Grasshopper, I may have led you in the wrong direction. Here’s why…
I was having “lunch” with a friend recently, or at least trying to.
I couldn’t get him to focus on our conversation, or lack thereof, for 2 seconds. He was too busy posting to social!
Doesn’t it drive you crazy when this happens?
As I started to think it over, I realized that it happens with my industry friends all the time. With my non-industry friends, it seldom happens.
My inquisitive mind, led me to chase that rabbit and ask questions.
And I hate what I found!...
See, in my eagerness to serve you I think that something big was lost in translation. It seems that everyone in the industry has started to hyper focus on that message and it’s time to pull the plug.
Remember, one of the key points to success is to notice what everyone else is doing, then do the opposite.
Everyone is focusing so much on social media. That’s a good thing.
However, almost all of them are doing it wrong!
Here’s why: they are focusing on width.
Here’s what I mean and what it has to do with your acting career. Think about this: how many friends do you have on Facebook? How many followers do you have on Twitter or Instagram?
Add them up real quick.
Now how many of those people are your true, ride or die for each other, bring over a casserole when you’re sick kind of friends?
A true friend will call you, knowing that you’re having a bad day before you even tell them. A true friend will drive across town at 3 am to pick you up after you’ve been carjacked in Long Beach (thanks Chris!).
They do this because the relationship has depth.
The depth of the relationship is the backstory, the bond, the memories and everything that makes you friends.
1 true friend is worth more than 1000 acquaintances.
The mistake that everyone is making with social media right now, is that they (maybe even you) are going for width and ignoring the depth of the relationship.
So do the opposite.
Everyone is so hyper focused on seeing their follower counts go up that they forget about deepening the relationship with that platform.
Not only do I get it, I’m partially responsible for spreading that idea. Having 100,000 or even 1 Million followers is an arbitrary measure of success. It doesn’t mean a thing, if you can’t drive them to take action for you.
See, everyone focuses on the top line number of followers, but at some point you have to focus on befriending your platform. The reason that people who have a big platform are able to cross over into the mainstream entertainment business is that their platform is full of ride or die, drive across town for you at 3 am, type of people.
Having a platform of 100 devoted followers will serve you infinitely more than 1,000 followers who never even look at your feed.
Here’s how you fix this problem. Stop spamming them with self aggrandizement. Peel the layers and let them see what you’re really about.
Posting pictures of your brunch plate is not going to cut it. Treat your following like you would treat your best friend instead.
If you blew the audition, share it with them.
One of my friends shared a video of a young actress that was pouring her heart out after doing just that. She wasn’t doing it for likes or views, she was just being genuine about her feelings.
Watching it, I felt like she was crying on my shoulder.
In less than 24 hours she gained over 27,000 followers and her video had over 6,000 comments.
See, when you focus on depth, the width takes care of itself. That’s how content goes viral.
If that sounds a bit contradictory to what I was saying before, reread it.
Focusing on width will get you nowhere. Focusing on depth, will get you to places you never imagined. It’s no secret that your social media following precedes you, when you walk into an audition.
I want to be sure that I’m careful and clear on this point.
I am not saying that you shouldn’t focus on growing your following. Quite the opposite. More on that in a sec.
What I am saying is that you should focus on deepening the relationships you have simultaneously. That being said, building a social media presence that empowers your acting career is kind of a cart-before-the-horse, chicken-or-the-egg kind of things.
It’s infinitely easier to build a platform on a foundation. So you may want to get the party started, so to speak. Here’s how you do that.
Momentum is key, so instead of starting from scratch, do this and watch your following grow faster, because of the “social proof” factor.
Just don’t forget to peel the layers and build depth too.
It’s much easier to walk into an audition confidently knowing that no one else in the room can bring as much attention to a project as you can.
Couple this with a stellar IMDb reputation and the industry will soon start to bend to your will.
So grasshopper, I hope this all makes sense. If you have any questions, remember that I’m always only a comment or an email away.
If you found this special release helpful, chances are there are a couple people in your life who would find value in it too. Feel free to pay it forward.
See you at the top,
Scott