Setting up Social Media Connections

Part of an independent animator's life is self promotion.  Thankfully, this day and age provides a myriad of promotional outlets with the potential of global reach - the challenge is to figure out what outlets are best for you and your art.

Here's a few of the steps I go through to create an identity for a new project -

1) A unique gmail or yahoo account - this will be the primary communication 'entity' for creating all your subsequent accounts.  Link this account to push all emails to your normal personal account if you don't want to go back and check it individually.  It helps to name this account the same name as every other social media identity you'll be creating. If not exactly the same, something similar.  That way, your 'fans' will know they're in the right place.

2) Posterous blog - the beautiful thing about Posterous is that it seamlessly auto posts to everything you connect to it - which is almost every other social media site on the interwebs.  Make sure the blog name is the same as or similar to your new email address.

3) Twitter account - even if you don't tweet a lot, park this name so no one can take the social ident you're so carefully crafting.  Once you create the twitter account, go back to Posterous and link the twitter account to the Posterous blog.  Every time you post to your blog, it will auto generate a tweet.  Pretty sweet!

3) YouTube and Vimeo - it may seem redundant, but creating a new account in each of these sites spreads your visibility to a greater audience.  YouTube reaches more eyeballs, Vimeo reaches 'the right' eyeballs for creative types.  Both enable you to embed their players inside your Posterous blog, and send the view count back to your account for accurate stats. IMHO - the Vimeo player is prettier. If you have a couple bucks, and are serious about your animation, sign up for the Vimeo+ service to get more detailed viewer information and other neat services.

4) Facebook Page - you can create an entirely new Facebook persona for your project, or create a 'Page' as part of your own ident.  Either or can be linked through Posterous.  You can even link your YouTube account to post to the Facebook page whenever you do anything in YouTube.

There are many many more services available - feel free to comment with any others you would recommend.  These sites will provide you with a good start to get your project seen by millions all over the world, and to hopefully gain recognition and funding for your next project.

Happy Animating!

7/23/2011