Dance Buzz
Talking all things Dance every Wednesday.
Dance Buzz
Episode 6: Striking Balance: Navigating Social Media in Dance
Ready to elevate your dance career to new heights with the power of social media? We promise, by the end of this episode, you'll be armed with invaluable tips and tricks that can transform your digital presence into your working resume. We discuss everything from the significance of an updated headshot to the art of showcasing your performances and choreography. That's not all! We also delve into the delicate art of presenting your most authentic self online while maintaining professionalism.
But what about the unseen sides of social media? Ever wondered how your public image and actions during events might be impacting your professional growth? Let's navigate through these uncharted territories together. We shed light on how social media serves as a yardstick of credibility, the potential risks of over-reliance, and the importance of having a backup plan. Also, we emphasize the significance of balancing your online activity to avoid burnout and the necessity of taking strides towards your goals, irrespective of their magnitude. So, brace yourself for an exciting journey into the realm of dance and social media!
Hello and welcome back. This is Chelsea Godfrey.
Speaker 2:This is Jonathan Godfrey.
Speaker 1:And on today's episode of Dance Buzz, we are going to be discussing the pros and cons of social media and how it can affect our everyday lives in both a positive way and maybe not so positive.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we're gonna dive deeper, more into the dance side of it. We're gonna talk about, from the teacher's perspective a little bit from the dancer's perspective, how it can be used to help boost ourselves, as well as some of the negatives that come along with it. And I think the biggest pro to it is it's a working resume, it's a working social resume that can quickly be looked at.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I think that we could all it, depending on how we want to use our social media platform. Right, like social media is allowing us so many different routes that we could go into right. We can use social media for personal, or we could use social media for business. Yeah, which, as young dancers, we are seeing a big influx in a lot of social media. Social media has really taken over the dance world. Kids from, as you know, young as being born or six years old or whatever all the way through.
Speaker 1:So let's just talk about how social media can be used as a resume, if you're choosing it to be worked that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the first thing, dancers or anybody looking to use social media as a resume need to have a headshot on there, whether that be pinned to the top or just quickly visible by anybody looking to find what you look like. Right, and that's more important than some industries, than other.
Speaker 1:Obviously, right, and let's talk about what that headshot should look like, because I think there's a lot of misconceptions on what the right headshot is. So first, we want to make sure that our headshot looks like us, right? We don't want to be wearing an extreme amount of makeup or even overdoing our hair. I know a lot of times, you know, females want to curl their hair and they look lovely. But when we're in an audition process, we're not going to be looking like that. Our hair is most likely pulled away. We have a bun in, whatever it may be. So the intention of a headshot is to make it actually look like you, right? We don't want our headshot to look like something like we have our headshot in front of us and then we're looking up, looking around the room, saying, okay, well, who is this, who is this child?
Speaker 2:Yeah, make sure it's easily identifiable to yourself. Yeah, in the setting that you are auditioning in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're talking about that specifically.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And then, secondly, you know, remember, we always want to make ourselves look younger, even when we're already so young, like even when we're six years old we are. Or if we're 10 years old, we want we if you can make yourself look like you're six or you can make yourself look like you're 14, which is again the beauty of, I guess, makeup sometimes. But the younger your dancer appears, the more not only marketable but the longer their career will be able to be, because a lot of times people see people, they work with them, they enjoy working with them and they want to keep working with them, but eventually there's a point where you know they no longer look like a young child anymore, so the younger your child can look.
Speaker 1:While we love all the hair blowing in the wind and we love the serious faces, we think they're very like they're. They're a vibe. Show their smile, show their personality through these photos. Whatever it is, that's what you want to be showcased in your headshot and on your social media page, and I would encourage you to pin that to the top of your profile.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so number one nice clean headshot that looks like you. It's up to date. You know, as you're still growing, a new headshot every six months is probably a good timeframe.
Speaker 1:It's a good timeframe. Is it as achievable?
Speaker 2:As we'd like? Probably not, probably not.
Speaker 1:But definitely keep them, as much as you can, as up to date as you possibly can.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. And then, as a dancer, another thing you should have on your social media is videos of you dancing.
Speaker 1:Which sounds so funny because it's like well, duh, it does.
Speaker 2:It sounds so like oh yeah, of course I'm gonna have videos of my dancing. But if you really go back and you look at your social media, sometimes I think what you're gonna see and this is young dancers is a lot of more photo shoot type posed pictures versus you out taking class with this person and this person, or at your home studio, or a short video of you improving. So I think the second thing would be have videos of you dancing and, as a choreographer, have videos of your choreography, because I know the first thing we look at when somebody sends us an email. I was like hi, my name is X, I am looking to choreograph for some new studios this year. I immediately go to social media.
Speaker 2:So I love when a choreographer puts their social media handles in the email because it's easy for me to just click it, take a look and I can look at it. And a resume is important to a point, but a resume doesn't show me what your choreography looks like. Absolutely, you could have 8 million choreography credits, but if it doesn't vibe with what I'm looking for, then it doesn't mean anything at that point. So, social media for choreographers please have your choreography on there. And dancers, please have yourself dancing on there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. That's exactly how I know for myself personally. That's how I try to approach my personal social media page, making sure I have my technique stuff posted. I have my choreography posted. I have real life posted, which we'll talk about. But, yes, use reels, use songs that are age appropriate for your child and allow that to really kick off something very exciting for them potentially.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think you know, wrapping that up and summing that up, the first pro to it is it's just working social resume. It helps you, it can help you can get a job, which then leads into like I think a second point is social media can be a business and is a business and you need to treat social media if that's how you want to use it as such. You know, if you're going to use your social media to book more gigs and look more jobs and teaching and dancing, then you need to treat your social media as a job.
Speaker 1:Right, so through social media. A lot of people think that they get paid directly from social media and, while I think that that's true to a point, most monies are coming from brand deals, and even you know, people get sent PR packages and they want them to post about it, and that's how people are gaining the financial benefits that we see so much on our social page.
Speaker 2:Those people that are kind of classified as, like, content creators, correct correct.
Speaker 1:So in it you know, moving forward into all of this, when people are looking at your page, right, they're going to want to see if your dancer is right for their brand Right. So they're not just going to pick anybody. They're going to want to see not only what you look like as a dancer, not only, maybe, your movement quality, the dance pictures that you post, but they want to see you as an actual person and what that looks like. That could be a family holiday card, that could be going ice skating.
Speaker 2:Going to the movies with your friends, exactly.
Speaker 1:So, don't you know? I think there's a lot of interpretations of should I have a dance page and should I have a personal page. Honestly, I think it's up to the individual. But I think you can just put it all onto one page and just remember that, keep it.
Speaker 2:You know appropriate, age appropriate and I think it's important to realize that directors, agencies, depending, if you're let's just talk about a child for a second If you're a young dancer, you know let's say age 14, 15, whatever they're going to realize you're still a child, right, you know they're not expecting to go onto your dance page and see nothing but dance. You are still a person, you're a human, you have friends, you go out and you socialize. They're not expecting it to just look like a dance page. Now, if you have a solely dance page, that's totally fine, but if you're deciding to combine them, then it's okay to post about your life. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:I think two people are also for brand brands and ambassadorships. They're looking for how active you are on social media, right? Because when a brand or a brand is trying to sign or contract you as an ambassador for their program, essentially what they're saying is we like you, we like what you represent. Now we want you to show other people that you also like us. We think you're a great fit and they're expecting you to be active. So that's also something that will definitely play a role.
Speaker 1:If you're seeking or trying to get some kind of ambassador ship program, yeah, the posting and the creativity that you're bringing to all of your social media page and your TikToks and all that kind of stuff is going to play a role. Now I think I don't know if I'm going to tangent for a second, John, but I think we could talk about the followings as well, just based off of you know, I think to a point we don't have to dig too deep into it yet because I think that's something we'll talk about a little bit later in the segment. But there and the ambassadorship programs are going to want to know that you do have people that are also following you, that there's active response yeah there's engagement on your page, yeah, so why it's not?
Speaker 1:while it's not necessarily about the quantity of followers that you have, there also has to be some kind of engagement that's interactive with other dancers, and they're going to want to see responses to comments. They may be looking at the likes that you get on your page. I don't really you know.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think I think we could do a whole separate episode as well on, you know, engagement. We'll bring in somebody for that. But as a brand, let's talk about our own brand, the Godfrey method, for a moment. If we are signing somebody as an ambassador or a brand representative who maybe gets a percentage of all the sales using a coder whatever the case may be it's important that that person doesn't just have a lot of followers, right? So let's say, person A has 5,000 followers, sure, we give them a brand deal, but they're getting no engagement on any of their content. They're posting every day about our product but nobody's asking about it. Where person two has maybe less 1,000 followers, but every single post is getting multiple comments saying oh, what's that product? What's that product? Person B with less followers is more enticing to me as a business owner, of course, because they're going to then increase my sales.
Speaker 2:So, like, if you are looking to get a brand deal, you have to keep that in mind as well, that they're not just looking at your overall followers, but they're going to look at your engagement yeah. Like I said, you know if you could have 100,000 followers and nobody's asking about this or commenting on your post, it's like you're not getting any engagement. So like somebody may quickly look at your page but nobody's interacting with you.
Speaker 1:Remember, guys, your red flag, your mark, like your resume, I'm sorry, your whole, your social media is your resume and you want to show whatever audience it is that you're trying to capture, like how you're going to market yourself, because however you're marketing yourself is exactly how you would market another brand or another ambassadorship or whatnot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean I think you know, I think this is the last kind of point in this particular topic, or this point here is that if you're looking to gain engagement, you need to be engaging. Absolutely you can't expect everybody to comment on your post, but you're not talking to people and you're not engaging and commenting or liking other people's posts, and I think that can lead into another point where is connections?
Speaker 1:Yes, networking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, networking is really big in, I mean, the world in general. I was like not even just in everything you know. Networking is so important and social media has allowed so many people to connect where they wouldn't have that opportunity prior.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think that's a major that has been. One of the biggest pros of social media is people being able to connect worldwide and globally, and it's just amazing.
Speaker 2:I really think it really is pretty fantastic on what you know social media has allowed us to do yeah, when you make that connection, I mean you know we've met a lot of teachers and people that we've then hired, and friends and through social media when before you may not have had that Visibility and it was all based on word of mouth. And I mean social media is almost its own Type of word of mouth where it's like oh Chelsea, did you see this dancer? And then you go and you still create that word of mouth, but social media has allowed so many people to connect and network and make new friends and make new business connections that I think that is, like Chelsea said, one of the biggest pros to social media if you are using it and Doing it correctly.
Speaker 1:I also want to point out that the dance community is much smaller than I Think it appears, and I know people I'm sure have heard that the dance world is very small and Everybody knows everybody. And it is true, everybody knows everybody, which is why, for the most part, which is why it is so important that when you are Networking or representing yourself as a person, you're doing that in the most positive and professional Light, right, and that's not just while you're talking to people, that's While you're literally anywhere, right, like if you're in a convention or you're in a competition, like your demeanor, your approach. All that stuff has to do with networking and yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean it's gonna leave a lasting impression on those around you. So, for instance, like Chelsea said, if you're at a convention and you're taking class, maybe you're having a bad day and not just a bad dance day, just a bad day in general but you're just being rude to everybody around you. This is the first time, and possibly the last time, you're ever meeting somebody. There's no kind of second chance. So you know, if you're going for a job and you know I can't take it, but my first impression of Chelsea, even though a great dancer had a bad day, you know I'm not gonna recommend that person because of that. That doesn't really have to do it.
Speaker 1:Social media, but no, neither does what I'm about to say either. Just, I would advise to be extremely conscious when you're at these events, the appearances that you are Putting off. Yeah, you never know who's gonna be in the elevator with you. You don't know who that person is. You don't know who's in the bathroom stall, you know. So what I where I'm trying to get at is remember that.
Speaker 2:You're always in the public's eye.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, right. So, and I know sometimes I can feel really overwhelming, but this that's kind of part of it, you know. I mean, like I know for myself as a professional how I need to be acting when I'm in the public eye, right, like, what I'm gonna be saying, what I'm gonna be doing, my thoughts I don't have to say my actual thoughts out loud all the time, like you know what I'm saying. So you know, I know that tangent's a little bit from social media, but I think it just goes deeper about you could be in the elevator with a casting director and if you and you have no idea right.
Speaker 1:And if you're a negative Nancy, or if your mom's going off about someone, guess what you're not Gonna even be thought of to get that job because nobody wants to deal with that. So that's just another food for thought while you're walking around the convention center. And if you don't get a scholarship and you're really angry about it and then you talk about it in the Elevator.
Speaker 2:I think that's so funny about you bringing up the moms, you know, because I do think that sometimes the parents will start talking, and even our own kids at the studio. Sometimes the parents talking to the kid will be like stop. It's like the kids sometimes know when it's time to shut off, you know what?
Speaker 1:Oh, I know we're kind of tangiting off of social for a second, but even sometimes I'm like me and you are in the elevator with people, right, and I don't expect people to like Know who we are.
Speaker 2:Well, no, yeah, no one's gonna know who we are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's just so interesting to know that people can be so open and and in an elevator.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh my goodness, what's happening? I'm like these people have no idea who I am. They could have I could be part of the dance Like world that they're in, or I could be just like some random person, but either way, I just feel like some things are left for Not to be talked about in public. So you know, I know we kind of tangent it off of social media for a hot second, but I think it all it just goes into appearances, right, like people are walking red carpets and all this, all things that come out of getting Brand deals and master ships and whatnot.
Speaker 2:So let's jump back into social media, Although all that information we gave was very helpful, very useful, but I think for me, one of the biggest things I really enjoy about social media is how many people are putting out free content to help other people, and I don't think a lot of people take advantage of it where they don't take advantage of it enough. The content's out there for the viewers to grow, whether that be a completely free platform or a platform that gives you free content and then you move into paid content. But there's so much free content out there in every industry not solely dance, but every industry where people can really grow and learn so much from it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and not even just grow as a dancer, but even as a person. When I listen to our podcast or even when I listen to other people's short clips, sometimes it's something that someone says really resonates with me and changes my perspective on so many things that, honestly, it really does change the way I look at things sometimes, and that information is free. When we see stuff on Tik Tok or we say we've been quote influenced right, we've been influenced to have the certain mindset, we've been influenced to have this certain, to want this certain item or whatever it is, everybody's wearing this brand, so everyone's gonna buy this brand because that's what's being, that's what's popular, right? So I think the free content, utilize it as best you can. Save it. If you don't feel like you can use it right in that very moment, save it and you can always go back to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have so much saved content.
Speaker 1:Same.
Speaker 2:Specifically on Instagram. I just use Instagram more, but so much saved content from years and years of past of just stuff that I find so useful that every once in a while like you know I mean I myself I get stuck sometimes where I'm like man, I'm just my brain's just like not clicking.
Speaker 1:Today, Well yeah, especially if you're going so much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes you just need to refer back and you know, and it's a one of variety of things, it's not just on dance things. I mean, you know, when we're shooting content for, like the Godfrey method, I save video things where it's like, oh, you need to set your camera to this. I'm like I'll go back and so just use up the free content that people are giving you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that free content can literally have to be about how to make your content better, Like I'm not necessarily. It doesn't have to necessarily be about series of dance exercises, which obviously we actively post, but it could also be about how to make your own personal pages better, how make your own personal pages more engaging. That's free, that you don't have to pay someone like a marketing professional if you're not at that point yet to boost, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yeah. So the last topic in the pro is also a con and it comes along with credibility. And is social media a good determining factor, I guess, of credibility? And I think it definitely can go both ways.
Speaker 1:Yes, because I Go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, I was just gonna say. You know, I mean for me the credibility portion. I think a lot of young dancers and then they grow out of this. Obviously, as they become a mature and have a better understanding of what social media is and how it works, is a follower count.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's like do followers equal good dancer.
Speaker 2:Or good teacher? Absolutely not, you know. Just because you know.
Speaker 1:Especially now that you can buy followers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you could buy followers. So follower count and amount of followers is not a good determining factor and we talked about this earlier in the episode is as a brand. You know you could have more followers but have less engagement, so it's not as useful to me. Now, that particular point doesn't go directly into this of you know, more followers equals better dancer, better teacher and his engagement, but it has both ways. Yes, you can have so many followers because you are so good and people love what you do.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:But you could also have so many followers and be absolutely horrific at what you do whether that be dance or I don't you know, swimming or basketball or any variety of sports or professions, because, like you said, you can buy followers. You could have just had one particular thing that kind of blew up and you know that did help launch it for us, and then we continue to have that engagement and the attraction through one of our accounts. But follower count to me does not equal credibility and I think any strong professional would say the same.
Speaker 1:It's interesting because sometimes I go, you know, through social media, I find myself on other dance studio pages and when I'm on the dance studio pages, some of them have like so many followers, like literally, they'll have like 60,000 followers on a studio page, and that's, that's amazing, Like there are some studios that do have that. Yeah, absolutely yeah. But sometimes I'll be like, huh, I've, you know, I'm not familiar. This, this studio, must be like like wow, like they have so many followers. Right, that's what you think to the naked eye. Okay, then I go and I look at their content and then I look at their likes and I look at their comments and their engagement. I'm like, okay, what's happening? This is not real.
Speaker 1:And it, just it. Honestly, it looks worse to me than if they just had a thousand followers, Like I would rather see something like if I'm looking for a studio for my dancer, I would rather see a studio that has a thousand followers and the the correlated engagement, versus 60,000 followers and you would expect that engagement to be so much more significantly higher and it just falls flat. Like I know, even on our social media pages, based on our how many followers we have, we should have a fairly high engagement, like in the sense of like, likes and stuff like that, and if we don't, sometimes the videos just flop like. Let's just be honest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, things flop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so or gets you know, blocked. People don't see it as much, whatever the word is, but that to me is such a, it's such a turn off as a as me, as just like a person just looking and also sorry, I don't mean to cut you off, but also to like brands.
Speaker 1:And again going back to the brands and ambassadorships and people are trying to follow you and they know that stuff. You have to remember that people know when you're, when your followers aren't real, because all they have to do is click on your followers and look through them, and that. That. Just try that one time You'll be able to tell that there are a lot of robots.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean the you know, true accounts who have a lot of followers will also have these, you know. I don't want to say fake accounts, but accounts that are inactive, yeah, like spam accounts. If you find an account where you're seeing the followers be really high and the engagement and everything be really low and you look through, you're going to see a lot of just those the standard Instagram pictures where it's like what is it? The gray head shadow?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:The profile picture to give you before you upload. So take a look at that. But you know, I understand it to a point, and this is the only way to understand it, because we're in an industry where we work with a lot of young dancers and young dancers are a little bit more impressionable as well as some parents that if you go and you're like well, this studio has 10,000 followers, this one has a thousand, so this one must be better, but you're not doing your research. So all I'm saying is I'm encouraging you to do your research prior to selecting either a studio or a faculty member or anything like that, and don't base it just off of their follower account. Like, really get to know them, go through their content, see if you like what they're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know what Kind of talking about, like our personal experience. Like this past November we had our studio page hacked and deleted and that was like a gut punch to my stomach because obviously we had been working extremely hard to, I mean, our studio business has been open this we're going into our eighth year and again, this sounds really I don't know how this is going to sound, but I was very, very angry because we took us well, seven years at the time, but seven years to gain. I think we had just over 3500 followers and that to me as a studio is like a lot of followers for the studio. And when our page got hacked, I was devastated and I tell you that I looked everywhere to try to get our studio page back. I even asked, like random people and I was like, how do I get this back? I tried to look on Reddit, I looked on everything I possibly could and they pretty much is like, you know, dump a bunch of money into someone who's going to essentially blackmail you for more money so that you can get your page back, and I was like, ah, so it was like gut punching to have to restart, because I was like, well, when people go to look us up. They're going to see that we don't have a lot of followers and then they're going to be like, oh my gosh, they must not be that good.
Speaker 1:And it was kind of sad actually for me to think that my value was being based on how many followers our business had, like in the sense of our studio. And you know, I think it's hard for anybody now that we're so deep into the content world and the influencer world like followers matter to a point. Credibility maybe not as much, but I would be lying to say that I personally don't think it's important to have true, organic, growing people who are attracted to the same things as you are. So that was definitely a gut punch and we somehow were able to gain a good amount in the last couple months, because I think people said it through word of mouth. But yeah, I would be lying. I mean, we check our, you know. So what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, we're on social media every day.
Speaker 1:And what this will teach you is to always have a backup account. Always have a backup account. I've learned this the hard way, you know, and for me, just talking about the Godfrey method, we have a great high, high following on the Godfrey method and once this happened to our studio, I freaked out and I was like, okay, we need another platform where, in the event that someone hacks our page, people can access us, because I was so. That's why well, that's not the reason why the on demand platform was created, but that's why the on demand social media. Now, we're trying to make sure, if you're, not on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, two separate accounts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're on two separate accounts, so that way if one gets hacked, people can find us through another. So that's just food for thought. I know I kind of tanged it for a second, which no surprise.
Speaker 2:but yeah, I mean, but I think what you're saying kind of leads into a good point of so many people put so much focus and emphasis into social media, and I mean that from both perspectives, not only just the person who's posting, but also the person who's receiving the information, or the viewers. You know, and I don't think and there's nothing wrong with posting every single day, and we did that for probably almost a year on the Godfrey method and I do think that's how we grew but it came to a point where it was like this is a lot.
Speaker 2:Well we're taking up so much time of our lives.
Speaker 1:We became a trusted brand. People started trusting what we were offering, not only because everything was being well, everything works, there were proven methods, but aside from that, they were like relying on our content to help them in their slums, as we just talked about.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I mean, but take time to yourself, don't get you know so to the point where it's like I'm not bad for your mental health and you know, or your physical health, depending on how far you're taking it.
Speaker 1:But remember that social media is fake. Social media doesn't always give us all sides right, and I think that's one of the hardest things for people to swallow, you know, because nobody really wants to post a page about something negative that happened in their lives. And we get that because who wants to advertise that? Who wants to blow that up? Who wants to make their personality look like nobody?
Speaker 1:We have to remember that with some sense of reality, that, yes, this person may be extremely successful, but they fell a lot to be able to get to where they are today and they worked extremely hard to have this following or to be this successful or to have this much talent. So don't forget that everybody's going through their own personal thing. You have to be realistic with it. I think that's why, going back to our beginning, it's important to post things of you being an actual person, not just dance stuff. I think that just shows and shows every part, and I personally enjoy the vulnerable stuff, the stuff that's maybe not always so positive, because you know, sometimes it is a bunch of no's before the yes, and when you're stuck in the no's, you almost can find a sense of relief knowing that other people are also feeling that.
Speaker 2:And you know it's good to see somebody go through those no's, because those no's lead you to it. Yes, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:That was really nice, John. So you know, be realistic with yourself and you know I know for myself personally, I recently have started posting personal things that I'm going through and they are both positive and I went through a lot of hard stuff and I wanted to show that because that's me, that is what has made me and that's okay and I think that that's, you know, the beauty of social media. You can play it how you want.
Speaker 2:Take social media with a grain of salt. Use what you want and leave what you don't.
Speaker 1:And start today. If it's something that you want to do, don't wait. Start. Start building that resume, start. If you want to be a TikTok influencer, just start. I wish we started sooner, and I'm proud of ourselves to be where we are today, and we wouldn't be here without all of our followers and people who support and trust in us. So thank you for that. All right, I think that's all for our social media segment. I hope this information was extremely helpful in building your dancers social media platform. Social media resume gave you a little bit of more insight of the behind the scenes of what auditiones are looking for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed and we'll see you next time. Bye guys Bye.
