I know it’s probably not fashionable to say so, but I have long maintained that social media is one of the biggest time sucks known to modern man! Some people spend a ludicrous amount of their life updating their timeline and responding to anything that takes their interest posted by others who they follow.
Now personally, I am very happy to use social media to keep in contact with my family and friends, but I remain unconvinced that as a marketing tool it is of much use to most performers.
If you ask a keen social media junkie why they spend hours a week squinting at the posts on their phone or tablet, they will probably tell you that it’s to keep their name at the front of people’s minds, to have an active voice in up-to-the-minute discussions, to be involved with ‘what’s going on’.
OK, that’s fine, but it still doesn’t answer the question of ‘what’s the commercial point’? For most magicians who are not world famous and who do not have thousands of followers, their posts are seen by a relatively small number of people. And those people will often be well known to the person making the posts in any case.
So I would suggest that it’s unlikely that huge numbers of random potential bookers are going to come across the posts and be sufficiently moved to take notice and actively consider making a booking as a result of what they read.
It seems to me that social media can be fun, if you like that sort of thing, and if you spend a lot of time doing it every week, you can fool yourself into thinking that you are actively spending quality time on your publicity and marketing. But the truth is, I don’t believe that most magicians are benefiting much from all their efforts and as a result the whole process amounts to little more than a vanity project.
Superstars of the music industry, or films, or sport, have massive numbers of followers who are desperate to hear from their idols. It’s become a way for the fans to feel connected with their heroes, and the stars themselves often are measured by the size of their follower base. They have genuine power because they can turn into influencers who can actively encourage people to purchase certain products and to even live a certain type of life. They are monetising their popularity in an effective and important way.
But Whizzo, the children’s favourite magician, who does not have a million people following his posts, is not in a position of power. His occasional forays into the social media whirlpool are lost almost as soon as they are posted. But he thinks that because Shin Lim has a worldwide follower base and is famous as a result online, that posting on social media must be the right thing for him to do too. Well, I would think that it is for Shin, but not at all for Whizzo!
Of course, you CAN use social media as an effective marketing tool if you pay for Facebook ads, for instance, but it’s the illusion that by just making loads of posts on various platforms you will end up with lots of bookings that I have a hard time accepting. For every performer who can claim genuine success going down this route, I would suggest there are hundreds more who cannot.