Over the years I have done different types of networking and there are huge differences in each type. I was sat thinking about it over my cup of tea, picking chicken out of my teeth with my finger like a barbarian.
What types, you ask?
Each one has been so vastly different and it just got me pondering and mulling it over. Voice Acting networking has been a challenge, but, that being said, there are plenty of people out there in the industry who are on Twitter and are, for the most part, friendly and amiable people. Of course, you always come across the ladder climbers and ego maniacs, but I've not found it to be too big of an issue like with other categories. VA networking is largely based on follow threads lately, which is great and a nice way of introducing yourself to people. There is the issue of the ladder climbers, or even glory seekers adding VAs purely for clout, or those who add and as soon as people follow back, they unfollow to keep a low followers-following ratio, but its a given. It happens a lot. Largely, VA networking for me has been friendly and pleasant. People have been very eager and willing to connect and have even asked for advice in a polite and humble way. Acting networking, on the other hand, has been like pulling teeth and occasionally extremely quiet. There seems to be this aura around actors on social media and a strange sort of hierarchy in place. Those who have been in the industry for years seem to lord it over the newcomers, inbetweeners suck up to the 'higher' ups in an attempt to climb and newcomers are expected to already know everything right off the bat. Heaven forbid a newcomer asks for advice, or even posts a new headshot in some circles. They get jumped on in what is the online equivalent of a dog pile, criticised and told that they don't belong if they have to ask such questions. Some topics are even taboo, making it a minefield to cross for people without any sort of guidance, or prior knowledge. Obviously, not ALL circles are like this, but this has been the majority lately on various social media sources that I have personally witnessed. Actors are either super nice and willing to network, very busy and so don't have the time to, or are so wrapped up in themselves that they see themselves as too important to mingle with anyone who can't benefit their own standing and career, so ignore most posts. Again, this is all personal experience I'm talking about, so don't feel personally attacked here. I'm using personal experience and observations as examples. As for small business networking, it's a mixed bag. Like VA networking, it's full of friendly people willing to mingle and chat, collaborate and help build each other up. On the other hand, it's also filled with self-important types who are only interested in interacting with people who they consider to be higher up in the food chain as it were. People who seem popular get a lot of interaction but newer or less big businesses get ignored. I have experienced both immense warmth and support from smaller businesses, as well as scorn and even childish sneering and sidelining from others. The Small Business networking scene reminds me a lot of school. If you're not popular, you may slip through the cracks. Fortunately, with small business networking, there are extremely handy tools in the form of hashtag events to utilise. These events usually fall on specific days where you can use the tag and advertise your business, products, etc. I have has some success from them. Whilst some circles use hashtags, I definitely think that the dated hashtag events are used the most by small business networking circles more than most I have seen. It's very useful and I think it should be used by more than just small biz. Now onto art networking. Notoriously difficult and extremely tiring. This is by far the hardest networking I have done on here. Not only are there millions of artists out there, but there are other obstacles in the way of successfully navigating art networking. The attitude towards art is one big issue. The fact that people readily scroll and consume art as it whizzes by on their timeline, yet as soon as it comes to paying for it or acknowledging it in any way it becomes a problem for them. "Too expensive", they cry. "Too expensive, I know someone who can do it for much less! It's not even that good anyway!" But I digress... Consuming and scrolling is one of the biggest issues with art networking. Artists tend to network hard. Hours spent creating posts, curating the art to display to give themselves a better chance of being seen in an over-saturated industry. Yet being followed, or even retweeted, despite hashtag use, is sparse. If artists had more people willing to retweet and share their work instead of looking and scrolling on by, I guarantee more artists would benefit and be seen. Next time you see an artist make a post, retweet/share it! It helps more than you know! And finally we have Vtuber networking. Honestly, this has been, by far, the easiest community to network in. I have had bigger success with posts and hashtags in that community in 3 months than the years I have put into the other categories. Vtubers tend to be quite real and not really the face of a business, per-se. More personable. They reach out a whole lot more and are always eager to share, uplift and show off other people's successes. There ARE of course the types that will ladder climb, clout chase, ratio balance and there are the occasional problematic people, but generally speaking it's super friendly and pleasant. The community, from personal experience, have been helpful, uplifting, genuinely caring and absolutely gobsmackingly generous. I have had posts explode with activity, retweeted hundreds of times and I've even received gifts from followers! Vtuber networking has been the most successful my efforts have ever been. And it's not even my profession! It's my HOBBY! I think that says a lot about the kind of people in each category, the problems people face in acting, etc, and it highlights what needs to change.
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