More Social Media Etiquette When Approaching Entertainment Industry Contacts

More Social Media Etiquette When Approaching Entertainment Industry Contacts

A while back, I wrote a blog on “Social Media Etiquette When Approaching Entertainment Business Contacts” http://wp.me/pu8Se-4 and I can see I need to expand upon that topic. For those of you in the entertainment industry looking for the person to help you get your big break, you need to understand what you should and should not do when approaching them. It will only help your chances in getting the help you need and increase the odds of success in an industry where “making it” is very slim.

First off, don’t spam people with your links of any kind. That is the fastest way to getting no one to pay attention to you. If you use twitter, do not have an auto DM set up with your links for people to check you out. Develop relationships first; if you are interesting to them they will check you out. Otherwise, you are just another spammer.

Secondly, don’t send the same message to a hundred different industry people on your open time line for us all to see. That is another sure way to make sure no one pays attention to you. Don’t be so lazy and don’t be so insulting to our intelligence.

Thirdly, if we do check you out, we will check your account first before watching your video or visiting your web page. If you act unprofessional, use horrible language, do nothing but hit on other people then we know how professional you really are by that alone. Do not engage in any type of unprofessionalism, slander, libel, or any other thing that detracts from your true goal. Nothing says unprofessional faster than your behavior online. Stay clean, focused and use appropriate language and marketing. This goes for industry professionals as well.

Fourthly, don’t ask them to RT your music for you when they have a list of their own clients they are trying to promote. That isn’t fair to their clients, and usually they won’t anyway unless it’s a personal friend. Please remember, our DM boxes are filled with requests all day long from people asking us to “check them out” or “do you have any advice,” all this on top of our already overfilled days of work. Our jobs as managers, agents, PR — or whatever role we fill — is to get OUR clients form of entertainment out there, not anybody elses.

Lastly, make sure you know what they do before you contact them asking for representation. Look at their list of services. If they don’t say they are a talent agent, then don’t ask them to be yours. You can’t get everything from the title of a company. Do your research and make sure you don’t waste anyone’s time.

Good luck!

7 comments
  1. Good read, Although I would say that a manager or talent scout, shouldn’t judge, hire or fire a person by their tweets, (within reason) after all our twitter accounts are personal and we should be able to say what we like (within reason), getting recognition comes from hard work and finding someone who believes in your talent and has the knowledge and contacts to get you work, not what you say in 140 characters. I think the industry needs to take a step back and realise that twitter is mainly for fun and can be informative, funny and moving and if a person such as my self, want to promote themselves again within reason, they should be able to, without worrying what “big hitters” in the industry would say or think, after all you wouldn’t wan to pass on a new Madonna or Lady Gaga just because I, ha I mean they, happen to say something that you deem unprofessional, look at Charlie Sheen and so many others who openly promo themselves shamelessly.
    The entertainments industry is vast and should be just that, entertaining, no one will ever have the prescription on how to achieve famous etc, a lot of it is being at the right place in time and being GOOD at what you do, there is room enough on that world stage for everyone… don’t you think?

    Best wishes
    J. Collins

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    • Julie,

      Thank you for reading my blog and responding! I really appreciate you taking the time to do so. I do have to disagree with your post for the most part though. Your career is a job like any other job or business. Just like my business is judged by what we post or say, I have to be very careful about what I post to make sure I am not turning people off to us or or clients. Twitter is both personal and business. It’s whatever we make it. The Lowry Agency account is business, not personal. My David Lowry account is personal. If you are an artist, band or entertainer trying to make it, then you should have an account that is all business that represents your career and is positive. If you want to be personal, you should have a separate account that allows you to say what you want and complain all you want or whatever. I can tell you, I am not going to work with someone who is constantly complaining about the industry. They will tend to be to difficult to work with especially when it comes to business deals. We work way to hard to have our clients undermine our work which has happened. People will always judge you by what you say or post. Your posts can tell people a lot about you and whether or not they think you are a good fit to work with them personality wise or business wise.

      Think of it this way. How many times do you see in the news that people get fired from their jobs or lose a job they just got hired for because of what they say on Facebook or Youtube. It’s public knowledge now and very easy to find which depending on what you post can be good or very bad.

      Social media is a tool that should be used to enhance the career of whomever really wants it. If you think of it any other way, you probably won’t be successful using it. Trying to make it in the entertainment business especially now being that people are no where near as likely to just discover you, sink a bunch of money into you and try and make you a star, means you always need to put your best foot forward to increase your chances of creating your fan base and finding the help you need. The money isn’t what it used to be in this business and for the most part people aren’t willing to take chances on unproven artists that haven’t worked their butt of to develop their career and take it very, very seriously. The risk isn’t worth it anymore. I myself personally have spent to much time on people who said they wanted it to only find out that when the rubber meets the road, they don’t have what it takes or leave to work with someone else because they have no patience and aren’t willing to do the work. They think they can just sit back and let the manager do it all.

      I wish you all the best in your endeavors Julie, but I do caution you. Be very careful what you post and remember we do read things. We have to like whom we work with so we watch what they post. We watch everything at first to see how they are professionally. We (everyone) makes judgments on what we read, especially when it comes to business and whether or not we feel a potential candidate is worth talking to and the risk. After that most often at least with my business, we look at actual talent then market ability.

      Good luck!

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  2. I agree – social media platforms can be a great way to promote oneself – but caution must be used. Getting personal or political in blog, twitter and facebook posts can turn certain people off and help you lose business.

    Thanks for this great article and the comments.

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  3. I agree at least for the most part. It seems to me that if one can’t put 140 characters together to achieve a “friendly” goal like simply getting a giggle helps the adage, “To make a friend, be one.”

    When discussing business, be as direct as possible without being rude. Like you said, these are busy people so don’t take too much of their time while communicating.

    Mostly, just be polite, honest, and come from humility (not self effacing) you are talking about human beings that “fans” only think they “know”. Which they don’t.

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  4. I think what you stated could be used for any industry and not just the entertainment business. You need to be somewhat professional most of the time. I am sure people have off moments when they get passionate about a certain thing.

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  5. Great insight and advice, would love to share this at http://www.radiosubmit.com

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    • Thank you 🙂 I would be honored if you would!

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