backstage.com: Let’s be honest. As much as your friends and family love you and want to be there for every single staged performance, it’s just not realistic—and even if it were, mom, dad, and grandma aren’t enough to fill a theater. Here are five tips to ensure that you get some of your Facebook following out to your shows as well.
5 comments:
I wasn't terribly impressed with this article. I found it to mostly be common sense. I have succumb to the notion of embracing shameless self-promotion in order to make the arts successful. But I think that while using Facebook and other social media outlets can be a very useful strategy, it shouldn't be the crutch that many people make it. Nothing is as good as old fashioned word of mouth. Granted, it doesn't travel as far. Enthusiasm is contagious. And it's about how you present your projects in conversations with people. Don't just make a page and invite people to a show, post a status about the stupid funny thing that happened in rehearsal (if it was legitimately funny). I think that's just as helpful in getting people curious enough to follow through with active support.
I agree with Jody here. This article is filled with what seems to be common sense. I would expect anyone that is trying to promote a show would understand and live by some of these ways to promote a show on Facebook. Yes, Facebook is a wonderful place to promote a show, but many viewers on Facebook are already inundated with notifications and invites. This tactic may be seen as annoying to some viewers. I do agree with the 5th point strongly. "Spread the Love" aka like other artists pages...you can use each other to help promote! In other words, use Facebook help you, but do not rely on it as your only source of publicity!
Although it does seem like common sense, I'm constantly surprised by the amount of people who are lacking in common sense. I can think of over ten people who could seriously benefit from reading this article. Especially Number 2: Don't use facebook just to promote. I have a lot of theatre friends from back home, and I constantly see, "Hey, I'm in a show." "Hey people, come to my show." "Everyone should come to my show!" "Did I mention I have a show?" "Facebook I feel super connected to all of you that I never talk to and since we're all Super Special Friends will you please come to my show?" except usually it is in all caps but I am refraining so it is less painful to read this comment.
And then I have to be like, "Shut the fuck up", which is more effective than you think because people will tend to defriend you and then you don't have to read their crap anymore. The internet is fun.
I agree that this article is pretty much all common sense, that said I also agree with Rachael that there are quite a number of facebook members who dont necessarily use common sense while online.
Personally Im not really that into Facebook, I only really have one to keep up with Carnegie Mellon related things and to keep in touch with some friends overseas. So it does have its good points. I think you really need to be careful promoting a show on Facebook. I know quite a few people who like to share EVERYTHING on facebook and who act exactly the way that Rachael was talking about, and to them I would just roll my eyes if I even read the post at all. Also you have to think about who your "audience" s on Facebook. Most likely the majority of the people who will read whatever you have to say arent actually reading it because they are interested in your show, they are just obsessed with facebook, and thats all they ever do is read & post mostly trivial things. Also if you promote yourself in other ways than this article suggested, people who may be considering hiring you for a different show in the future may change their minds and consider someone a little less self focused. I personally am still a fan of sticking to word of mouth and putting up paper posters around the building/town your in.
I actually don't get on facebook that often. I know I am probably in the minority here, but I just don't have the time. I barely have time to keep up with texts, much less facebook. So, promoting your show to me may not work. I do see the benefit in doing this though. I think supporting your friends with "likes" is a good thing and I should strive to do better with that. I don't mind people promoting their shows on facebook and I really don't get irritated by it. I may not respond to many invites, but that's because I'm not on it very often. I suppose people could think I'm rude because I rarely respond because they don't know I'm rarely on. So, keep on promoting on facebook, but know that some of us may never see your post at all!
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