Social Media Etiquette- How To Get Noticed In A Positive Way

February 26, 2016February 26, 2016Altomedia Leave a comment

Something has been bothering me for a while and it is time to get it off my chest. I believe in freedom of speech and expression, but your freedom ends where it starts hurting others. I have seen a lot of bullying, negative and rude comments. I am tired of biting my tongue! Accounts are being created for the sole purpose to troll around and stir things up just for entertainment. It is not funny to harm or attack others just to get attention!

Too many people are hiding behind a safe smoke screen while attacking celebrities or other accounts. It is too easy to use the anonymity of an avatar and post rude comments or offensive pictures. Times are changing and so should our etiquette. We need new rules or guidelines on how to use Social Media in a polite and effective way.

Let’s look at some “Do’s and Don’ts for a Positive Social Media Experience” by Stewardship for example.
If you are bored, read a book or watch a movie. Don’t get on the internet looking for trouble. Being a troll might be entertaining for you, but, just like bullying, can really hurt others.
Treat people like you want to be treated. Watch your language, don’t tweet or post anything you would not say in public.

Celebrities, no matter if you like or dislike them, are just people too, with private lives and a right to respect. Don’t invade their boundaries or verbally attack them. You may think they won’t see it, but that one nasty response amid 100 friendly ones, might get noticed!
It seems some people enjoy pushing other’s buttons. They do anything just to see a reaction, to get attention. Sadly enough it works. The squeaky wheel is more likely to get noticed. But I would rather see positive reactions to my posts than negative ones.

Also, it’s really not fair to insult a public person while hiding like a coward. They have no way to respond or defend themselves, because, unlike you, they have to watch what they post or say on Social Media.
Speaking of, you should be careful too. Often enough even anonymous posts can catch up to you in the real world, especially when seeking employment, or on the job.

No, it’s not ok to tell your favorite celebrity they look tired, their clothes don’t fit right, or to correct their spelling. Nobody likes a know-it-all. It is rude to comment on their sexuality, and family or relationships are off limits too.
As a rule of thumb, don’t post anything you would not dare to say to their face.

If you had a few drinks stay off Social Media! You might think you are funny and witty, but you will cringe reading your posts or tweets the next day! Social Media and alcohol don’t mix well!

Now I want to share how to tweet or post better. I have gotten many likes, responses and even follows from celebrities over the years. Sometimes I am still shocked, like, when a few days ago, @MTV tweeted at me! They only have 13.4 million followers!

Most peeps think only of themselves, and that is the problem. You have to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. If your favorite actor posts a picture, most responses, aside from the occasional insult, inadvertently contain “I love you!” or “Please follow me!”. I’m sorry, but that is not only lame, but stupid! Do you really think a celebrity would follow you just because you ask?

Try to use a sense of humor in your tweet, or give an intelligent reply that relates to the original post. Something that shows you not only read and understood it, but can relate to the message. If you want to get a response, your tweet has to be about them, not yourself! All these requests for birthday wishes are really getting old too!

Express yourself, use emojis, try to show some personality. The written word gets often misunderstood, we don’t all have the same sense of humor. Not everybody understands sarcasm, and a lot gets also lost in translation. Using a winking or smiling emoji shows more clearly that you are joking.

Be kind, post positive messages, be nice to others and most will be friendly to you…and for the rest there is still the helpful block button! Try to be yourself, don’t fake or pretend anything, but, most of all, have fun! Social Media is amazing and I really enjoy to be able to interact with actors, directors, news and magazines…endless possibilities!

“The Power Of Fandom” – The GQ James Bond Poll Part 2

October 30, 2015Altomedia Leave a comment

We just wrote about the power of fan’s voices on Social Media and their impact 6 days ago. Now, as of today, we have the result! The good news is, Luke Evans won in a tight, head to head race! This is a huge accomplishment since he was not on the original list of contenders, but a wildcard entry. His fans worked tirelessly until yesterday 6pm UK time, and waited anxiously for the result until this morning.
When Mr. Evans realized he had won, he tweeted a very sweet, personal message for his fandom, the people that had supported and voted for him, as a “Thank you”, and yes, they knew who he meant!

“The power of fandom” tweeted by Luke Evans

That tweet was so warm, friendly and personal, it made all the previous work worthwhile!
The only thing that ruined this special moment for his Luketeers a bit, was how GQ had handled it. The writer for GQ, that had run and written for the GQ ‘Battle Of The Bonds ‘poll, a Mr. Max Williams, who can be found at his Twitter account @maxwykeham, has an interesting writing style. While I may enjoyed some clever remarks as witty and funny, I could interpret others as veiled insults or backhanded compliments. This morning the article about Luke Evans winning the poll was online for 1 hour before GQ Magazine even tweeted it! Fans were already congratulating Mr. Evans and each other until, finally, GQ officially made their announcement.

Congratulation tweet created by @FrenchLuketeer on behalf of other fans

The second disappointment was the article that Mr. Williams had written for GQ Magazine. After all those hints at “Pride” and “proud” I don’t find his article very polite or professional. We all know what Luke Evans’ Wiki page says, there is really no need to repeat it 3 times in one paragraph just to maybe further one’s personal agenda. Don’t try to claim a celebrity as a poster child for your own purposes, that is not the right thing to do.

I am tired of political correctness. It shouldn’t matter if a person is black or white, male or female to become President Of The United States. We should just elect the best person for the job!
It also makes no difference if an actor is black or white, or what he does in his personal life. A studio should select, in an ideal world, an actor based on his talent and if he has the right look for the role! Luke Evans looks very much like a James Bond with his masculine, chiseled face. He has proven he can play not only dark roles, but he also stood next to Vin Diesel, who highly recommended him for the next James Bond, in front of cameras in the action movie ‘Fast & Furious 6’. So he is obviously well qualified. His personal life has nothing to do with it!

It is one thing what I write on my personal blog or what Mr. Williams writes for GQ Magazine. We just expected a magazine with a good reputation like that to be a little more classy.

To finish this story, we just saw an interesting article by Deadline Hollywood about auctioning off the rights to the next James Bond movie. Several studios like Warner, MGM and Paramount are part of the chase. It looks like it’s going to be a wild ride until the next studio and the next James Bond will team up, but we really hope that this James Bond poll put the name Luke Evans on people’s radars, and studios and agents are taking notice!

Charities On Social Media……And The Celebrities That Support Them

June 21, 2015June 21, 2015Altomedia 1 Comment

Charities have always relied on public support to reach their goals, and used direct mailing, magazines, advertising and their websites to reach their supporters and donors.
But more and more charities are looking at Social Media to reach a larger number of people. Not only does that give charities the opportunity to get in touch with more potential supporters, but also a chance to interact one-on-one with the public through tweets, posts or message boards.

An article in The Guardian described in 2013 how to look at different Social Media channels and choose the one that is right for you, and how to use it effectively.

“When planning your social media campaign, think carefully about what you want to achieve and who you want to engage with, then choose your channels based on who you want to reach. For example, LinkedIn is a professional tool, whereas Facebook tends to target a broader and younger audience. While it’s tempting to throw yourself in and sign up to as many free accounts as you can, be aware that you will need to interact if you want supporters to view your social media stream as a reliable way to communicate with you. Keep your social media moving – introduce news, provide usable content, stay active and regularly update your information. Nobody is going to interact with an account that’s been dormant for six months, so stay relevant and topical where possible.”

Charities always tried to connect with celebrities to support their cause through campaigns or as a spokes person. Now we see a lot of actors not only donate their time, but also use their Social Media accounts as a platform to get the message out to their followers.

Luke Evans on Cyber Abuse

Luke Evans is very active in supporting charities through Twitter, Face Book or on Instagram. We saw Luke tweet about Movember last November, he has been a Bvlgari ‘Save The Children’ Ambassador for a long time, our header image shows him at the RBC race for the kids at Battersea park, he tweets about “Save Mali the Elephant”, “Save the Arctic” and just recently ” Cash& Rocket”-Raising money for women and children in Africa.

Luke Evans for Cash & Rocket

His fans love him for supporting all these good causes and came up with the idea to collect money amongst themselves through a fundraiser in honor of his 36th birthday to War Child UK.

Sandra at Luke Evans Talk set up fundraiser with his Luketeers

Other actors who donate their time and throw the support of their fans and followers behind a good cause are Chris Pratt, Robert Downey Jr. or Richard Armitage to name just a few!
These are two of many tweets from June 18th for Cybersmile!

Richard Armitage for Cybersmile Foundation

Richard Armitage #SCD2015

If you love Social Media as much as we do you can see many examples of celebrities supporting a good cause. One more person we would like to mention is Ricky Gervais. He tirelessly supports animal rights on his Twitter account with 8.7 Million followers. Please check out #StopYuLin2015! It is a campaign against the torture and abduction of cats and dogs for the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. We all can make a difference by tweeting about it using hashtag #StopYuLin2015

Twitter Etiquette For Actors, How To Tweet Like A Pro And Get Noticed

May 16, 2015May 16, 2015Altomedia Leave a comment

We have talked about Twitter etiquette for actors before, but how should you tweet if you want to be noticed by talent agents or casting directors?

Social media is an extremely powerful promotion tool. The best part is that it’s free, but it can also be a double edged sword if you don’t watch yourself.

As an up-and-comer, you have an advantage that those who came before you didn’t. Twitter. This gives you access to important industry people who can make your dreams of stardom come true. Twitter is not only there to interact with fans, but potentially with talent recruiters.

Let’s face it, most actors are in the business for two reasons. Because they love it and because they want to become a household name, but it takes a lot of years of hard work to make it and not all do.

Twitter can put you in contact with people like Marci Liroff, casting director extraordinaire, of whom we have also spoken before. Maybe not all casting directors use Twitter as a talent recruiting tool, but Liroff does and she has some unwritten rules she follows, according to an interview on BackStage.

“It’s not like there’s a rule book, but there are definitely rules on Twitter and there is etiquette. A lot of people still don’t understand how to use it, so they’re just kind of blathering out these thoughts that they shouldn’t be talking about, or hitting me up and sending me a message like, ‘Look at my demo.’ We have no relationship, we’ve never talked before, but suddenly they find out that I’m on Twitter, and I’m just getting besieged by people that want something from me but have no relationship with me. I think it makes people very foolishly powerful.”

That’s powerful stuff if you’re an actor and use Twitter. First of, it’s crucial to establish a relationship, by interacting — without pushing — with the other person, unless you want to find yourself on their blacklist. Even if you know a casting director or talent agent is active on Twitter, resist the urge, until they get to know you better.

How do you do that? By retweeting and commenting on their posts. Thank them for good advice and show them you are interested in what they have to say. You can even ask a question here and there, again, without selling yourself, but showing them that you are willing to take their advice seriously. Liroff puts it in laymen terms, be natural and treat Twitter like you would a social event.

“I try and look at everything I possibly can, because you never know, but it’s all in the approach. They say social media really is like a cocktail party or a dinner party, and you should treat it as such. You wouldn’t just walk into a stranger’s house with your DVDs and shove them in their face and say, ‘Here! Look at this!’ But that’s kind of, in essence, what you’re doing.”

Words of wisdom for actors using Twitter, follow the guidance and who knows, you may land that part that could change your life.

[Image via Juan Pablo Di Pace/Twitter]