Tanya Kersey | Hollywood Career Strategist | Hollywood Career Coach | Entertainment Industry Consultant | Hollywood Career Resources

Yes­ter­day I talked about how to net­work online in Hol­ly­wood with­out piss­ing every­one off.  Today I want to talk about how to net­work online in Hol­ly­wood with­out being labelled a lunatic.

There are some cer­ti­fi­ably crazy folks in Hol­ly­wood.  We all know that.  But with the advent of social net­work­ing, par­tic­u­larly Face­book, many of them have been exposed.  The freaks come out online!

What I am going to say applies only to peo­ple who are using Face­book as a net­work­ing tool in Hol­ly­wood.  So if peo­ple other than your par­ents, sib­lings and friends are see­ing your page, this applies to you.

Think of me as your online social net­work­ing psy­chother­a­pist and let me help those of you who are killing your careers online.

Last week I was hav­ing din­ner with a col­league and the sub­ject of Face­book came up.  We both started talk­ing about the same “nutty” Face­book indus­try friends and their mani­a­cal posts.  It was amaz­ing that we both put the same peo­ple in the “fruit­cake” cat­e­gory.  That’s how pow­er­ful Face­book is!  

I know quite a few peo­ple on Face­book who every­one is chuck­ling about.  Remem­ber, what we see of you, read from and about you, is what we think if you. It’s not good if folks are talk­ing about your “loose screws” because of how you present your­self on Face­book!

Let me ask you — does your Face­book pro­file and posts rep­re­sent the YOU that YOU want to present to your col­leagues and the indus­try?  Does it speak to where you are in your career?  Does it reflect your tal­ents?  Does it present you as a smart, intel­li­gent, well-rounded per­son who makes smart choices or an issue-laden, attention-seeking looney who belongs in the local psych ward?

If you are going to have a Face­book pro­file that peo­ple in the indus­try can see, before you post any­thing, ask your­self “does this post project the ME that I want peo­ple to see?”

Think about this.  If you’re always post­ing ques­tions and ask­ing your friends what they think, you may appear as an inse­cure per­son who lacks self-confidence and needs the approval of oth­ers.  If you’re dis­cussing your per­sonal body image that can trans­late to a lack of self-confidence.  If you’re always send­ing goofy stuff and stu­pid gifts one might think you are not too bright.  And repeat­edly post­ing rhetor­i­cal ques­tions and think­ing out loud is just wrong!   These are really some of the things peo­ple may come away with after vis­it­ing your pro­file and read­ing your posts.

I have to say some­thing about Mafia Wars and Far­mville.  It okay to play games, but don’t be obnox­ious about it. It’s OK if you want to play Mafia Wars, or build a farm. I get it – I play some of these games as well. But when the game asks you if you want to pub­lish some­thing to your wall announc­ing that you just found a secret stash of yel­low bananas, hit the “skip” but­ton. Don’t tell the world. I went to a wanna-be pro­duc­ers page and found PAGES UPON PAGES of Far­mville posts.  I was like, what #@??%#@*%^ ?  

Finally, don’t abuse the abil­ity to post your Face­book sta­tus. It specif­i­cally says “What’s on your mind?”…not “What are you cur­rently doing every five min­utes of your life”.   There are some peo­ple that report on what’s hap­pen­ing every half hour, and oth­ers who change their sta­tuses sev­eral times a day.  If we wanted to fol­low your every move, we would be fol­low­ing you on Twit­ter.  No one wants to know your every thought, all day, every day!

Now this is not a call to stop post­ing and com­ment­ing on Face­book.  I use it every­day and there’s noth­ing wrong with that.  I just you to be aware of how you’re pre­sent­ing your­self.  I hope that all of you will do an hon­est assess­ment and eval­u­a­tion of your Face­book pro­file. Look over the last 5–10 pages and ask your­self hon­estly what type of per­son you are pre­sent­ing to the indus­try?  Ask your friends (don’t post the ques­tion! LOL) what they think and ask them to tell you the truth.  

Strate­gic use of social net­work­ing can an effec­tive way of rais­ing your social pro­file in Hol­ly­wood and forg­ing new rela­tion­ships.  How­ever, in order to cap­i­tal­ize on social networking’s power, you have to do it right.  Don’t sab­o­tage your­self.  Think about what you say and how you say it.  And remem­ber, peo­ple who are REALLY doing things in Hol­ly­wood are too busy to be post­ing it all on Facebook.