So far we’ve covered the importance of acting professional as a working musician when playing locally, playing regionally,while being in the studio, and life on the road.
But this etiquette doesn’t remain just in the confines of inner office politics, on a tour bus, in hotel rooms, or on stage.
We’ve come to a point where what we do in our personal lives can now affect our jobs.
When you apply for a job, your employer can look you up on Facebook or Twitter to see what kind of content you post. They can read your tweets and see what affiliates you run with. Your husband or wife can keep tabs on you and who you hang out with just by having someone else tag you in a Facebook post. Your online presence is becoming just as important as your personal relationship with companies.
The comedian Gilbert Gottfried was fired from his Aflac voice-over gig for a joke tweet he made on Twitter. A viral video was posted of Michael Richards on a stand-up comedy stage making a rant about a patron and it probably cost him a career in comedy and many acting gigs. Politicians are always getting in trouble over issues in their personal lives and what they say online. In a time where information is readily available and instantaneous you have to be mindful that whatever you do, whatever you say, whatever picture you post, could easily get out and stick with you forever.
This is a sad result of the society we live in. The majority of people demand public figures to be honest, yet are ready to crucify anyone when they are honest. So, be honest as long as it’s agreeable is what the public-at-large is getting at.
I’m a person that is very outspoken about my beliefs. I have strong feelings about a lot of things and I’ve pretty much got an opinion on just about everything. However, there has to be a balance made in what I talk about with my friends and what I share online or with co-workers. Also, I’d like to add that about 90 percent of the things I talk about online are attempts at humor. Whether that humor is effective or failure is purely subjective. This can also get your in a pile of mess, too.
I remember not too long ago I posted a comment on a friend’s Facebook photo they had posted. I thought what I said was hilarious and I was quite proud of myself. The next day when I got to work I found out that people were talking about what I said. But not in a good way. It turns out that the my friend’s picture was viewed by one of their friends (that I didn’t know) that in turn showed her mother who, turns out, was another co-worker of mine and didn’t get the context I was joking about. I have a very dark sense of humor and I make light of horrific things sometimes. Well, when you don’t get me and my type of humor this can often be misinterpreted as the ravings of a lunatic. So now this lady goes to work and starts showing what I wrote to other employees. It was a big downward spiral and I basically had to wait for all these people involved to eventually move on to other jobs so I could regain my good standing.
This was a something completely unrelated to my job. It was posted to a friend that had nothing to do with the lady that would eventually spread what I said around to my co-workers. It’s hard to keep track of Facebook’s ever changing tagging system and sharing policy; you should also never underestimate the power of a busy body.
What does this have to do with musicians?
Well, musicians run in small circles and gigs are sometimes hard to come by. The business of music is very competitive and often times you’ll find yourself landing auditions off of the recommendation of someone else. You can also lose recommendations from people if you act like an inconsiderate jerk.
I remember I was on the road and when a certain music director asked a musician if they knew of any singers that would be interested in a certain gig the musician said that they did know of someone that fit the criteria but this particular individual prospect was known for acting like a diva and was unreliable. Really? Well, then move on.
Whoever that person was just lost an opportunity at an audition.
A great book to check out on how to be effective in social media marketing is Janek Gwizdala’s book “You’re a Musician. Now What?”
http://www.amazon.com/Musician-Creative-Financial-Musician-ebook/dp/B00A413PXE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363126642&sr=1-1&keywords=janek+gwizdala
