Written by ContentPowered.com
To the rest of us, it seems as though celebrity is its own reward, its own power. What use does a famous actress have for Facebook optimization techniques? All she needs to do is exist, and people will follow her. The same goes for actors, models, you name it. Name recognition alone is enough to bring in more followers than many small businesses ever see.
The thing is, social media is hard for many celebrities. They’re either out of touch or don’t want to be in touch, so they commit one of many common mistakes. Just look at some of these examples:
- Ryan Seacrest forgot that time zones exist and announced an American Idol contestant’s loss before the episode aired.
- Sarah Palin used a secondary Facebook account to add likes to events and messages for her campaign, among other things.
- Before she went baby crazy, Tila Tequila’s Facebook page was full of insanity, ranging from Egyptian pseudo-mythology to conspiracy theories and talk of the illuminati.
- Paramore’s lead singer mistook public posts for private messages and posted a topless photo for everyone to see.
- Rapper Bow Wow (among many others) posts about driving drunk… while driving drunk.
- Courtney Love.
And that’s just the famous people left unchecked on social media. They’re just like you and I, lacking that internal filter that tells you when it’s not a good idea to post something for millions of people to see.
On the other hand, you have the weird celebrities who can’t be bothered to use social media, but still want to leverage the audience they provide for some reason or another. Maybe they’re trying to be promotional, maybe they’re trying to sell a new fashion line or a new product, maybe they’ve just been told it’s something they need but they can’t bring themselves to learn why. They outsource their social presence, and are inevitably called out for it.
The social field is littered with celebrities and models, large and small, A list and C list, who made the wrong move and did the wrong thing. Twitter and Facebook don’t forget. How can you – or the model or actor/actress you manage – avoid these social gaffes while still finding success on the platform?
Be Real
Rule number one: be a real person. Even if you’re an actor hiring someone to manage your Facebook from day to day, they should be able to accurately mimic your voice. Ideally, you’ll run the page yourself.
An actor’s account that is filled with nothing but product placement promotions and advertising speech is pretty much worthless. No one is going to follow it, or if they do, they aren’t going to engage. You’ll get a lot of flak for being a corporate shill, even if it’s what you have to do to make money.
Vin Diesel is a great example of how you use Facebook properly. The actor has nearly 90 million likes, and they’re not just purchased from Bangladesh. The man knows how to use the platform, and he has fun doing it. For one thing, his profile is actually locked down if you don’t follow him. He doesn’t make a big deal out of it; he doesn’t demand you follow him to get insider tips or anything like that. He just keeps it closed down and lets people figure out why.
He also publishes a lot of photos, ranging from promotional shots to candid behind the scenes photos to fanart created by his fans. He engages with those fans, and he makes it clear he knows what’s going on in their minds.
Avoid Overt Promotion
In some ways, it’s the death of an A-list career when you start doing boring product commercials. What does William Shatner have beyond Expedia, these days? What about the actresses who haven’t been in a big budget production in years, shilling face creams and arthritis cures?
Facebook is like a final resting place for these people. When all you can do is promote products, you need to learn rule #1 of Facebook marketing; don’t promote on the platform. It’s one thing to run Facebook ads, but it’s quite another to produce a news feed filled with little more than product placement. At that point, just sell your Facebook account and let someone else run your name into the ground.
Social media is all about social interaction. It’s not about commercial interaction. Many celebrities use it to promote their work, which is fine, but to truly succeed they need to use it as more than just a commercial venue.
Thankfully, this trend is dying out. The newer generations of Hollywood actors and global models are people who were raised in a world where Facebook is normal. These people were Facebook and Twitter users before they were celebrities, so they know how to use the platform.
Think Before Speaking
Familiarity with Facebook doesn’t excuse a lack of forethought in posting, however. It’s all too common for a celebrity, actor, actress, model or public figure to post something they really, really shouldn’t. It might be racist, it might be racy, it might be wrong. Public displays of idiocy, sexual indiscretions, admissions of illegal activity; they’re all reputation killers.
Stay Within the Rules
Facebook has a number of rules about how to use the platform, and breaking those rules can lead to having an account banned or removed. Promotional language is one. Facebook doesn’t like promotion in organic posts, and while the rules are more geared towards businesses than towards actors and actresses, they still apply.
Another rule is about the content of posts. This frequently comes up in models and adult film stars, who may want to post material from their work, only to find it brought down for being too adult. In particular, some of these accounts need to be age-limited. Additionally, any images with sexual content are subject to removal from the platform.
It’s not impossible for models and celebrities to succeed on Facebook; it just requires a little bit of care. You’re in the public eye. You can’t just speak your mind, particularly when your mind has no filter.