How to Promote Yourself Online: Article
Slightly expanded version.

Doesn't the web make getting opportunities so much easier for the
arts industries? Just throw up your resume or business add online and
the employers and clients come to you... Errrr but hang on a minute! ...
There is a little bit of a lot more to posting your resume or business
add online than just throwing up three words and a web site or email
address. Especially on industry classifieds and production directories
where you can self post. There is etiquette, tone, and technique, and
today dear freelancers, businesses, and organizatons, we are going to
cover a few tips on what industy employers, resume libraries,
classifieds, production directories, and prospective clients want to
see and don't want to see online. Please... read on...

Employers and prospective clients have particular tastes. They want to
see you are willing to make the effort and have a professional attitude
and the right skills and experience in the first paragraph, before they
feel comfortable enough to read on. The easier for them to see what
they want before they contact you the easier it is for them to hire
you. There are also certain guidelines for how you post and in what
categories, so that employers and clients, or even audiences and press
can find you in a search. The following tips are from companies I have
talked to, and tips and comments from employers and agencies, and my
own 4 years experience in moderating online industry communities,
classifieds, and directories.

1) Put a list of keyword skills or phrases at the top of your resume or
add. Audiences will scan those first before considering reading the
rest. For example: My field work is as an event manager and
consultant, so my keywords according to my actual skills and experience
would be...

Subject/Title: Event and Festival Management Services
Description: Skills: Event and Festival Logistics, Budget and Planning,
Business Development and Creative Direction, Marketing, Recruitment,
Bookings and Mailing List Management, San Francisco

(...then my resume would follow on from there...)

Remember: The first ten words of your online resume or add should be
your keywords or catch phrases! This shortcut's the employer or
client's time in seeing you right for them, and encourages and supports
them to read on.

2) Post your contacts at the bottom, not at the top, so the reader will
be helped again to read the whole add. Plus on sites like
Gigdirectory.net, it helps protect your privacy as the general public
will not be able to access your contacts. (This is especially
recommended for female performers!;-). Plus on communities like
Gigdirectory.net you can send internal messages to fellow members with
only a user name, so they don't have to know your actual email address.

3) Keep your resume or add to the point and clear, with only the info
and experience for the category you have posted in. Do not use
superlatives or cryptic type descriptions, keep it intuitive and
straight forward. Remember that employers search resumes like you
search jobs on the web, if you post in the wrong category, employers
won't find you in a search. So don't post your resume in a jobs
section, or a music serices add in a film production category,
employers don't look for resumes in job sections, they look for resumes
in resume sections, and in categories according to if they want a
particular skill or industry. Check out thoroughly how sites are
categorized, before posting your resume or add.

4) Don't put stuff on your resume that you haven't done or aren't
qualified for. Employers get pretty annoyed when they find out you
don't have the skills or experience you say you do, and they usually
can tell by the first interview. In the entertainment industry, lack of
skills in one person can, and has, sometimes killed a whole show and a
lot of people's jobs.

5) Only post your resume once in each category, and then again when
your resume has moved off the page. For Instance: the
Gigdirectgory.net classifieds show 30 resumes per page. Once you resume
drops to 31 it goes to the next page, then repost your resume, if it
drops off the page everyday, then only post once a week, else you will
go mad. Multiple identicle listings on the same page, all at once makes
me want to skip them, as a reader, and delete them as a moderator.
Employers as well as group and site moderators are sensitive to spam
and over posts. If you tried reading resumes and business adds all day,
even only for a few days, you'd understand why.

6) If posting your web page in Production Directory and you have
different skills, products, or services: make a separate web page for
each, with it's virtues and images, and post each page address
separately. It will give you multiple windows and angels of exposure,
greatly increasing your chances of success. But don't hog the whole
directory, there is such a thing as over exposure, which could get you
deleted, or even bared from some online communities.

7) Do post a photo of yourself, at your work or craft is great, but a
professional recent headshot will do, that goes for businesses too.
People feel comfortable with seeing a human face, why do you think real
estate agents always have their photos on busines cards. Please
remember: No school or fuzzy happy snap photos. All photos must be,
less than 64 k, clear and professional looking. Include a clear photo
or two of productions you've worked on, preferably with you in there at
work.

8) If you just put only three lines and or a web site address: The
reader can't see if you have the keywords that click the "contact this
add" button in their brain. Put some effort into your marketing, sell
yourself, you are worthy. A well written paragraph for business adds
and for sites with limited resume space, and not more than one page for
sites with big resume spaces.

9) Don't put the same resume or web page for multiple categories. Again
it gives the impression of only making minimal effort, and the employer
or prospective client cannot see if you are right for the particular
gig they have available. Different employers with different gigs want
to see a resume or web page for that gig or skill, or service only. ,
e.g. if your resume is in a production category, they generally don't
want to read acting credits, nor will they read a modeling resume in a
tv production classifieds. These are some actual examples we see at
Gigdirectory.net. Much of the work everyday is search for and find and
delete this stuff so our members and subscribers have quality lists of
content that is searchable. Your web page or resume must sell you on
the job that the client is surfing for resumes for, and that alone.

11) Don't apply for a paid job you are not qualified or have no
expereince in! One of the biggest employer piss off's is students
applying to job adds that have requested experienced people. Students
and novices please use some common sense, working on one or two shows,
volunteer or professional, does not qualify you for "experienced"
status. Go do a couple of dozen or so volunteer gigs, and do lots of
research in your own time, it will improve how you write your resume,
and your practice your work, not to mention your humility and industry
language. The arts industries are a different set of psychology books
you can only understand through expereince, and in a life time only
some of it. So you had better start now and do a lot of it.

12) Needless to say, if a seasoned professional or company has not
heard of you, you are not a star in their eyes. Please remember that
when writing your resume or add copy and applying for deals, jobs, or
roles, and on the job itself.

13) If you haven't already, no matter if you are a freelancer,
business, or organization: Go buy a "how to" book and write a business
plan. Get clear on what you are doing, how you're doing it, who and
what you are doing it with, how long and how much, gaps and fillers,
near and far goals, and who you're selling it to. Write it and rewrite
it and your resume or brochures a couple of times. After you've done
this, it will show in them and the way you approach your vocation and
venture, plus make prospective clients more attracted to you. Review
and clarify it on a regular basis, but not too often. Know where you
are at and how to get where you are going too, tweak it when you need
to, yet give things time to take effect and for you to observe.

by

Deborah Paulino

Founder of Gigdirectory.net, Gigslist.org, ArtIntoIndustry.net

You can try out the above tips by posting on http://www.gigdirectory.net
Arts and Media Classifieds today, free.