Building an Audience from Scratch: Your Ideas

mckinise

mckinise


The Challenge: Take an unknown media property and build a following.

The Product: Serial Online video content to be released on youtube
Genre: Science Fiction - Action
Desired Demographic: Males 18-34 years old

The Resources:

EMD - Exact Match Domain for the web series
Twitter Account
Google+ Account
Blogger Account
Facebook Account
 
I've been wrestling with this issue for years, as some members know. But are you asking the forum to come up with an idea, or are you saying you're going to do it, and you want advice? Or both?
 
Both. I am wanting this to be a discussion where we all share information that can be used to launch and grow current and future IPs.
 
Well, before the financial meltdown, I would have said to start with your series, network the SF conventions, and advertise in the various SF fanboy magazines. Now, however, I'm not sure, because we seem to be living in a different world.
 
I thought about a similar strategy. I was going to start before the episodes came out. Hitting up local haunts with information about the series and building a strong presence online.
 
The Resources:

EMD - Exact Match Domain for the web series
Twitter Account
Google+ Account
Blogger Account
Facebook Account
Click to expand...

You don't. You don't have the resources you need on your list.

The first trick is to have something people want. This is first and foremost the most important part. Without this, you're dead in the water.

Then you'll either need people power and/or money on top of all this. Hit the virtual pavement so to speak. You'll need some work to showcase, some reason for people to come to you and let EVERYONE in your TARGET MARKET know and pray like hell it catches on. If you have money, advertise to your target market.

Look up Guerilla Marketing and Publicity. It's probably what you'll need to learn to get going. It'll take lots of hard work. Lots! The results you'll usually get is you putting in about $100k worth of sweat equity to get what a $10k campaign can deliver. If it is executed well and catches on, that $100k worth of sweat equity can turn into Millions worth of marketing.

I suggest getting a publicist.

Good luck!
 
mckinise said:
I was going to start before the episodes came out. Hitting up local haunts with information about the series and building a strong presence online.
Click to expand...
I’m a fan of “Justified”. I didn’t become a fan because someone
told me there were going to make a series about a lawman in
the hill country of Kentucky - I became a fan when I watched
the series. So that leads me to suppose I would not be a “fan”
of a series that might be shot someday.

How do you build a fan base before there is something to be a
fan of? How do you build a strong presence online with something
that doesn't actually exist?

I think you need to produce episodes. If not I'm interested to hear
how one would build a fan base.
 
It's hard to build a following, I'm struggling with it as well. Here in Venezuela I noticed several things when we started spreading pictures and small video's about our work. At the moment we're still in postproduction, so none has seen the complete thing.

1/ How you present it matters more than the product. Since you don't have a product yet, the only impression people get is from what you let out. (For example: made in region or town so-and-so will allready give you the following of the region. People like being a part of things and will spread the word.)

2/ How you present it needs to give the impression that the work is different in some way. Nothing big, just one different aspect would allready interest many people.

3/ You need to stalk and spam people and institutions. Contact local newspapers, TV stations, radio, governement agencies, etc. Don't be afraid of being just that slightly bit more bold or annoying than the others. Activate your network and your friends' networks. Insist that they share, like etc. Follow-up on the contacts you make personally. It's a lot of work, but it pays of in the end.

4/ Adds. For a few USD in Google or Facebook adds you can make a first following, going from zero to a few thousands. It's not much, but a start if you come from nothing. I find it's very cost efficient.

5/ Twitter... I don't know how to use it, but a guy in our team does and we get a lot of extra views and friends from it.

I think the clue is to experiment and see what works. There are items that we worked on for ages and got no following whatsoever, and then an extremely badly written newspaper article in local newspaper gives us more following than we've had during the entire project.
 
directorik said:
I’m a fan of “Justified”. I didn’t become a fan because someone
told me there were going to make a series about a lawman in
the hill country of Kentucky - I became a fan when I watched
the series. So that leads me to suppose I would not be a “fan”
of a series that might be shot someday.
Click to expand...

Two things:

1) Justified is awesome! Man I love that show. Still think Margo Martindale deserved a Noble Prize for Acting Brilliance.

2) There are loads of shows that, based on the high-concept descriptions, I wouldn't be a fan of simply because I wouldn't have watched them in the first place. Firefly, for instance, sounded stupid to me on hearing it's premise. And yet after watching the very first episode (the real first episode, not the second one that was actually aired as the first) I became immediately hooked. I wouldn't have even gotten that far if not introduced to the series through a friend who lent me their DVD of it.

You want a fan base? Have something for people to be a fan of.
 
directorik said:
I’m a fan of “Justified”. I didn’t become a fan because someone
told me there were going to make a series about a lawman in
the hill country of Kentucky - I became a fan when I watched
the series. So that leads me to suppose I would not be a “fan”
of a series that might be shot someday.

How do you build a fan base before there is something to be a
fan of? How do you build a strong presence online with something
that doesn't actually exist?

I think you need to produce episodes. If not I'm interested to hear
how one would build a fan base.
Click to expand...

You do have a valid point. I have a few ideas that would work with a finished product, but vaporware or dreamscreen would not drum up much support. People do need to see something to beleve, and even a trailer of what to expect may not be enough.
 
Tessa said:
It's hard to build a following, I'm struggling with it as well. Here in Venezuela I noticed several things when we started spreading pictures and small video's about our work. At the moment we're still in postproduction, so none has seen the complete thing.

1/ How you present it matters more than the product. Since you don't have a product yet, the only impression people get is from what you let out. (For example: made in region or town so-and-so will allready give you the following of the region. People like being a part of things and will spread the word.)

2/ How you present it needs to give the impression that the work is different in some way. Nothing big, just one different aspect would allready interest many people.

3/ You need to stalk and spam people and institutions. Contact local newspapers, TV stations, radio, governement agencies, etc. Don't be afraid of being just that slightly bit more bold or annoying than the others. Activate your network and your friends' networks. Insist that they share, like etc. Follow-up on the contacts you make personally. It's a lot of work, but it pays of in the end.

4/ Adds. For a few USD in Google or Facebook adds you can make a first following, going from zero to a few thousands. It's not much, but a start if you come from nothing. I find it's very cost efficient.

5/ Twitter... I don't know how to use it, but a guy in our team does and we get a lot of extra views and friends from it.

I think the clue is to experiment and see what works. There are items that we worked on for ages and got no following whatsoever, and then an extremely badly written newspaper article in local newspaper gives us more following than we've had during the entire project.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Those are excellent ideas.
 
DDK said:
Two things:

1) Justified is awesome! Man I love that show. Still think Margo Martindale deserved a Noble Prize for Acting Brilliance.

2) There are loads of shows that, based on the high-concept descriptions, I wouldn't be a fan of simply because I wouldn't have watched them in the first place. Firefly, for instance, sounded stupid to me on hearing it's premise. And yet after watching the very first episode (the real first episode, not the second one that was actually aired as the first) I became immediately hooked. I wouldn't have even gotten that far if not introduced to the series through a friend who lent me their DVD of it.

You want a fan base? Have something for people to be a fan of.
Click to expand...

I didn't like the "1st" episode of Firefly when I saw it. Turned it off. Years later came back to it, and loved it. Also just watched the first Episode of Justified. I am all copped out with police dramas, but I will give it a couple episodes.
 
mckinise said:
I didn't like the "1st" episode of Firefly when I saw it. Turned it off. Years later came back to it, and loved it. Also just watched the first Episode of Justified. I am all copped out with police dramas, but I will give it a couple episodes.
Click to expand...

Justified is not a cop drama.

Well it is... but... it isn't... kinda... sort-of. It's kinda hard to place, honestly.

It's really more a character drama that just happens to be about a cop. A kick-ass, awesome, manly-man cop with a sexy southern drawl. I'm not even gay but I think I'd bend the rules for Raylan Givens.

But really, it's the characters that make the show. Stick with it at least until a goodly way into season two solely for Margo Martindale's portrayal of Mags Bennet. She won an Emmy and a Critics Choice award for the role and it was absolutely deserved.

Also, Raylan kills people in such inventive and fun ways, it's worth watching just for the "HOLY SHIT, DID HE REALLY JUST DO THAT? THAT WAS SO COOL!" factor :D
 
My experience is in music so some of what I've learnt is different. I don't think I can give you much advice beyond "Keep friendly and welcome your public with open arms", and "learn to make everything you write sound interesting, even if it isn't".

For music I could just offer people some tracks and they'd then promote me in return. I don't think you can do that in film. Maybe try offering to trade with others - "I'll talk about you here if you talk about me there", "I'll advertise for you on my site if you do the same for me".
Every week put the spotlight on someone else's work, promote them even if they don't do the same for you. Share interesting insight, images and information with people.

My experience with social media (my FB page with 150 likes:
Normal boring post gets some views, no reactions.
Serious or funny post gets more views, one or two reactions.
Serious or funny WITH A PHOTO: Lots of views, lots of likes two or three reactions.
Promoting other people: Lots of views, lots of likes, some thanks "for showing me this epic new thing". If you do promote others, make sure it's somewhat relevant to you or what you do. I once promoted a webcomic called StupidFox because my name and avatar is a fox, that got some serious appreciation.
My interactions with my audience are getting to the point where they are beginning to relate with me beyond just what I do, they're interested in WHO I AM. For example, I recently lost my cat and posted a photo and goodbye message to her. It was literally the most popular (non-paid-for) post in the history of my page. Conversations, condolences, personal stories... I'm not saying I did that to get views or something, but it just shows that people want to feel involved in something they like. Make them like your product/service, make them like you and you're set.

FYI, my own YT channel has only got 1170ish subscribers but my (100% original) music has been heard by nearly 2 million people because it was used by other more known people on Youtube.

Hope this helps.
 
Yeah, I know! A composer/music guy who doesn't spend his time spamming links to his work everywhere! Mad isn't it? :)
Anyway, it's not hard to find me, I use the same pseudonym everywhere.
To be fair, I've worked with the OP a couple of times already so we know each other's work. I provided a theme tune for his webseries "Griffin and Gretchen" and did some other minor audio stuff for him.
 
i have over 4,400 followers in 3 months from twitter from 15 seconds of footage which is from a feature film, iv had one interview, managed to book another one and attracted attention from someone who was in harry potter films.

impossible is nothing, effort is everything
 
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