Cafes, Encyclopaedias, and the Peanut Gallery.

“Can we go back to using Facebook for what it was originally for - looking up exes to see how fat they got?” 
― Bill Maher

There are a multitude of spaces on the internet that are used for a variety of purposes. We use various types of social media every day to communicate with each other, make sure our friends know what we had for breakfast, and sometimes to stalk our exes. Although these are all perfectly valid uses of this wonderful tool we call the Internet, there are far more constructive uses for it. As artists, we have access to so many different web spaces to further our careers and slowly step closer to being discovered and employed. 

Anyone who is trying to break into the arts industry knows that exposure is so important and in most cases, incredibly difficult. However, the internet can help us get our name out there and show our prospective employers what we have to offer from the comfort of our homes. Websites like LinkedIn and StarNow are incredibly handy when it comes to displaying your artistic profile to anyone who is interested, but they have their pros and cons. 

I use both LinkedIn and StarNow, and the process is pretty simple. You sign up, upload your resume with a little bit of information about yourself, upload some photos and video clips for arts specific sites such as StarNow, list your skills and attributes, and say a little bit about yourself. From here, employers can create job posts or audition calls which site members can search through and electronically apply for, or employers can search through members using key words such as 'dance' or 'singer'. Now it could be argued that we all like to try and make contact with our prospective employers by handing a resume to the manager in person, or at the very least going in and asking for available positions. The Internet obviously doesn't allow for this, however in most cases in the dance world this isn't an option anyway. Most auditions start with a headshot, a CV, and a showreel. And when you are applying for an audition for the new production of The Phantom Of The Opera with a theatre company in Germany, face-to-face isn't a viable option anyway. So it's nice to have this platform provided either free of charge for a basic membership: only allowing a few photos or video clips, or for a low fee for a premium membership: more media allowed on your profile, enabling you to show more of what you're made of! 

This sort of web space could be compared to a cafe in a library. Employers and site members can peruse the wide variety of profiles over a cup of coffee, and once they find something interesting, the conversation starts. One of the major downsides of these sites is that it's not always entirely clear how legitimate some of the contacts are. For example, if someone contacts you and you can't view their complete profile it doesn't really scream, "I'm going to pay you properly and my photography business is completely legitimate." However if you can sort through that and try to do a bit of extra research about the companies or people who you are in contact with, these cafe libraries are an excellent way to network, apply for auditions, and gain invaluable exposure on an international scale that might otherwise be impossible. 

A couple of high resolution and professional quality photos on your profile can make a huge difference.