Why Facebook Advertising Won't Help You As An Entertainer

"We are beggars begging from beggars"

As a rule of thumb I almost never post my upcoming shows to my fellow performers or to any groups that are populated by other performers.  But this seems to be the current model of entertainment in the city that I live in; Philadelphia:

" That if I come and support your particular brand of art then eventually 

you will give me a chance at using my particular brand of art in your show

and/or at your venue"

In the movie "History of the World: Part 1" The scene in which the peasants decided to revolt was highlighted by the line that they were beggars begging from beggars to show how badly that they actually had it.  In the same way if any of our promotional material or our advertising is trained at fellow performers; then there is in no way any real expectation of being able to get off the ground.

To use a mathematical model, a group of performers performing for other performers only works if all goods, services, and needs are met by that particular group. ((In other words; if they are self-sustaining)).  But we buy our food at Whole Foods and shop for our clothing at the mall/thrift stores.  We pay our land lord and our various bills.  It is therefor impossible to be self sustaining as a group.  

This means that this particular model of advertising and creating shows is ultimately not self-sustaining and any advertisement for our shows is and should be aimed at the mainstream.  When we sell ourselves on facebook we do so by what are commonality related posts in the same way that Amazon offers you suggestions on what to buy based on previous purchases.  So if I go to a lot of pagan web pages and buy a lot of athames/sage then it makes senses to advertise a new pagan website/ ren faire/ etc because I will post about a lot of things found at these places.

But the people posting flow art/circus arts, googling the word "juggling club", and making purchases of clown make up on amazon in sufficient qualities to flag for facebook advertising are those individuals who are already doing the same thing we are doing.  Therefor paying for advertisement or making a point of advertising solely to other performers only serves to continue this basic and not make any actually head way.  It would better to spend your money on a search service to make your website pop out or your youtube video so that is a "suggested" video.