The New Digital Filmmaker’s Guide: Grow Your Social Media Fanbase The Right Way

Christopher Brennan continues The New Digital Filmmaker’s Guide series by looking at how filmmakers can make the most out of their social media pages.

Okay, so you’ve decided to set up a Facebook and a Twitter page for your feature film. You’re looking to gather a community of like-minded individuals together that you believe will be interested in what your film has to say. So far, so good…

You start putting up photos of cast, updates on pre-production and maybe some spec posters. However, once your family, friends and colleagues have all agreed to Like & Follow your pages, it all seems to plateau, right?

This is basically where 95% of independent filmmakers’ social media pages end up: A stagnant page floating around the 100/200 fan area.

I bet you’re looking for more fans right? Well, why should you just wait for them to find you? How about we take a couple of the basic tricks from digital marketing specialists and start to grow those film pages. Obviously this is just an overview. For further insight, it is best to contact Facebook or Twitter reps. They are really helpful.

Let’s start with Facebook first shall we?

Digital Film Marketing – Facebook

Let’s assume that you have set up a business page for your film and not a friends page (if not, then go ahead and set it up now). And you have already invited your Friends list to start liking your page.

Now what do you do? How about a little Facebook advertising? It’s actually really simple to do. And it doesn’t take much money to start seeing real results for your film page.

Promote Page: Did you know that by only spending €4 per day to promote your page, Facebook will pretty much guarantee that you receive between 13-50 new Likes daily! Now it’s up to you to target the correct audience. For instance, if you were making a horror film, then make sure that you put all things horror film-related into the ‘Interests’ area of your Audience section. I’d recommend targeting filmmakers as well.

You can also target by area. So if you want to just focus on your city or country, then that is where Facebook will promote your page (For €8 per day, you should be receiving 25-100 new Likes per day).

You see, by even doing a one week promotion of your new Facebook page, you will already see significant results.

Boost Your Post: You can also boost your individual posts as well. And you can decide on what objective it is that you want to achieve:

If you want people to click through to your KickStarter page, then go with ‘Clicks to Website,’ if you want more people to see your promo video, then aim for ‘Video Views.’

It’s amazing that when people go to all the trouble of setting up a crowdfunding page, they don’t even think about boosting their Facebook post to have it reach more people. By only spending a couple of Euro, your post can reach a couple thousand potential fans (whether or not they fund you is another matter – see crowdfunding Incentives blog)

Now, because I’m starting to sound way too much like a Facebook employee, let’s look at Twitter shall we?

Digital Film Marketing – Twitter

Many filmmakers think it’s best to use either Facebook or Twitter, thinking that they are really one in the same. So they set up a Twitter account, get 50 followers and then forget about it.

But by using Twitter correctly, you can build a fantastic, engaged community of followers for your film account. And what is one of the absolute best ways to get Twitter Followers? By Following other people.

Some may think that this is a bit of a sly tactic. But it’s absolutely honest. Think of Twitter as a giant party where you don’t know anybody. And by Following people, you are merely introducing yourself to individuals who like the same things as you. Makes sense, right?

One of the best ways to do this is to sign up to Tweepi (it’s free and you can log in using your Twitter handle). When you’ve signed in, the first thing you do is find some similar accounts to yours that have a large following (So if you have a documentary about Skateboarding, then search for popular skateboarding oriented accounts).

Next thing you do is start to Follow their Followers. And I mean fifty to one hundred at a time. Do this each day for a week straight (Keep going after that, obviously). As long as your Twitter account properly shows what your film is about, and you have targeted the appropriate accounts for your specified area, then you should start seeing your Followers list grow.

Oh, the cool thing about this tactic is: It’s Free!

So there it is. I’m going stop writing now, since this has turned into a pretty big-ass article. Hope you find these tips helpful. But I must tell you again, that this is merely an overview. If you are looking for more in-depth insight into social media marketing, there are excellent sites such as the Social Media Examiner that will go much deeper into specifics.

Anyway, that’s all from me. Good luck with your social media accounts. Any questions, just drop them in the comments box or Tweet me at @ChrisBrennan_1

Thanks for reading.