IFH 083: 11 Golden Rules for Filmmakers on Social Media

Alex Ferrari 0:00
So today's episode is about social media, and how to maximize social media for filmmakers. So today we're doing the top 10 tips to help filmmakers on social media. So the very first one is going to be honor the platform that you're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, each of them are all very different, and have different abilities, strengths and weaknesses. So if you post the same way across all platforms, you're really missing out because there's a lot of little tricks of the trade per social media platform. So definitely check it out. I know that Facebook obviously has more characters than Twitter. So if you if you're using something from Twitter and posting on Facebook, you're limiting yourself on what you can write and how much stuff you can write images created for Twitter might not work well on Pinterest. And same thing might not work well on Instagram as far as formatting is concerned. So just look at each platform and see what the strengths are for each one, and create content that is going to be maximized in that platform. Tip number two is to create native uploads. So what I mean by native uploads, well, if you upload a video to YouTube, and then post that video on Twitter, on Facebook, that YouTube link, that's one way of getting your video out there. But if you post it on YouTube, you post that video on Facebook, you post a video on Twitter, and you post a video on Instagram that are all native to each platform. That's going to give you a lot more reach because in Facebook's algorithm if you're using your uploading videos for Facebook, they give you a little bit more reach you can more people will see your stuff. And just currently By the way, Facebook has overtaken YouTube for more video views than any other place because Facebook is facebook. So don't underestimate the power of video on Facebook. YouTube is still very very close and still a huge huge monstrous thing. But do them natively so if you create something on Twitter, upload a video on Twitter with their limitations I noticed like I think two minutes or something like that. But you can upload natively to them and you'll get more bang for your post if you will. Tip number three make sure you're posting behind the scenes action behind the scenes stuff. Believe it or not there's still a lot of people out there who are not filmmakers and and who love seeing the process love seeing the behind the scenes of how things are being made. So post as many behind the scenes photos with your tag of your name of the movie that you're working on. So people can continue getting that brand associated with these photos, but photos, videos behind the scenes, videos, interviews, anything that you can do to create more of that window pull Looking back the curtain on the filmmaking process, people really, really love that. So definitely keep that in mind. Tip number four, make sure you have a lot of different kinds of content. I mean, a lot of people will just continuously post you know, pictures and pictures and pictures, or videos and videos and videos, or memes, memes, memes or whatever those things are. Just create a variety of different things that you're posting up keep it interesting keep it fresh update a you know a different updates by a different kind of situation. So an iPhone video, memes funny meme sometimes works. Depending on your movie, different types of posts, just always keep it fresh. And don't stick to one kind of content. Keep it always ever changing. So people are excited to see your posts. Tip number five, don't underestimate the power of the email. I've mentioned this many times on the podcast before but email lists, email lists, email lists, you have to be building an email list for your company for yourself for your project as soon as possible and build those that direct link to those potential customers and followers instantly, because it still converts Believe it or not, email still converts about three times as much as social media does. So it is very, very powerful. I know it's old school. And I know like oh, an email list an email list, it is still very, very viable, and something that you should definitely be doing. And there's a ton of courses online tons of articles online, on how to build an email list. So please keep that in mind in your whole social media and marketing plan. Tip number six, the power of hashtagging and being associated with viral things that are going on in today's social media world. So if something goes viral, like the Chewbacca Mom, let's say for example, if you have a project that you can kind of connect to that Chewbacca mom, which you can easily like, oh Chewbacca mom made us laugh like this character in the movie or something along those lines, I'm just coming off the top of my head here. But something that you can connect to something that's going viral and you hashtag it Chewbacca mom, you'll get thrown into the conversation and you will get people that might be interested in what you're trying to do. So it's just another way of getting the message out of what you're doing. So keep that in mind. Tip number seven, communicate with your fans. I mean seriously, as simple as that this is called social media for a reason. So when someone tweets you back or someone messages you or content or comments on something you've posted, comment back interact with them. And that will hopefully start building up a relationship with those people. And also other people will see that you're not just as robot out putting stuff all the time you're actually interacting with people and trying to build relationships with these people. As small as those relationships might be by just tweeting people back. But believe it or not a big deal especially if someone's interested in what you're doing. So definitely communicate with your fans. Tip number eight, pick a handle and stick to it. So whatever your handle is going to be make sure that handle is something you can use on all your platforms. So with our movie, this is Meg we decided to use this as Meg film across all of our platforms because this is Meg was taken by someone named Meg obviously. But this is my film is open so we took this as Meg and put it on all our social media tech so I Facebook at Twitter, all the all the different Matt platforms, we're on social media, we use this as make film. And then the website, we would have used this as mag film, but this is mag comm was available. So we decided to use this as mag on our website, but on your social media, try to use the same handle for everything. Alright, tip number nine, make sure to use words when posting images, you know, quotes and things on on top of images are extremely, extremely powerful in the in the world of social media, especially with inspirational quotes and things like that. So you can kind of tap into that with your movie, whatever that quote might be. So if it's behind the scenes met via an inspirational quote about filmmaking in you, doing something behind the scenes, as well as with your movie character, saying a line from the movie, and putting it out there. So those kind of viral elements would really help you out. So definitely use words when posting out images on your movie, production company or yourself. Tip number 10. Don't assume that everybody is going to come to your website. It is not the case use social media to push out elements from your site. So if you write an article about your dp and what they're doing on your movie, use that as content and push it out through your social media outlet that drives them back hopefully to your website, where they're if you've designed your website properly, you can take advantage of That audience and those eyeballs to do what you want them to do, whether that be sign up to your email list, sell or sell them a copy of your movie, any of that kind of stuff. But once they're in your world in your ecosystem, which is your website, that is key, because the website is basically the hub. For everything else you're doing, as far as you're moving your production company or yourself, that is your hub, that is where everything should be coming back towards. That's what you would want people to come to. Because again, when you're building up all these social media accounts, that's wonderful, and that's great. But at the end of the day, you know, it's in somebody else's playground, that's in someone else's sandbox. So Facebook can change, like they did their algorithm. And all of a sudden, when you had a million followers on Facebook, now 5% of them will get a post of you, unless you pay Facebook, to show them to those followers that you've worked so hard to get. But if you take them back to your website, you get them on an email list, and all of a sudden you control that relationship don't allow other social media outlets to control that relationship. So I'm not saying that the build those things up. But the end goal is to get them back to your website back to the site where you have control of the relationship. So social media is wonderful, and it's a great traffic driver, but you have to have a place for them to drive. If you don't, it's a big waste of time. In my opinion, if you're putting up post and post and post without certain sort of link attached to it. It's kind of a wasted post because if someone likes something you did, you gotta have have them nowhere for them to go, then what's the point? You know, other than maybe they like you, but then they may not see you again, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I definitely, definitely work on that website and use social media to drive traffic to that website. And tip number 11 you're a filmmaker, be creative. For God's sakes. I can't believe how many times I've seen filmmakers be so uncreative with their marketing uncreative with their social media, comments and tags and, and posts and things. It's just remarkable. You're filmmakers, you're supposed to be creative, you're artists, be creative in your posts, have fun with it, you know, do stuff that's funny, do stuff that's controversial, do stuff that intrigues and entices people to look at who you are, because there's a lot of noise out there, guys. So be creative. That's why a movie like punk fury, for God's sakes, which was extremely creative, cut through that noise, like a hot knife through butter, and they've made so much money, crowdfunding their movie and selling it and selling merchandise and blah, blah, blah, I'll leave links to Kung Fury in the show notes to see what they did, as an independent short film from Europe, for God's sakes, not even like, you know, it's not a LA or New York kind of thing. These guys are completely out of the Hollywood system, and they were able to crush it. So definitely be creative. All right. So I hope these tips helped you guys out a little bit on your social media plan. And don't underestimate the power of social media. It is basically the internet now, you know, social media is the internet, we're constantly being social online. And it is so so powerful. And if you can harness even a minute amount of that, for your project for your movie, for yourself, for your production company. It is extremely powerful and empowering for artists to be able to do that. So you guys have the power to get the word out there on yourselves and your film projects. If you want the links to anything we've talked about in this episode, head over to indie film, hustle, calm Ford slash 083 for the show notes. Now if you guys want access to the indie film syndicate, which is our membership site, which we're adding new videos all the time, every month, we'll be adding new videos, new content, it's already starting to grow, people are already starting to sign up. And we are going to limit the amount of people that go in so definitely head over to indie film syndicate comm and check it out. I'm not sure when we're going to limit it and when we're going to stop people coming in. But probably for maybe I don't even know I don't want to say yet. I'm still thinking about when we're going to do it, because I gotta make sure I can handle the amount of people that come in. So head over to indie film syndicate COMM And check out what we're doing. I think you guys will really, really like it. And if you want to be part of our Facebook group, head over to indie film, hustle, calm forward slash Facebook and sign up, it's free. You can over there and talk to all the other tribe members and just learn from each other. And it's a really great little community that we're building up there. We're almost close to 5000 people signing up for for the Facebook group. So hope to see you there. Thanks for listening, guys. So keep that hustle going. Keep that dream alive. And I'll talk to you soon.