Social Media Basics for Filmmakers
Social media is an important way to speak directly to your audience. Before you build a social media presence, you need to examine your goals. These might include:
- Theatrical release promotion
- Showcasing production company activities
- Crowdfunding
- Film Festival screening announcements
- DVD or VOD sales
- Funding application support
Whatever your goals, it’s really important to manage and maintain your social media sites all the time- not just when you have an upcoming campaign or release.
When you’re setting up sites, try to choose programs that you’ll enjoy using and updating as well as sites that fit your business. Check out what companies similar to yours are doing. Chances are you should be on the same sites.
Before you set up a profile on any site, if you haven’t used it before spend some time on the site. Get a feel for the content and look at what works.
If you’re going to use multiple sites, try and keep consistency with your handles or profile names. Make sure a link to your website appears on your social media profiles so that your prospective audience can find out more about you and know you’re real.
If you’re operating under your name, make sure that your content is not going to cause offense, and make sure that you have a good ratio of personal : business content.
Make sure you have working buttons connecting to your social media sites on your webpage.
Where appropriate- use a hashtag! And then put it on your promotional materials. The same hashtag will work across Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. If you’re part of a festival or similar, find out what the hashtag is and use that. If they don’t have one sorted, ask questions.
And lastly… don’t neglect your mailing list. This is a really important way to stay connected with your wider audience. Less exciting than some of the newer sites, this is the most important way to build a long term relationship with your audience and you should be sending longer updates about your company regularly (try twice a month). Make sure that there are mailing list sign up forms (real paper!) at your screenings and other live events and regularly urge your social media friends to sign up to your list. Make it worth their while with great original content, relevant links and behind the scenes material.
Social Media Site Basics
Chances are you’re on Facebook- it’s the big guy of the sites. But running a page can be quite a different ball game. Use to to build a base of ‘likers’ that you can then talk directly to. Share content about your artform and company, and be prepared to advertise..
Pinterest is a social sharing site where users pin images to ‘boards’ that they curate. Images can be pinned and re-pinned by influencers. Use it to give audiences a peek behind the scenes of your company or production and to give them an idea of your visual style and taste.
You’re probably already using a whole suite of Google products that Google+ is just waiting to integrate seamlessly with. Create ‘circles’ of your existing Google contacts to share content with and speak to. Great for short form blog content and information chunks.
Twitter is at heart a ‘micro-blogging’ platform, where users ‘tweet’ a maximum of 140 characters at a time. These tweets are navigated by user-generated ‘hash-tags’ or search terms. Use it to extend your influence and communicate important messages about your company while building a direct relationship with your audience.
Another ‘feed’ based site is Instagram where users upload photos. A feed is made up of the profiles followed by the user. The site can be navigated through using hashtags, and users can also ‘explore’ to find popular or celebrity accounts. Use it to give audiences a peek behind the scenes and to document shooting or preparation periods.
LinkedIn is far more than a place to use your contacts and link to get ‘introductions’ to people who can influence your career. Setting up an industry specific group, a bustling company page and posting great content will give your arts business profile a boost.
Video sharing site YouTube is one of the busiest on the internet, and hasn’t slowed since being acquired by Google. Use it to get eyeballs on your company by showcasing great, shareable video content.
Another video based site is Vimeo- this time with more of a focus on quality, rather than quantity. Just make sure that when you choose your video based site, that you stick to one and you’re not splitting your views!
