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Many actors are discovering that YouTube, web series, comedy sketches and video blogs (or vlogs) in general, are a great way to help market themselves online. When you’re an actor who’s just starting in this industry, then you are running your own business and brand. Actors must always look for ways that will help their acting career grow, and vlogging is definitely one of those options.
Since its launch in 2004, YouTube has became a major video content platform, with many YouTubers reaching to far more people than any cable network ever could. More importantly, it’s a platform which is free to utilize for anybody, whether it’s for putting out content, marketing yourself, or both.
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Creating amazing content on YouTube, or being an interesting character with your vlogs, is the key to building your audience on new media. You can even venture out further, and create your own YouTube comedy sketches, short films or a web series.
Remember how “Broad City” went from a no-budget YouTube webisodes to a full-blown TV show picked up by Comedy Central? How about the famous story of Justin Bieber’s YouTube videos getting attention from Usher?
Even successful and working famous actors are moving more towards YouTube to build a bigger audience. Take a look at Rain Wilson‘s (“The Office“) channel SoulPancake or how well Jimmy Kimmel (“The Tonight Show“) understands his audience and serves them on his Late Night channel.
12 Reasons Why Actors Need Their Own YouTube Channel
Let’s take a closer look at why YouTube videos – be it comedy sketches, web series, informational stuff, vlogs or short films – can help actors with marketing.
1) YouTube is free
For an actor YouTube is the cheapest and most effective way of marketing themselves in 2016.
It doesn’t cost anything to upload videos onto YouTube. Less experienced actors that may not have a large budget to promote themselves through other forms that cost to put to together will be attracted to this. They will be able to maximize on YouTube’s high volumes of traffic without any expense other than making a short video.
2) Captures attention
Each minute 300 hours worth of videos are being uploaded onto YouTube and over 4 billion videos are viewed daily. If you upload quality video content, whatever it is, then they are very likely to get lots of followers to their page. The better quality, the more attention, obviously.
3) High volumes of traffic
YouTube has one billion users, and this figure will only keep on increasing.
For an actor this type of pre-existing audience is very attractive. You can reach out to large number of people throughout the world for free. Since Google owns YouTube, an actor’s video could also show up on Google’s search results, and could reach the top spot, which could mean large volumes of traffic to their page.
4) Viral marketing
People love sharing videos with family and friends, and for an actor this means if someone likes their video they can share it via social media and send it to others.
This type of viral sharing will create a ripple effect, and the video could be shared by thousands or millions of people. Actors can also add a subscribe button to their videos so that their followers can subscribe to them. The more videos an actor uploads to their page the more people will keep coming back to it.
5) An actor can upload their best work
An actor can use YouTube to show off their best work. It doesn’t have to be just your demo reels, but any sketches or creative short videos that you make.
Actors can also link to certain scenes in the films that they worked on which the viewers may enjoy. Filmmakers are using YouTube to look out for talented actors, and if they see an actor that has lots of followers they are highly likely to be attracted to that actor. You can upload multiple videos onto YouTube to see which ones your followers like the most, and continue with that trend.
6) Link to their personal website
Some actors have personal websites, especially the more experienced actors. Having a website makes actors look very professional, especially to casting directors or producers.
Actors that have a page on YouTube are adding a link that will take them to their personal website. This will enable anybody looking at your videos to get in touch with you if they like what they see on your YouTube channel. Actors can also add their social media links so that others can get in touch via Twitter or Facebook.
7) Actors can upload trailers
Actors can use YouTube to upload trailers that will help to promote a new film that they are appearing in.
If an actor has lots of followers then this trailer could be shared by thousands or even millions of people worldwide. Actors can also post up behind the scenes images that will excite their followers and will promote the project even more. This will help an actor to create a brand online, for themselves and their project. The actor will therefore be seen as a professional in their industry and will become a trusted brand.
8) Actors can get marketing tips from other actors
There are many actors marketing themselves on YouTube and for new actors it’s a great place to pick up useful tips that will help them with their own acting career.
A less experienced actor can use YouTube to watch other actors and see what they are doing to market themselves on YouTube. There could also be professional actors on YouTube offering advice to other actors on how they can promote themselves more effectively.
9) Actors can upload their demo reel
Most actors have a demo reel that highlights some of their best work and YouTube is a great place to house it.
Demo reels are one of the standard tools for actors. A demo reel is a 2 to 3 minute video that an actor’s talent agent sends to casting directors, so that they can see their work. By uploading a demo reel onto YouTube an actor will look more professional and casting directors will be able to view it too.
10) Actors are promoting themselves 24/7
When an actor uploads a video onto YouTube they are marketing themselves 24/7.
Once an actor uploads a video it’s there for as long as they want it to be. It doesn’t get taken away and so their videos are always out there promoting them and their work. The more videos an actor uploads the more effective the marketing campaign will be.
11) Actors can study other actors
Actors can use YouTube to study other actors and other famous auditions.
If there is a particular actor that an actor admires then they can watch their videos on YouTube, to see what they are doing to attract lots of followers to their page. An actor will therefore be able to promote themselves more effectively, to get more followers and to attract more attention.
Take a look at some of these videos YouTube provides us with:
12) An actor can audition for roles
Directors and writers are turning to YouTube to release independent projects. If an actor is well liked and has a professional looking YouTube page casting directors will be attracted to them and could offer them a role.
As you can see, not only can YouTube and vlogging really can help actors market themselves online, but also bring a lot more exposure, particularly in the beginning of your career. We are in a digital age now, and for actors, YouTube is the number one destination where they can maximise on large volumes of traffic at no cost. Actors have to promote themselves in the business they’re in and YouTube is the best place to start.
So what are you waiting for? Go create your very first YouTube channel right now, whether you’re planning to use it or not any time soon.
