Anything Goes : WHY are You on Here & Who Are YOU? by Ginger Marin

Couldn't agree more. I will not accept a network request without a bio and a photo.

Nice to hear, Karynne, I'm not alone in thinking this.

Yeah. Weird. I was thinking shyness was a big part of it. Perhaps a lot of people are strung out on too many sites. I really like the Desert Island Movies feature, so wish more people would avail themselves of that. (See my recent post on this.) It's a quick way to see if another film person shares your taste in movies.

I don't think shy is the reason. If you want to do business with people regardless if it is in the creative or another space, you have to have a proper "calling card". This is a professional site. I am always floored when I see no bio, no photo on here and on LinkedIn. Having said that, from what I have seen on these sites, many people need some personal branding advice. You can't sell yourself and your services if you don't know how to present yourself and appeal to potential business partners.

Kevin I also don't think shyness has anything to do with it. Laziness is more likely which may be due to the fact that people are indeed trying to juggle too many social sites - still the question remains why be on here. I have a few desert island movie pics but every time I go back to that feature it doesn't work (like right now -can't add any to my profile). Thanks for your comments Karynne and Kevin.

Agreed. Personally, I'm trying to use this site primarily as a film lover rather than as a businessman. Of course I'd like someone to express interest in my stories and services, but I'm kind of burned out on promoting and selling. I tried to sell critically acclaimed scripts for ten years before giving up in frustration. Now I just want to enjoy being a story junkie and humanist. If some business comes of it, fabulous. If not, I have plenty of other creative outlets.

@Elisabeth Meier: Somehow your post, which I received via email from Stage 32 disappeared here. Just to be clear, personal branding is not about age, religion or similar personal information. Too long and involved to explain here. I could give an entire webinar on this topic. But here is a tip. Think of it as a logline about yourself. However, much thought has to go into this and it has to be totally authentic.

@Shawn Speake Pls see response to Elisabeth Meier above. To point anything out re personal branding, I would really need to have the whole picture of a person to do it justice. It's not that easy. As I said, a lot of thought has to go into it.

I never do what any other think I had to do, especially not only because YOU now love to read resumes. Have fun, I'm here for serious connections as a serious and hard working screenwriter and have no understanding for posts like this. Sorry.

@Karynne: If you had checked my profile you would know that I posted a link to my imdb profile as my resume. So there is no reason to write to my address in the tone you did. Thanks.

@Elisabeth Hey Elisabeth, you engaged in a discussion with us here and I merely responded to your specific comment, therefore I tagged you. No need to read anything more into it or take things personally. That approach may not be the best in this competitive business. My comments about bios, personal branding were made as a general remark and not specific to you. As to checking profiles, I only review profiles of people who send me a network request and not for people in discussion posts unless I want to invite them into my network. Hope this clarifies the matter. Good luck.

Happy Saturday, ladies! Hope you're all having a fantastic day!

I am having a great day, Shawn. That's my story and I am sticking to it. Lol.

I had hoped that by posting this discussion topic, my message would get through but I'm still getting networking requests from people with no bios. Oh well :(

Right. Kudos to the Stage 32 crew for designing a useful platform, but it seems to be hugely underutilized in every way. You have to give in order to receive.

Me, too, Ginger. Some are even mysterious. No bio, no photo, just a couple of titles, but how would we know they are even valid if they don't explain what they have done in that respective field? Just watched RB's videos today about the correct way for creatives to do social media, etc. and he also brought up the subject of bios and how important they are.

Karynne - Yes, I had just watched RB's video as well and it was what prompted me to re-post. And Kevin, I agree, sometimes this is a totally underutilized resource (at least by some people). Thanks, both of you, for your comments.

Definitely good to generate a decent bio when possible, at the very least, being thorough enough to have SOMETHING there. That being said, the site is home to a whole lot of different levels of the business, not to mention, differing levels of involvement. If I were just starting out now, I imagine I might have a logline, no credits to my name, and no clue of what to throw under all my bio stuff. Yet I'd never want to discourage someone from getting on here. Build as you go I guess.

I agree with Shane Wheeler. I posted my bio right away. Despite that, strangers will request a connection and ask, "Are you an actress?" or "Can you produce my stage play?" So the second thing is: why don't people READ YOUR BIO, then ask to connect?

LindaAnn, I often wondered that myself. And the answer I keep coming back to is laziness.

We've got our share of people playing screenwriter and actor. It's par for the course on a popular social network.… I friend everyone after checking their bio, whether they have it or not, and focus my emotional energy on the creatives I interact with daily.