Should Actors Be Paid to Promote Their Movies on Social Media?
Social media has a significant impact on movie marketing and advertising/publicity campaigns. When utilized well, it can really add to a movie’s overall marketing strategy and success. Likes, shares and engagement on social media can translate into bigger box office numbers. Therefore, marketing on various social media platforms, especially if an actor or actress has a large following/fan base, is extremely beneficial. I think actors and actresses should be paid to promote their movies on social media because they will undoubtedly affect the interest in the movie. An actor or actress promoting their movie on social media is advertising for the movie. Moreover, this should be considered a part of the film’s marketing and promotions and thus, be compensated for. These social media posts would appeal to any of the actor’s fans. Even something small such as “I’m so excited to announce that I will be playing Belle in Disney’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast” should be compensated accordingly. For example, a tweet like that is opening the dialogue between the actress and her fans. It will continue as the movie’s release date approaches.
One compensation strategy would be to incorporate the actress’/actor’s social media presence, in terms of anything promoting the movie, into the movie marketing campaign from the beginning. Prescribing a certain number of tweets, Instagram posts and Facebook videos (e.g. a Q & A on set, or a set tour) and paying according to that would be one way. Another method of compensation would be to determine approximately what it would take for the movie to gain xyz impressions, likes, etc.
I think actors should only charge proportional to their contribution to the movie’s marketing plan, meaning that they should be compensated according to how many followers they can get to follow the movie’s Facebook page for example. I think that Hollywood actors should only be paid to promote their movies when they meet a certain threshold with respect to their social media following and engagement (across multiple platforms). The reasoning behind this is that if an actor does not meet this threshold, they are probably the ones gaining more exposure from promoting the movie that they are in. Although in this scenario, the movie has to have enough clout on its own
In conclusion, actors should be compensated to promote their movies on social media because not only is it basically akin to the movie marketers doing the marketing on (other) social media platforms/accounts it is better than that because it is directed towards loyal fans who might actually go and watch the movie. This can translate to social media impressions on the movie’s other social media platforms such as likes on their Facebook page, or views on their movie trailers. The actor is also utilizing their fan base for more marketing and publicity because their fans will share the content and news with other people in their social media networks. Therefore, I think an actor’s social media posts promoting their movie should be treated as a part of the movie’s marketing campaign, and should be compensated accordingly.
