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My name is Susyn Elise Duris. I’m an actress living in LA (feel free to see what I am up to at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2380972/), I’m a Pittsburgh ex-Pat (you can take the gal out of Pittsburgh, but you can’t take Pittsburgh out of the gal, you know?!) and I am a student and lover of all things Social Media.
From time to time, I’ll be guest-posting on TechBurgh.
I think we can all agree that we are inundated with social media how-to books, articles, etc. So I wondered how could I combine social media and entertainment, throw in a dash of education and make it come out fun?
So, I am going to bring to you some wonderful folks in the entertainment industry who are making it happen for themselves, social-media style, and with a little added commentary from me, we are just going to have a blast.
First up…Rob Gokee. Rob (http://robgokee.com/) is an award-winning Television, Webseries & Film composer. He is also the author of the book, In the Belly of the Fail Whale: How Twitter Changed My Life In One Year.
I asked Rob about Twitter and his book.
“I’m a television and film composer, so I joined Twitter to use it as a marketing tool. I was already on Facebook, MySpace, and had my own blog and website. Twitter was starting to gain some traction and I wanted a piece of the action.”
Those of us power-Tweeters know that Twitter has a friendliness about it. You can join in in the middle of a conversation and not feel like you are intruding. It is a very inviting community. Rob agrees. “What I didn’t realize at the time was the affect it would have on the personal professional relationships in my life. I didn’t know that the users I communicated with were so open to meeting and socializing in real life as well.”
Rob also said that not only was Twitter a life-changing experience for him both personally and professionally, but also after the first year on Twitter, he realized that he wanted to share his story with the rest of the world, so he came up with the idea for the book. “It was originally going to be very dry and textbook-like, but I wanted to actually sell copies, so I decided to make it a bit more personal, “ he notes.
While he says that things didn’t really change that much on Twitter for him, his network of friends and business associates kept growing and he obtained work as a social media marketer. “Now, I have multiple clients that rely on me to run their social media campaigns successfully.”
Twitter isn’t for everybody and you should definitely have a plan on how you want to use Twitter before you hop on Twitter. You can definitely be successful on Twitter by being very specific and clear about your Twitter goals, and as Rob notes, “The people that are successful on Twitter are the ones that can find the balance between self-promotion and interaction; you need to care about the people you’re talking to if you want them to care about you, and ultimately your product.”
Rob Gokee can be found on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robgokee.
Related articles
- Charlie Sheen, Twitter and the truth about social media (econsultancy.com)
