29 September 2016
Social Media Marketing
The importance of exposure.
by Lynda Goetz
Gemma Arterton, the English actress who has gained Hollywood status (although apparently only B- by her own admission) declared in an interview with The Guardian’s Eva Wiseman that she was not interested in pandering to ‘the money people’, who are apparently increasingly looking at actors’ following on social media to determine casting. The theory seemingly goes that if an actor or actress has more ‘followers’, then more people are likely to go and watch a film in which they appear, so box office takings will be higher. In an act of direct opposition to such tactics, Miss Arterton declared she has deleted all social media apps from her phone. She does not consider that posting Instagrams of what she had for breakfast, lunch or dinner or of what she is wearing or who she is dating should have any bearing on her ability to do her job. Good for her. She is absolutely right, of course, but can she and other actors get away with such a stance? Indeed can any of us, these days?
This trend has already attracted criticism in the publishing industry, where an online presence has proved almost indispensable to would-be authors getting into print. It is entirely unsurprising that it should have spread to the film industry as well. Were you to research the role of social media in marketing, there are endless sites you could visit, but the conclusion, in pretty much every case, whether it be an academic paper or a business which can ‘help’ you with marketing your own business, seems to be that the role of social media is vital in today’s markets. Whether you are selling widgets, services, houses, books or films or indeed effectively yourself as writer, actor, politician or stand-up comic, it would seem that social media is an indispensable tool in your armoury.
A Fashion Week Special in The Telegraph focusing on Milan, highlighted the fact that ‘Italian luxury brands are leading the way in chasing social media audiences like never before’. Young faces in the front row of the Dolce & Gabbana show included a 21-year-old American ‘internet personality’ with 51.6 million followers, one Cameron Dallas; Swedish singer Zara Larsson (1.9m Instagram followers) and the girlfriend of Will Smith’s son, Jaden, Sarah Snyder, a model with 883k followers. Max Mara, Fendi, Versace, Bottega Veneta and Moschino simply used American sisters, Gigi and Bella Hadid (‘fashion models and television personalities’ according to Wikipedia) with nearly 30 million followers between them, to model their clothes, thus ensuring maximum social media coverage for their shows. (Just by way of comparison, Versace itself has only just over 900k followers). So, as in the case of film producers, it appears that models, like actors, are being booked not simply on their catwalk appeal or ability to ‘do the job’, but on their social media reach.
As the author of an article on a site for a business offering social media services suggests, the aim of the game for most actors starting out is exposure. The writer concludes that ‘at the end of the day your social media presence is fast turning into the current-day version of your hard-copy CV and headshots’. He must have a point here and whilst many of us may rail against the intrusive nature of social media, not to mention the time-wasting aspects of it, it is almost certainly here to stay. As an actor, a writer, a politician or whatever, it may not be possible to simply turn off our social media apps or indeed refuse to have any in the first place. I promise I will get round to opening those Twitter and Instagram accounts. But will I have any followers? OMG will I really need to put up pictures of my breakfasts or of what I am wearing? No, surely not. No-one is going to want to know what writers wear, are they? Or perhaps they are and the future circulation of The Shaw Sheet will depend upon it. As an online publication, we clearly cannot ignore the trend; after all, even The Gazette, the official public record for 350 years, and set up as an ‘alternative to scurrilous gossip and rumour’, according to its own history page, has Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. I’m not sure though that any of its writers will be getting Instagram accounts any time soon, but then they probably aren’t looking for exposure either.
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