Andrew: Hey everybody, it’s Andrew Warner – Founder mixergy.com, home of the ambitious upstart, and today I’m going to be interviewing a friend of mine. Here’s a woman who wanted to get on-air gigs, who wanted to build a career for herself – but she couldn’t get enough of them. So she decided to take matters into her own hands – she started using social media tools, things like that. I remember I was watching you, Shira, at an airport using Quick on your cellphone to broadcast video live to an audience that you were building using social media tools and then that got you on on-air gigs. I think you were on, um – Let’s see – NBC, Fox – a bunch, in fact, why don’t you tell people. What are some of the highlights of your career?
Interviewee: Well, so far besides obviously my work online, which has led to all of this I hosted a weekly lifestyle show on NBC here in L.A. called First Look and Open House...
Full program includes
– How Shira got her first shot on TV.
– How to get celebrities’ attention.
– Shira’s advice for using social media to build your brand.
Edited excerpt: Some Advice
Shira: Find an agent. Send them your reel, see if they’ll pick you up.
But in the meantime, start your blog, your personality-driven site. Find that one thing that you can talk about to everyone for hours. That kind of one subject that everyone is like, “you just know too much about it. You can talk about it like forever.” That’s that thing that people will see you’re passionate about it. And you will be able to sell that. And you’ll be able to sell your personality in that subject.
Start blogging consistently – maybe not everyday. Make sure that in each post there’s a reason you’re talking. Incorporate video into it. Do videos whether they’re set up, or maybe on the go.
Show a little bit of a side that is not as produced and not as touched up, and bring people on the journey with you. Be on twitter. Have those videos, maybe upload them to YouTube and then embed them on your blog.
And then reach out. CNN, FOX, etc — a lot of the people there are now online. So start tweeting with them and say, “Hey, check out this blog post. Hey I’d love to be a guest on your show.” Or find their emails. Just try to connect with those people that are booking all these shows, whether it be online now or on TV. Start being credible within your subject matter
Andrew: Alright, I love it. I’m actually going to excerpt that and put it in with the video to make sure the people see it
Shira: One more thing! Online only does so much. Bring online offline. I’ve strengthened so many relationships professionally and personally by bringing them offline. So check out all the big conferences and go to those conferences to meet the influencers and the people.
Being online can only do so much. Bring your craft to people. If you are talking about real estate on your blog you know, say you’ll moderate at a real estate convention or a real estate event. Bring your personality and your brand offline.