Today we live in a society that focuses so much on 'image.' We are surrounded by adverts, TV programmes and mobile phones, all of which are visual means of communication and all of which are continuously expanding and developing. I can't get over how much people are engaged with teachnology and the other day when I was on the train I sat and thought, 'every single person in this carriage is on a phone or a laptop.' The truth is, we CARE about the technological world, because we CARE what the world thinks of us and we understand the power that it holds - you can truly reach ANYONE you wish. You can potentially influence someone's thoughts. It's that simple.
How does this benefit Professional Practice?
Over the years I've noticed just how much digital technology can benefit Professional Practice. The saying 'an image can speak a thousand words' is so incredibly true. It's also a way of creating a desired impression to an audience, whatever that may be, which gives you the control over the image that you want to send out to people. The headshot on my Actor CV played a massive role in my 'castability', determining what jobs I would get and allowed me to show myself in the best possible light.
The Instagram Experiment
Here on instagram you can see that I started off with no followers at all. I simply uploaded pictures of my acting work and experiences in order to attempt to reach people through the medium of image. I noticed that by using the # sign, I could target a particular audience specifically. For example, when uploading the ensemble picture from my stadium arts performance with the National Youth Theatre, I added #nationalyouththeatre which therefore meant that anyone who was interested in the National Youth Theatre would see this picture.
I received 5 likes from this as a result!
Recently I have uploaded one more picture and interestly have gained (despite it being very small...) 1 follower!!
What this shows me is that it's good to be selective about the images you send out to other people. It makes me ask the question, 'why did they like this particular picture and why have they started to follow me? Why did that picture alone spark some interest?'
This shows the power that one image can have.
19th Century Perfomance of Trelawny of the Wells
Waiting in the dressing room ready to perform
Photograph taken by Veroniki Kyriakopoulou
This also proves that people love to follow a journey and to engage with someone's story and it is up to us as professionals to show use the highlights to our own advantage, because this truly shows our personal and professional progression.
My actor journey can be viewed at: www.instagram.com/emmafitchett
This is a very straightforward yet unbelievably effective experiment - the power of the simple '#' never fails to surprise me. I am half thinking of displaying the correlation between the sharing certain blogs on my social media and the level of views rising on those particular blogs in a graph format (I am not sure how to go about this yet). It is clear that when you tap into the usage of Web 2.0 forums for a positive reason; you can use it for your own benefit.
ReplyDeletePS you have gained another follower :)
Eleanor
Thank you, Eleanor!
DeleteI also have a personal Instagram where I upload photos of leisure activities with friends and photos of myself that are perhaps a little more 'vein!' I have also alternated since then on making my personal account, public, then private, then public, then private again! I seem to have this inward battle of thoughts where I think 'do people I don't know need to see these pictures of my private life?!' Professional seems so different, because you actually want to grab people's attention to your art! This has shown me that context is very important and begs the question that I asked on a recent blog of yours, again, 'how much is too much?' And 'where do you draw the line?'
P.s. You also have a new follower :)
Emma