Twitter and How to Use It

Sometimes life has a habit of getting in the way of even the most well planned of things. That is what has happened with my blog of late. Life, in the form of my own insecurities and foibles, has left me rather distracted of late so I have neglected my blog for almost two months.

I shall try, but won't promise, to provide a blog post at least once a month from here on in.

This particular post is being written at the request of one of the most highly regarded headshot photographers around, Mr Michael Wharley.

He is off to the NSDF conference this year and has asked if he can feature me as an example of an actor who uses Twitter effectively. Once I was over the shock of being asked if he can use my Twitter page as an example we talked the topic over a little and I decided that I would blog on the slightly wider topic of "How to Use Twitter if you're an Actor"

Not meaning to sound like I know what I'm talking about, and absolutely not meaning to lecture but it does strike me that there are some very simple rules to follow when using Twitter as a professional tool no matter what your profession.

Firstly there is the little matter of picking your name. Pick it carefully.

As much as your Equity and Spotlight names are your brand name so is your online presence part of the same brand. The fact that your schoolmates might well have called you Wobblybottom or that you really did have an email address that was "punanimaster@...." is something that you need to leave behind you.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, smacks of a lack of professionalism more than having an unprofessional online name. Your email address, even if it's a free web-based email, and your Twitter account are professional tools and need to be treated as such. The simplest solution is to just try to get an account that matches your name as closely as possible. If you have to veer away from that because some other person has already nabbed your name then so be it but don't veer off into the inane or profane.

If you want brand consistency across all platforms then I would suggest looking into sites like NameChk which allows you to check name availability on almost all forms of social media or Know'em which does something very similar but also allows you to check domain name availability and then gives you the option to pay for a service which will register your chosen name on up to 300 websites in one go. Personally I didn't much see the point in the pay service when you really only want to grab the top sites anyway but the option is there to use if you so desire.

Now you've got your page reserved what do you do with it?

This is Twitter we're talking about here so I will stick with that, although these can be extended to other social media sites too of course. Twitter allows you to change the background to your page. So change it. Even if you just tile your main headshot over the page that is something. And use a professional headshot as your avatar too.

I know these may sound like idiot guides but heigh-ho... Now you've set up your page you need to start to follow people. Personally I think there is limited mileage to be gained from following the celebrity Twitterati as you will not really be able to engage them in conversation. (Even if you do you will probably be speaking with the web manager employed to Tweet on behalf of the celeb anyway.) When I started out I found the Twitter accounts for as many of the London Fringe theatres I could find and then followed them. I looked at who they followed and followed them. That way I quickly built up a list of people I was following who were at least interested in theatre.

Read their posts. Reply. Ask questions. And above all else be prepared to help out too. If people need a retweet of one of their messages then retweet it. If you're stuck for something to say then ask who you can help.

I treat Twitter as part of the job of being an actor. Of course it doesn't improve my acting per se, nor will it get you auditions but if you follow film and theatre production companies, directors, and above all else casting directors, then you will hear about things in the pipeline often before they are public knowledge and that gives you a chance to be helpful.

There are some fringe producers out there who will look at a Twitter presence and if you've a growing following on here and someone else has none they will tend to offer parts to the actor who can readily market an upcoming show to their following.

Twitter isn't just about getting bums on seats though. Acting can be a very lonely profession at times and online social media can provide you with support and guidance in those times when you are ready to quit. And everyone has those moments sometimes. If you have engaged with people and shown compassion then you will get compassion back in return.

Speaking personally and entirely subjectively here I can say that there have been times when Twitter has given me room to vent and let off steam and others when it has given me strength and succour to continue. It has also put me in contact with some wonderful people who produce work that I truly admire. Of course, overtime, as you build your own online presence your personality will start to shine through. That is a good thing. You cannot expect to be entirely business focussed all the time and it's to be encouraged to have opinions on things and to Tweet them too.

I have seen people use paid-for Follower tools on Twitter. I decided long ago not to go down that path as even though they would generate a large kick in follower numbers it is doubtful that many of them would be even vaguely interested in theatre, film, or acting in any form so what would be the point of having the number for the sake of the number. I would rather quality over quantity any day.

As I've said before, spend time reading the Tweets from people who you follow. And reply. Twitter is a modern day version of the chat over the garden fence and it's going to be a very dull conversation if only one person talks all the time.

Be proactive. Be helpful. Be mindful too.

By mindfulness I mean don't flood your timeline with a million tweets about your undying love for Justin Beiber/One Direction/Twilight etc. It might well be that you will marry one of them but it gets very dull, very quickly when all you do is tweet about them. So think about what you post. Share the things you like. Share the things you really don't like. Share enough to allow people to see who you are beyond just being an actor.

Train of thought... tangental

It's been a few days since my last blog entry and I've been wrestling with what purpose this blog will serve long-term (if any). It was never meant to be a day by day account of my life and my thoughts, anyway that's what Twitter is for, so that means that this space has to be reserved for bigger, more complex issues. Perhaps I will use this space to campaign against arts cuts, or maybe I'll have a space where I can enter the debate about actors, professional actors, people with years of training being expected to work for nothing other than the opportunity of working with a "really talented crew/director" or on a "really exciting" project which may, at some vague point in the future, perhaps determined by the removal of all reality shows from our screens, lead to some work on some future project.

Perhaps I'll use this space to talk about how being an actor is not all about what you do on stage or on screen but also includes the business side of things, and then maybe include the steep learning curve that that necessitates.

Maybe I'll ramble on endlessly about the quality of the paper you use to print your business cards on actually, really, being a matter of importance and then wax lyrical about the subtle off-white colouring, the tasteful thickness of it, and Oh my God, if it has a watermark.


The thought even struck me that I should perhaps mention that the "casting couch" is alive and well in London in 2011 and go into detail, without mentioning names of course, about the audition I had with a female producer of uncertain years who made it clear to me that if I wanted a big part then so did she. But I thought that might not appreciate that sort of salacious story. I even thought about taking that and running sideways with it into the minefield of delights that can be the "showmance" but then I thought long and hard about what I would write and decided I will write whatever comes into my head and make no apologies for doing so. All of which brings me to write this....

What hope is there for an actor when the casting calls that land on his desk include wonderful ones such as "man, heavy breather, white, decadent, sleazy haircut" and this comes the week after I go to a casting for "Man.. Not Albert Einstein." Seriously guys, is this really the way you want to conduct your castings? 


"Hello Easy Casting Services. How can I help you?"
"Well I'm trying to cast a project and need your help."
"Sure, what's the breakdown?"
"Man. Oh and can you make sure he isn't Albert Einstein please?"
"That it? Age? Height? Hair colour? Size? Any of that important?"
"Erm... no. No. Not really. Just make sure he isn't Albert Einstein."


How on earth can you cast something when you have no idea what it is you're looking for?


I'm not meaning to be obtuse here but I really don't understand the thought process that goes from seeing a character take shape on a page and ends up being "oh anyone who isn't Einstein". Just for the record, I'm not a virgin to the casting process as I've assisted in casting an increasing number of short and feature films. 


(I apologise for this now turning into a bit of a rant but I'm in my groove and going with the flow here!)

And whilst I'm on the subject of casting I've just come back from a play (which shall remain nameless but my review of which will appear tomorrow on a certain fringe theatre listing website) in which the casting choices were just odd. The youngest actress, playing the youngest character, was a dream. The middle one... so so... and the one playing the mother.. well.. ahem... erm... I'm reminded of the "nice buttons" review that Coward is reported to have given once to the son of a friend after his lamentable performance in a play that Coward had the misfortune to sit through. At this point I'm about to mention my mother who, when I saw her last week and after talking her through all the projects I've completed whilst she's been cruising around the seas in the some boat or other, and then going through the meetings and the various fires which currently have irons of mine in turned and said, "That's all very interesting dear but it's not real theatre is it? Or real films are they?"

According to the world my parents live in, for they are both as bad as each other sometimes, but it's just mum that says things, it's not "real" theatre unless it's within Zone 1, has tickets for sale at TKTS and garners at least a 4 star review in that most august of newspapers the Daily Mail, and similarly it is not "real" cinema unless it has posters in the Tube advertising it, Redd Pepper voicing the trailer, and preferably Colin Firth in it too.

Parents! Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. At least not until I know for sure where the will is!

Procrastination

Honestly, if procrastination was an Olympic sport I'd be a sure thing to win gold at 2012.

I'm sure you all know the situation. I've got lines to learn, and others to refresh, and what am I doing? Well suffice to say the kitchen's not been so clean in years, the cats are both nicely groomed and content after being bathed (yes bathed) dried and groomed, and I can confidently inform you all that the macaroons from the Covent Garden branch of Laduree are literally divine.

After my four and a bit mile run this morning I popped into Laduree to pick myself up a little treat and the woman behind the counter greeted me with a smile and said, "Bonjour Monsieur! Do you know we 'av only been open for, erm, quatre days and you 'ave been in every single one so 'av a macaroon on ze huis!"

I'm not quite sure where she originally came from but I'm guessing it's not Essex.

Moving on, I'm sitting here with a screenplay open, and I have an odd way of learning lines. Simple repetition doesn't do it for me unless it's a monologue. I wish it did. It would be simpler that what I have to do instead. For I have to retype the entire script out with all the other character dialogue on the right hand side of the page and mine on the left. Honestly I've no idea why I need to do it this way, but currently I do. So, laptop open, printer cartridges full, paper loaded, coffee made, cats asleep I open up a New Document page in Open Office... and I type... a whole line. Not even mine but a whole line nevertheless. And then the phone rings.

"Hello mum"
"Oh hello...."
"What do you mean 'Oh hello'? You dialled me!"
"Oh yes.. well I... oh never mind...How did your audition go at the weekend?"
"That one in Cambridge?"
"Yes that's the one, we're looking forward to having a trip out to see you somewhere nice like that, and in a proper play at last.."
"A 'proper play'? So those Shakespeare and Ibsen ones you came to see weren't 'proper'?"
"You know what I mean. In a proper theatre. With a box office..."

and so that conversation went on for about 20 more minutes. After which I obviously needed a little pick-me-up so I decided to pop to Laduree and grab a little macaroon... I didn't even get there because I bumped into an old friend, someone I trained with, who was on his way to meet an agent who I know socially. He suggests I come along to say Hi, which I do. Anyway, 2 hours after popping out to grab a little something as a pick me up I'm back home. Looking at the same document open on my laptop. The same one line glaring out from the screen and the same 142 pages of screenplay to go through.... and then my inbox pings and I've got email... I click on it and it's someone asking me to contribute to her new blog... Just random thoughts and stuff about being an actor in London just starting out etc... I make like the man from Del Monte and say Yes and then start thinking. Hold on, I thought, I used to make a living out of writing random stuff so why not do it again? And if I was going to do it, then why not put it on my own blog instead of giving it to someone else to use?

Great! I'll write a blog! Now, if only I knew how to go about hosting one... do I want to be "Anon" so I can be brutally honest, or will I put my name to it? I decided to go semi-anon as I've posted the blog address on Twitter and Facebook so it's not exactly hard to find out who I am.... Of course I will reveal more as I reveal more about the life of the man behind the actor's mask... Now I really ought to get on with some work.. oh hold on, Deal or No Deal's on!

Welcome to the Actorvist

This is my very first blog and my very first post within it so I'll introduce myself.

I'm an actor. Note the absence of a capital A in that word please. It means a lot to me that I am an actor and not an Actor. I'm young in mind, eager to learn and eager to share my experiences of the audition trail, the endless networking, the plethora of decent scripts that never seem to hit my desk after standing by and letting the rubbish ones through, and the ups and downs, the highs and the lows, the laughs and the inevitable tears that being at the foothills of this business bring.

I'll be honest. I'll not tell tales. And I trust you will enjoy my rambling thoughts as they unfold.