In today's Internet-driven world, it is a great advantage to dancers and aspiring professional dancers to utilize social media. What began as a socializing on-line network has in fact become the best innovation to job seeking for those who utilize visual and performing arts as their desired profession. Not only does this open doors to connections and opportunities at great distances, both nationally and across the globe, it's also the best way to actively and consistently showcase your work and artistry.
Since most pre-professional and aspiring dancers are minors, the very first topic to cover with regards to your social media resume is understanding security of your information, safety of your person and appropriate use of social media. You want to always ensure that your identity information remains anonymous while at the same time, making it accessible for a company to contact you. In order to do this effectively, it is important to always involve your parents and/ or a professional dance resume coach, to help you design your social media campaign. Things such as never using the geography tags or announcing your location, or at least waiting until after the fact, is a good practice. Another is utilizing an alias, or your first name only. I never recommend minors to utilize their full name unless there are extenuating circumstances of benefit, but those circumstances are extremely rare. Even as you become a professional and perhaps gain fame, you want to be cognizant to utilize best, safety practices when it comes to on-line profiles.
Utilizing proper content is another big factor when utilizing social media for your dance career. If you use social media for personal purposes, be sure to set up a separate campaign and profile for your professional purposes. Your professional social media is essentially a 24/7 interview that anyone has access to view. So posting personal opinions, immature videos or pictures (you might think they are funny, but it spells out that you are not ready for the adult world and therefore a company contract that would likely take you away from home and your babysitters, i.e. your parents!) or any other controversial topics (religion, politics, any negativity towards any groups or even other dance companies and dancers) is likely to do you more harm than you realize.
In addition, you have to let your other social media active friends know that you can not be tagged on certain content that they might post. Social media is a great platform but in the hopes of having many connections, followers, friends, subscribers, etc. you are essentially trying to build your fame, and with that comes attaining and maintaining an appropriate image. That image should convey professionalism, maturity and the diversity of your dance training and artistry. Again, a professional dance coach can lend a robust plan for your social media campaign and image while assisting with the other aspects of your resume building and job search strategies. They will also be able to coach you on setting up profiles with appropriate safety settings, helping you to understand what you can post and what you can't (with regards to copyright laws) and back-linking all of your profiles to work with one another and raising your SEO.
In addition, you have to let your other social media active friends know that you can not be tagged on certain content that they might post. Social media is a great platform but in the hopes of having many connections, followers, friends, subscribers, etc. you are essentially trying to build your fame, and with that comes attaining and maintaining an appropriate image. That image should convey professionalism, maturity and the diversity of your dance training and artistry. Again, a professional dance coach can lend a robust plan for your social media campaign and image while assisting with the other aspects of your resume building and job search strategies. They will also be able to coach you on setting up profiles with appropriate safety settings, helping you to understand what you can post and what you can't (with regards to copyright laws) and back-linking all of your profiles to work with one another and raising your SEO.
YouTube & Vimeo
On-line videos are an excellent way to gain visibility with professional dance companies. Many organizations and artistic directors and even Summer Intensive Program developers are utilizing social media to find talent and recruit dancers. I always recommend utilizing both accounts, because while YouTube is more popular, Vimeo has a very high search index, higher than YouTube; therefore utilizing both, even if using the exact same content, gives you the best chances to get noticed. These channels are best utilized for footage on classes, rehearsals, competitions & and your yearly variations work, performances and your digital portfolio. If applicable, this is also a great way to feature your choreography, but again make sure you are aware of copyright infringement laws with regards to music.
Instagram vs. SnapChat
Now I realize that SnapChat with its various photo and video apps are a lot of fun and its gaining a lot of popularity, but again, when we think in terms of building your dance career, SnapChat, at present, has little to offer except as a platform to gain other followers and direct them to your other profiles. Instagram, however, has lots to offer. Because the images and videos can be as permanent as you want, this acts as an additional digital portfolio. And its typically pretty easy to keep the content posted consistently using your phone and other resume building techniques. It allows images and 15 second videos and an unlimited follower base. This profile is best used for class and professional photography, videos of you showing your best tricks, such as 32 fouettes on pointe, behind the scenes of your performances and competitions, etc. Building followers (real followers, not fake ones) is important and Instagram is good because there is no limit on the number of followers/ connections (unlike LinkedIn and Facebook). Followers are critical, not just for the ego boost or networking, but as you begin to build followers, Instagram is still the best and easiest way to becoming a Brand Ambassador. Some companies may come across your profile on their own and send you info to contact them for information on becoming a Brand Ambassador or to model their clothing or shoes. Other companies, usually the bigger and more legit ones that you would want to be tied to, have to be sought after and have an application process developed to submit for Brand Ambassador candidacy. Utilizing your professional dance coach is the easiest way to make Brand Ambassadorship a success and helping you to create a strategy to gain followers that will garner you these opportunities. And receiving Brand Ambassador endorsements is a great way to earning additional income as a dancer.
LinkedIn
Although LinkedIn was intended for corporate job searching and networking, it has trickled into the other professions as well, including the world of performing arts. Part of this is due to the fact that dance organizations need corporate donors and sponsor relationships, so many of the Executive Directors, Board of Directors officers and other high profile staff, such as Artistic Directors utilize this social media platform. Which means, dancers could, and should, also. Since LinkedIn is usually set up with a person's actual first and last name, be careful of how this links to your other profiles when you use an alias or first name only, etc. or use the same discretion with your identity and to your geography. LinkedIn can be set up with similar info from your paper resume (minus the body stats and specific contact info, of course). The best advantage to utilizing a LinkedIn profile is to be proactive in making those dance connections yourself, rather than with other profiles, you are waiting for them to find you.
Facebook
Unfortunately, my personal opinion on Facebook is, nothing good ever comes of it. This, of course, is not always true and there are several examples out there of how Facebook has been a successful medium for job searching. But for me personally, I find that Facebook is best at and should remain a personal-only social media site. I feel that the other platforms can be set up with a more professional image and it just becomes too easy for something on Facebook to harm that image. And when you factor in their friends limit of only 5000 people, it just doesn't do much for the individual dancer in terms of gaining visibility.
Twitter, in the world of job searching and with its short messaging niche, is best used as a reminder and announcement platform. It's an easy way to link all of your social media profile activity, i.e. you can post notices of new things posted to your YouTube channel, you can post similar images and video clips that can refer to your Instagram, draw attention to activity on your LinkedIn, etc. You can also post personal short notices so that your audience and followers start to know you as a person. Favorite and inspirational quotes are good, something new you learned in class, that you are "nervous about a big audition or competition coming up soon, so wish me luck!" messages build that personal touch.
As you become more involved with posting content and building several events, performing opportunities and brand ambassadorships, at some point it may also make sense for you to build a personal website. And, always, always, always exercise safety and security with social media, I can not stress this enough. If you are a minor and your parents are not necessarily social media savvy, always employ a professional dance resume coach. The investment is worth it for your safety and your career strategy success.
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