Facebook Fan Pages

 As an industry we have definitely jumped on board the facebook band wagon.  

We use it to keep up with industry gossip, what shows are on and who is in them. We use it to keep in touch with friends that maybe halfway around the world, or to wish them all the best on opening nights.
However, in this day and age of cyber-stalking, identity theft and internet paranoia, you don’t want to be adding just anyone as a friend on facebook. This is where fan pages are very useful.
Earlier this year facebook completely revamped the way its fan pages operate. Not surprisingly, within a few weeks of this overhaul, every major brand had a fan page up. They work in a similar way to your personal profile except that you don’t have to accept someones friend request. Anyone can view your fan page and choose to “like” it.  You can update it with latest news, details of shows, headshots, production photos and any other information that people may be interested in and in turn the public can comment and leave messages for you. Importantly, it also means that you now have a separation between your day to day facebook activity and your professional facebook presence as a performer.
This is particularly useful if a fan or someone who has seen you in a show requests your friendship on facebook. You can now politely decline a friendship request but instead direct them to your fan page.
Facebook has slowly been increasing how customisable facebook fan pages are. So here are some tips to make yours as personalised and useful as you can.
First of all, the photo. The photos on facebook pages are always the same width, but the height is variable. With a few basic photoshop skills you can make up an image that includes a couple of different photos of yourself and possibly your name or what ever else you would like. By making it long and thin it will run down the left have side of the page, instead of just being in the top left hand corner.
You can also add apps (applications) to your facebook fan page in order to customise it. These are very easy to install through the settings menu, and will do things like add your twitter feed to your facebook page or even more useful for performers you can display your videos from YouTube, allowing you to have a section on facebook for your showreel.
The final and most customisable app that facebook has released is the static <FBML> page. This allows you to create a page of your own completely, as you would create your own website. This maybe a little fiddly or technical to do completely by yourself, but if you are getting a website developed then you may want to enquire about also getting a facebook page created at the same time.
Here are some examples of how creative you can get with fan pages: Idina MenzelBritney SpearsStarbucks
If you have any suggestions for future columns, questions or feedback, please feel free to email me at: matt@emptyhead.com.au Matt’s Murmurs is sponsored by Emptyhead Actors Websites Producing websites for actors and artists: http://www.emptyhead.com.au/actorswebsites.html