The challenge for any movie actor is to continue to remain in the public eye as they transition between movies, television and acting roles. To be invisible for too long can spell the end of a career. Maintaining a public persona is vital to ensuring that your star power continues to maintain momentum.

The Achilles Heel Of Traditional Mass Media

The achilles heal of  traditional mass media for the personal brand for an actor is that once the TV is turned off there is no way to view that show again until it appears years later as a repeat. Once the newspaper has printed your story you are lining bins and thrown out with the trash the next day.

The leverage of social media and the web is that if your presence is broad and deep it is much harder to be invisible and much easier to be continually found than rely upon the next photo opportunity, press release or the whims of the editors and media moguls who are the gatekeepers of  the ageing TV and movie industrial complex. On social media you have the power to be your own publisher and promoter and the saying “what happens in Las Vegas stays on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube” reveals the truth of the longevity of content on social media. (This also should be considered  in light of the downside of social media so that thinking is happening before sharing on social media as highlighted  in the article “30 Things You Should Not share On Social Media“)

The Social Media Power Of Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Milano, a famous actress who has starred in popular television series such as  ”Who’s the Boss” and Charmed and is about to star in a new movie “Hall Pass” with Owen Wilson and Christina Applegate opening February 25, understands the power of social media to ensure that she is certainly not forgotten or becomes anonymous.

Her social media pulling power can be seen when the highly successful social media old spice campaign even records two short 20 second and 40 second  YouTube videos in response to her tweet on Twitter!!

“GENIUS. Shirtless Old Spice guy replies on Twitter w/ hilarious personalized videos http://tnw.to/16XQ3 /via @Zee”

Click here to view the embedded video.

So what are her 5 secrets to social media success?

1. Twitter Is Leveraged

Alyssa has 3 Twitter accounts with the main account being a social media force to be taken very seriously with over 1.3 million followers.

• @Alyssa_Milano which is her main Twitter account (1,326,438 followers and on 29,078 lists)
• @AlyssaDotCom with it being the channel for “Official Alyssa News” that tweets the latest news updates. (30,470 followers)
• @TouchByAM which tweets stories about her love of sport with the latest sports updates(22,521 followers)

This helps her keep in touch with her million plus fans and ensures she is found online easily, quickly and in real time.

2. Maintains A Facebook Presence

The Facebook account at this stage is not at the same level as Twitter as Alyssa has obviously spent more time and focus on the micro blogging platform but 11,315 Facebook fans is still significant and helps keep her name circulating on the web.

3. Blogs

The blog is integrated into her website which helps her search engine optimization as well as her presence on the posterous blog. The blogs  show the human side of Alyssa with photos and stories about her philanthropy and her love of animals and certainly helps her enhance her online digital assets.

4. Keeping It Real and Authentic

Showing her passion, interests and keeping it real is included in her tweets, website and blog and this continues to keep her connected with her fans.

5. Website Is Social Media Optimized and Up To Date

The website makes it easy for you to follow her on Facebook and Twitter as well as some other social media channels. The principle here is to make it easy for people to share your content  and connect on social media. She has also had website recently updates which is necessary on a fast moving social web.

Despite admiring Alyssa’s social media activities there is room for improvement with her social media activities and brand.

1. She should optimize her Facebook page better with her Website and blog

2. Embrace the power of YouTube, which is vital for a famous visual media brand and personality.

That is the topic for another blog post.

Image by indoloony

I was going to write something completely different than what turned up below but somehow this article emerged.

Over the last 12 months I have come up against a lot of reasons and excuses to  not use “Social Media”, “New Media”, Digital Marketing” or embrace the “New Rules of Marketing“. It certainly doesn’t mean that you have to discard what is currently working in your marketing program and it doesn’t mean throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

This list is a bit of a “Tongue in Cheek” look at why the CEO still wants to use the Yellow Pages and not embrace the “New Marketing” of the 21st century. I came up with 40, but feel free to add more in the comments. Hey… have a bit of fun.

40 Reasons Why  The CEO Still Uses The Yellow Pages

1. The “Yellow Pages” have no room for comments
2. The “Yellow Pages” are easy to control (and they can be used to keep the door open)
3. They look good on the bookshelf ( and I have very nice bookshelves)
4. So what do you mean by “Kindle”?
5. You can stack “em” high
6. The grand children can use them for “Papier Mache”
7. Very hard to measure  “social” or “community”
8. It’s big and thick and comfortable (like my slippers)
9. You can recycle them (you can’t recycle bits and bytes)
10. Change is still a dirty word
11. It’s hard to say “No” to the account manger from the yellow pages (she is very cute)
12. It’s got nice pictures (and it’s in high definition)
13. You can use nice safe corporate speak in the Yellow Pages
14. It’s safe one way communication
15. Like everything they will always come back into fashion “just you see, young man”
16. Digital and Social Media is too trendy and “GenerationY”
17. I am going deaf (I can’t listen to a webinar)
18. I am going blind (I have trouble viewing a YouTube Video)
19. The Yellow Pages don’t need batteries (like my hearing aid)
20. Direct mail has worked for us for the last 30 years
21. “Look, I can see our company name up in lights (TV)” – Ego
22. When I started this company I started with the Yellow pages and a telephone, so start cold calling.
23. What do you mean by “Blog” … I fell into one of those when I was hunting
24. Facebook is for only for teenagers and it doesn’t fit our companies demographic
25. They are old (sorry.. mature)
26. Conservative is cool after the “Great Financial Crisis”
27. They own a desktop and not a laptop
28. “Tablet” is something you take before going to bed
29. New means scary, I prefer comfortable
30. They have one eye on the retirement plan
31. They only have one eye
32. Email is still safe (sort of)
33. You don’t get sacked for doing what always worked 10 years ago (last century)
34. Can’t spell “New Media” or “Social Media”
35. Google is something that babies say
36. You can’t measure the “ROI” for Social Media
37. They haven’t worked out the costs of “Return On Ignoring”
38. “SEO, what does that mean?”
39. Now we can’t have our competitors seeing what is in our catalog if we put it online,they might steal some ideas…Guess what, they already have it!
40. “Mobile Marketing that sounds like a good idea, so where will we keep moving those mobile signs to”

So what exceptional excuses did you hear in 2009?

Click here to view the embedded video.