Social Media Promotion

RyiGarry

RyiGarry

I'm in the process of making a short film, and am looking to you all for advice on how to most effectively build up an audience around it. I know, obviously, that there are loads of guides about it, but I was looking for some personal advice for my situation.

I haven't used Facebook or Twitter, so I'm not sure why they would choose to follow me - what content would be interesting to them? Many of the accounts (of other films, or festivals, whatever) have an already established audience - who know exactly what they're going to get from that user.

I'm specifically looking to build the audience round this film. I realise some sound advice would be to build it around yourself - but prior work I don't want to show around: I'd prefer this to be the first you see of me :D
 
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Guerrilla hit the nail on the head. There's a reason there are guides and whatnot - marketing is much less personal than I think you want it to be. Marketing is a formulaic process that requires a vast understanding of your targeted consumer.

If you want to build an audience around your film, you need to know what that demographic is. Then you need to know how to get in front of that demographic, so they do know about your Facebook and Twitter and have a reason to follow you. Small personal example: my last album I released was very heavily lyrical - some songs over 40 verses. So, I marketed it online towards communities with a vested interest in extended poetry and songwriting. I got some wonderful feedback and a couple fans out of doing so.

Know your audience so you can build it.
 
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I'm not sure I communicated my problem as well as I could. Thanks very much for the feedback, "get in front of that demographic" is a great phrase - helps me a lot.

The thing I'm looking for the the very bare bones of it - the stuff you probably take for granted. Specifically what to share - what somebody would be interested in - I just have no idea of what would be pertinent, useful, you know.


How pithy, but I'm not looking for short cuts. If anyone could point me in the direction of a premier book or website on the subject I'd be very grateful.
 
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So, do you know what's good about your project, and why you like it? It seems like you yourself may be hazy on that, or else answering those questions would be a bit easier. Why would you want to watch your project? What hooks you to create it? That should be relatively the same as the fans for wanting to pursue it.
 
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I'm not sure I communicated my problem as well as I could.
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It's very clear to me what you have communicated. You're after the miraculous secret sauce. That formula that works on everyone. Do this and people will flock to your door. It doesn't exist.

You seem to think that we know more than the professionals that have been doing this for a living for many years. Those guides exist for a reason. So you can learn. There is a learning process you need to go through before you get to the point where you know enough to ask the right questions.

Specifically what to share
what somebody would be interested in
I just have no idea of what would be pertinent
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As someone else said, go and read those guides. You have no choice. Unfortunately you're a lot less along in the journey than you think you are.

Your first step is to identify your target market so you can understand them. Only after you understand your market (which can take years mind you) will you work out what content, wording (or even combination of wordings), method, medium, even typeface that are pertinent to that market. There's way more to it than this, but I hopefully gave you a little insight into where to start.

There is one short cut. Give a pile of money to a team who are very good at this so they can do it for you.

Until you have that pile of money to offer, go and source some books on the subject of marketing specifically for the entertainment (or what is most suitable to your market) market, and read. Read a lot of different books and from different sources. Read about sales, copyrighting, graphic design and so on. If you really want to know what to do, start doing a degree in marketing. By the end of it, you'll be part of the way there. I wish you luck.
 
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I have come through learning enough disciplines to know how truly expansive every field is - believe me when I tell you that I know how little one knows at the beginning.

Are there any specific guides that you would point me in the direction of? Websites, books etc. In the same vein you would point someone toward 'Win Friends and Influence People' for business/social relationships - is there a similar basic tome you know of marketing? Or, even better, social media marketing :) ?
 
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My expertise was in retention marketing, which is significantly different from what you need and never had any hand in social media.

What I was trying to get across, there is no best book or set of books to read. It's an area where the theory stays the same, though the practice is always evolving and changes depending on your target market.

If I were you, first I'd spend some time finding some courses on Facebook, Twitter, Pinrest (if that's how to spell it) and Instgram to understand the social media mediums first. Take a course or two on pay-per-click advertising. Lynda.com would probably be able to help you well enough to give you the basic understandings you need.

Social media marketing really seems to be evolving at the moment, so I think it'd be safe to assume anything written in the last couple of months are already out of date, though, it still depends on your target market group. Just be aware, social media marketing tends to be somewhat expensive to execute and tends to be an ongoing sinkhole (as you currently need to continue to spend to communicate with your fanbase), especially if you're not capturing your potential clients correctly.

This may all be moot if your target market doesn't use social media.

A lot of people make a mistake of failing to understanding the point in building an audience around a short film. Why exactly are you trying to build the audience for your short film? What will it give you in the end? What are your goals for it? How much is it worth to you? How much are you willing to spend to capture that one-shot fan base?

The problem I see you having is you're going to have to do ten times the work you put into your short just to build a significant fan base, instead of focusing on what will give you better results in the end.

If I were you, I'd concentrate on Guerrilla Marketing, which I prefer to call publicity, though first, determine what you want to achieve.

[after typing all this out, I sure hope you don't have a drama short film]
 
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Sweetie said:
If I were you, first I'd spend some time finding some courses on Facebook, Twitter, Pinrest (if that's how to spell it) and Instgram to understand the social media mediums first. Take a course or two on pay-per-click advertising. Lynda.com would probably be able to help you well enough to give you the basic understandings you need.
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Fantastic! Just what I was looking for - a little point in the right direction, you know - just to name a useful place to go.


Sweetie said:
Social media marketing really seems to be evolving at the moment, so I think it'd be safe to assume anything written in the last couple of months are already out of date, though, it still depends on your target market group. Just be aware, social media marketing tends to be somewhat expensive to execute and tends to be an ongoing sinkhole (as you currently need to continue to spend to communicate with your fanbase), especially if you're not capturing your potential clients correctly.

This may all be moot if your target market doesn't use social media.
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Are you talking time or money costs here? Or both?


Sweetie said:
A lot of people make a mistake of failing to understanding the point in building an audience around a short film. Why exactly are you trying to build the audience for your short film? What will it give you in the end? What are your goals for it? How much is it worth to you? How much are you willing to spend to capture that one-shot fan base?

The problem I see you having is you're going to have to do ten times the work you put into your short just to build a significant fan base, instead of focusing on what will give you better results in the end.

If I were you, I'd concentrate on Guerrilla Marketing, which I prefer to call publicity, though first, determine what you want to achieve.
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The issue of building an audience I had already considered - the reason being to actually get someone to watch the damn thing! (Though with a little more complexity than that.) You say it in such a definite way, though: "What will it give you in the end?" - would you be thinking of a different route? It seems rather obvious to actually get a group of people who would watch it, as opposed to releasing it and then being lost among the load of other content.

Additionally, would it be a 'one-shot'? Surely, if this film were quality, would that not retain some of the audience looking for further work of mine? I don't want to sound naïve, but it's certainly what I would do (and indeed, have done) after seeing (short) films I have enjoyed.
 
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Are you talking time or money costs here?
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For this, particularly money costs.

the reason being to actually get someone to watch the damn thing!
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If I were you, I'd look at it a different way. I'd market the finished product and get them to watch and then and try to personally, as a filmmaker, build a fan base that will follow you from project to project. If you build that fan base for the movie itself, they rarely always follow you, though it can happen.

Most filmmakers that I see, build up a fan base around a film. Once the film is out, they abandon that fan base, never to contact them again.
 
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if you're making a short and you want to build an audience do this:

1) Build a website/blog.

2) Submit it to Google to be indexed.

3) Get in some festivals or get some online reviews. The goal is to have a few good sites to link to your site so Google will rank you.

4) Put it on youtube and pick the right keywords so the film it's found. Put a link back to your site.

5) Build a FB fan's page and get like's ... and viewers.

The YouTube route will potentially expose it to millions, but you'll need the Film Festivals or other sites to link to your site to help you rank in Google.

Don't use Vimeo, nor host the short in your site, only host it in YouTube.

Good luck!
 
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RyiGarry said:
I haven't used Facebook or Twitter, so I'm not sure why they would choose to follow me - what content would be interesting to them? (...) I'm specifically looking to build the audience round this film.
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Well, go make a Twitter & Facebook account and start looking at the pages that have done this well. It's all right there.
 
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