WHOA! You just attended a film festival and saw an incredible short film. So incredible in fact, you had to waltz right up to the director and producing team and tell them all about how awesome it was. This, of course, led to an insightful conversation about the inspiration filmmaking brings. 

It was a genuine connection and all of you decided to stay in touch. Business cards were exchanged , and your goal of making a strong industry connection was achieved.  

Nice work. 

But what do you do next? How do you continue these new industry relationships? 

Social media is my primary tool to stay connected. So take a journey through this list of ways to continue your industry relationships on Facebook!

5 ways to continue your Industry Relationships on Facebook

1) Friend them! 

It may go without saying, but it’s hard to take your real world connection online if you don’t send a friend request first. 

I’ve found that the best time to go in for the friend request is at the end of your in person conversation.  I typically say something like, “Oh you’re so much fun, are you on Facebook? Would love to connect with you there!” Or I’ll hand them my business card and ask for theirs, and then friend them a few days later.

In my experience, it’s rare that someone is put-off by being asked to connect on Facebook. The only pushback you could potentially get is someone saying “oh I don’t really use Facebook, but I love Instagram.” 

In that case, just  follow them on Instagram. Easy breezy.

2) Engage with their posts 

Now that you two are connected on Facebook, use this as a tool to see what they have going on or what projects they’re  involved with. 

I usually pop onto Facebook 2 -3 times a day (you could do more or less, gauge what works best for you) to see what people are posting and to “like,” “share” and comment on posts to support my friends. 

It always means so much to me when someone engages with something I’m excited about or working on, so I use this same principal when I see others’ posts.

If I see a director friend has just gotten their film into a festival, I’ll like the post and I almost always comment “congrats!” 

If I see an actor friend post about auditions or callbacks, I like their posts to be a part of the celebration of their win. If a producer friend of mine posts a crowd-funding site for their new film, I’ll definitely share the project (regardless of whether I decide to donate or not) so that more eyeballs can get on their post. 

I engage with industry contacts to show that I support their endeavors and that I recognize that this journey can be sometimes difficult and isolating.

3) Attend their screenings and events 

So many filmmakers (myself included) invite people to screenings, film festivals and premieres using Facebook invites. It’s a great way to stay up to date on your friends projects, and it’s an awesome opportunity to reconnect with someone IN PERSON (vs just online). Even if I can’t attend, I’ll often share the event. I love supporting other artists and their projects, and usually these screenings and events are in and of themselves great networking opportunities! So you not only get to support a fellow filmmaker, you get to meet some new ones 😀

4) Share your Wins and yourself on Facebook! 

Always post about your films, your wins, your auditions, your headshots, your updated reels, your festival wins etc! In the same way you want to support their posts, filmmakers also want to support you. 

And if you never share it, then how would they even know that you just updated your reel for example? I’ve had so many industry relationships develop further because I shared a premiere or a new headshot. Facebook and social media in general is a great way to stay top of mind with industry colleagues. 

And it’s pretty cool when someone I met at a film festival comments on an award I’ve won… It reminds me that we are all in this together, and that supporting one another is a great way of fostering a filmmaker community!

Speaking of posting your own wins… be sure to post about your everyday life as well. . . It’s important that all of your industry Facebook friends see you as an actor, but also as a human being. 

5) Grab coffee with them every 4 – 6 months 

Don’t forget to keep the offline connection strong as well. Since you’ve been engaging with them and their posts, you two have probably have a bit of a rapport now… I love to meet up with people if I haven’t seen them at an event or screening in awhile because I want to remind them that I am a living breathing person, and I also want to deepen the relationship. Things always get brought up in the conversation that hasn’t been brought up on Facebook, so I love using these coffee meetings as a way to further our working relationship or to strengthen a film friendship. Often scripts and projects get brought up, and of course conversations about casting, producing and writing occur. Partnerships for future projects might even occur!

But Rachel, what if they don’t use social media?!  Is all lost?!

No! Never fear! You can apply these same principles to people who don’t use social media. What I do in these cases is email them every few months to check in and see what they’re up to, and see if there’s a way I can share something (a crowd-funding page or a screening date) and I’ll update them on something new/cool/fun that I’ve got going on in my life. After several months, I’ll usually suggest a coffee meet up, just like I do with social media relationships.

HAPPY FRIENDING!

-Coach RachelPS. For other pro-active tips on how to book TV/film work, check out our free upcoming master class: Book TV/Film On Your OWN: 3 Insider Strategies.