You scored a TV gig. AWESOME! Now what?
Whether you’re a contestant on some new reality tv show or a guest on an existing popular franchise, leveraging this exposure starts BEFORE your make your TV debut.
First thing you want to do is ask a very simple yet honest question:
Who are you targeting with your online brand?
There are:
- your industry professionals – the casting directors, producers and filmmakers.
- your industry peers – fellow actors, writers and content creators.
- your audience – the people who pay with their time and money to watch you do your thing.
When you’re leveraging your website to build your tribe, knowing who you are targeting is super important. Your brand has a language and your website speaks this language so knowing who you’re talking to helps foster a meaningful conversation.
How you present yourself to an established producer is different from how you present yourself to your fans. You emphasize your assets differently.
- Soccer mom Sally doesn’t care that you worked with a prestigious cinematographer. She cares that you’re social conscious with the roles you choose.
- The casting director doesn’t care that you’re a vegan. He cares that you’re fluent in 3 languages and that you look 18-24.
Getting airtime on a TV show is a big deal but it’s not the endgame. You want to strategically position your online presence so that you can leverage yourself for future projects.
1. Figure out who you’re targeting and creating landing pages for them.
As an actor your homepage is different from other professionals because you’re constantly targeting different types of people. So why not just funnel them to the right place? If you target everyone on your home page then you’re talking to no one.
If you have industry professionals visiting your site create a page specifically for industry professionals. The same goes for industry peers and the general audience.
2. Always have an email optin available so others can join your list.
Even if you have nothing to send them, you don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to build a dedicated tribe. You don’t own Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, Youtube or Pinterest. Building an audience on those platforms is great for what it is but be very cognizant of their limitations.
Your list is yours. No one can take that from you. Your list is how you communicate with those who are interested and invested in your success. It’s better to have a list and not need it then need a list and not have it.
3. Be proactive in conversations online.
If your show airs Monday nights at 8pm then from 7:30 until 12am you are online talking with people who watched your show. Be aware of time zones and listen to what others are saying. Don’t just schedule a bunch of tweets. Be present in that moment.
Since this is probably when engagement with your audience will be at its highest, 5 hours once a week is not an unreasonable expectation when building your tribe.
4. Create graphics to share with relevant quotes and/or hashtags.
These are done in advance and with permission. Ask if you can have some stills from the production company. Most are more than willing to share these for the promotional purposes. Then get on Canva.com or PicMonkey.com and put some quotes or hashtags on them.
Share these during the show’s airtime or create simple teasers prior to when the episode(s) airs.
Give yourself enough time to prep your website and create any marketing graphics so that once that first episode airs, you can hit the ground running with your audience cultivation efforts.