching out. What do you do to market yourself and your videos? How do you share it with like minded people and people who you believe would be a part of your audience? Help me, help you, GO!