Facebook Marketing for Filmmakers

Facebook Marketing for Filmmakers

Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 6:00 PM (EDT) Presented by Reid Rosefelt at New York Foundation for the Arts

by Yuki Akiyama

Almost every filmmaker uses Facebook fan pages to promote their films, but almost none of them use them effectively. Few know how to build a fan base; even fewer know how to get their fans to react to or even see their posts. Success with Facebook requires creating a certain kind of “content,” and filmmakers and artists have the skills to create it better than others–but only if they understand what they are trying to achieve. This lecture teaches how the Facebook computer algorithm works, and provides the strategies and techniques to make it work for you.

While this lecture is directed at filmmakers, most of the information it conveys is equally useful for graphic designers, painters, photographers, writers and performers.

Publicist and film marketer Reid Rosefelt’s credits include “Stranger Than Paradise,” “Desperately Seeking Susan,” “High Art,” “All About My Mother,” “Central Station,” “Pollock,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and “Precious.” His personal clients have included Errol Morris, Ally Sheedy, Adrienne Shelly, Harvey Keitel, Cynthia Nixon, IFC, and the Sundance Institute. Rosefelt is a consultant to Magnet Media, a production company that offers interactive marketing services to such clients as Dreamworks Animation, NBC, and Showtime. Read his new blog, Facebook Marketing for Filmmakers.


Statistics
  • 50 % of social media users use facebook(7% use Twitter), covering 45% of the globe.
  • Consumers trust facebook over official website for products? – Because facebook is the community of people (both providers and consumers).
  • Traditional marketing :One way, Top down (Trailers, boards, newspaper film critics, blog)
  • New Marketing :Two way, Interactive (facebook, twitter, etc.)
The new marketing is about building community of real interested people and keeping them talk.
  • Customers come to you through web searches.
  • Add Value :Things customers can’t get anywhere else
    • reply from director
    • outtake clips
    • backstage photos
    • offering deals and contests
    • Letting themselves to be creative (Posting images and videos in response to your film.)
  • Authentic community of interested people
    • facebook algorithm analyze and choose which posts and interactions to show on people’s feed.
    • The level of people are really talking: Like < Comment < Share
    • EDGERANK

EdgeRank is an algorithm that ranks objects in the Facebook News Feed. Pages with high EdgeRank Scores will be more likely to show up in the news feed, than Pages with low EdgeRank Scores.

EdgeRank is made up of 3 variables: Affinity, Weight, and Time Decay.Affinity is dependent on a user’s relationship with an object in the news feed. Weight is determined by the type of object, such as a photo/video/link/etc. The last variable is Time Decay, as an object gets older, the lower the value.

1st step making a PAGE How to get people talking
  • Remember;
    • Status updates< Links< Videos < Images
    • Like < Comment < Share
  • Posting to get people talking, not just putting the information up.
  • Do not post 2-3 times a day
    • Once a day or at least 4-5 hours apart from each posts.
  • Post at the right time of the day
    • Think about your audience (age, locations, day routines)
What should you post?
  • Make it Funny/ Amazing/ Emotional/ Cute/ Uncommon/ Beautiful…
  • Keep it simple!
  • Ideal length is less than 90 characters.
  • Create SQUARE IMAGES instead of writing words as a status updates
    • Square is the only shape that doesn’t get cut in thumnail
    • Creating images instead of simple texts = VISIBLITY
  • Posting VIDEOS
    • Summary, Trailers, Phrases, Outtakes, etc.
    • Upload the file to facebook directly instead of posting youtube or vimeo link will make the thumnail of your post BIGGER on people’s feeds = VISIBLITY
  • Call to action
    • “Like this if you ________.” leading people to hit like.
    • Why do you think _________? leading people to comment.
  • Run a contests with rewards
    • You must hire another company like woobox to do this.
Getting LIKEs
  • facebook advertisement =the best way to get LIKEs
    • Precise targeting on facebook ad. (location, age group, interests, related topics)
    • Keep changing the image and/or copy write and experiment what works to see what gets most response.
  • Facebook widgets – lead people to hit like from your blog or official websites etc.
  • Put a link on your email signature block
  • Ask people to LIKE you on their smartphone or text LIKE (32665) during a festival Q&A
Don’t just post, but also READ, WATCH and RESPOND!
  • Talk back to anything
    • Respond promptly to your fans’ questions
    • Comment on people’s posts
  • Thank them for getting involved. EX: Invite them to premier
Analyze and experiment
  • Analyse why you did or didn’t respond to other people’s posts
  • Analyse other pages (like Moonlight Kingdom or any page whose topic is similar to yours.)
  • Virality: Make a lot of them and keep doing it. Study what worked and what doesn’t.
  • Keep logs and keep changing.

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