I think those 2 words are starting to lose their meaning when talking about using social media to reach audiences. I am not offering another word because at the end of the day a word should only describe an idea of what you are truly doing and maybe THAT is the thing that is becoming lost in all of this talk. What are we truly saying when we use those words?

What is "engagement" really?

Engagement isn’t a measurement from your Facebook or Youtube Insights, it isn’t how many retweets you receive on Twitter. Connections aren’t simply a number of followers and likes. In thinking about the traditional use of this word, your “connection” was someone who was willing to help you, someone who knew you, trusted you and vice versa.

Audiences are now delighted by communicating not with a “brand,” but with a “face” or a person. This mindset shift in corporate America is very hard to make when they really never thought about the audiences actually being people…with faces beyond eyeballs. If they did think this way, would they really keep hitting that face with ads over and over again? Would the conversation be constantly one sided, “buy my stuff” ” buy my stuff” “click here, and buy my stuff.” That is the extent of the brand relationship with customers that the typical movie studio or distributor has now.

When I talk to you about creating a relationship with your audience that is long term, not just for one project, I really want you to think about what this means. The investment of time and creativity and energy this is going to take, not to boost “likes” on Facebook and follower numbers on Twitter, but to really draw people to what you are doing and hold them there willingly. Using these great new tools is just a newer way of communicating, but the communication itself isn’t new. We as humans have always communicated with each other and naturally gravitated to those with similar interests and it is the same now.

That is also an important distinction. Audiences may not only want to communicate with you, but also with like minded people AROUND you and your work. In this way, brands can benefit from heavily using social tools. They don’t have to be the sole source of communication, they can provide a place and content that enables “fans” to speak to each other about the brand. Be careful when you are using these tools only to speak about yourself, but also don’t  become so enamored of people “buzzing” about you and your work that you never step into the conversation. I see this a lot with brands that happily RT positive tweets but almost never get into conversations.

Main thing to takeaway here is not the fact that you are trying to pump up “scores” or numbers on your channels. You are trying to touch people using electronic means and this will take time, effort, energy and a lot of patience. There’s no quick fix, no magic solutions, no one  ”engagement tool” that is going to make these relationships last. For those who don’t have these attributes (time, energy etc), this isn’t going to work and you will have an increasingly difficult time gaining an audience in the future.

I know this is a  cop out post,  but I’m feeling totally guilty (and totally overwhelmed at the moment with the upcoming world premiere of Joffrey Mavericks of American Dance in a few weeks) that I haven’t posted anything new in a while. So, I started looking back over the posts from this year that received the most response, the ones that I hope were helpful to you, and thought I would recap them.

How do I know they received a good response? I use PostRank to help me gauge what kind of interest the posts received.  These posts all have a score of 7 or higher (scale of 1-10). The number to me doesn’t matter so much as knowing what you respond to so I can speak more about it. I also view blogging as an experiment, trying out new topics. Some work, some don’t and that is ok. If I waited until I knew the perfect topic and made the perfect post to address it…well, the blog would probably only have 12 posts a year. Without further adieu..

10) The importance of a good trailer-This is part one of my interview with trailer editor Bill Woolery on creating a good trailer, working with a trailer editor, and the types of trailers there are. Frankly, I am surprised it ranks so low as a trailer is probably the MOST important element in the promotional efforts for your film. Hopefully if you didn’t catch this 2 part interview, you can read it now.

9)Crowdsourcing as exploitation-This one got a few responses from other sites such as DocumentaryTech and The Chutry Experiment. Basically, I gave my take on the film Life in a Day and how they were using the crowd throughout the filmmaking process into the distribution process, but offering very little in return for the free labor.

8) The ugly truth about social media- A post about feeling overwhelmed with all of the startups devoted to “social media” and how they purport to make life easier, but really there is no easy work around for building up relationships. It is slow, painstaking and never ending work if you use the tool correctly.

7)Readying a crowdfunding campaign-This year saw the donation numbers for independent film projects on crowdfunding site really soar. Whereas a year ago, $10K was the norm, this year it became $20K, $50K, $100K. That’s a significant jump in just a year! But those successes didn’t come from throwing up a page on Kickstarter and watching the money roll in. This post talks about being prepared long before you actually go live with your campaign.

6)The internet expanded consumption but destroyed the industry- A Seth Godin inspired post (of course!) which talks about the redefinition of what it means to be a distributor of content. Bureaucratic and scarcity driven business models that once dominated the industry are being diminished and what will take its place is being capable of grabbing (and keeping!) attention and building an ongoing fanbase.

5)Marketing a documentary with a limited budget-The title pretty much says it all really. I took you through the starting stages of my promotional work for the documentary film Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance; tools I’m using, finding the audience and getting their interest, how we will be distributing it. If you have a documentary project, you might find it interesting. If you have a narrative project with clearly defined audience, you will get something from it too.

4)Building your brand with no budget-As I say many times in interviews and in workshops, the key to building a sustainable fanbase is having an artist brand that people identify with. In this way, you won’t be starting from the ground every time you have a new project to build an audience for, you will simply transition the one you already have. This is work you can start doing right now, before you have another project going and this post is full of tips on how to start.

3)Actors don’t need social media…excuse me?- A post inspired by a Twitter discussion I was having with Paul Osborne (@PaulMakesMovies), Nathan Cole (@WaterholeMovie) and Paul Barrett (@producerpaul) about not only hiring actors with talent, but also ones with a strong social following. They largely disagreed because they see the on screen talent as superseding the need for promotion, but I’m telling you when it comes time to building up an audience with a limited budget, you are going to need all of the help you can get.  If there are 2 equally talented actors, pick the one who has a fanbase (duh) and I don’t mean Brad Pitt. There are plenty of actors who are active in social media and can activate a crowd for you. And listen up actors, if you haven’t been doing this, you aren’t an asset, so become one. Even TV casting agents are looking up social footprints of potential hires so stop burying your head. Get a profile up and start interacting.

2)Humanizing your audience-A post inspired by Brian Solis that talks about the shift in communication that the internet, and more specifically social media, has brought to all aspects of our lives. Are there those not communicating online? Sure, its just that they are far from being movers and shakers and they will either come kicking and screaming or they will be completely out of touch with the modern century. But we must never forget that at the heart of social networking is a person, not a pair of eyeballs. Views, likes, and votes are all nice but very fleeting. Don’t boil your online activities just down to boosting these things, not only to the bottom line. Humans are starting to get back to wanting that connection with another human (especially now that the corporate and government trust factor has been disintegrating for the last several years and only gets worse as more transparency is coming to the fore online. Wikileaks anyone?), to feel they matter to you. The bottom line takes care of itself when trust and relationships are built and respected.

1)Facebook is not a good sales platform- This post received a 10! Wow! What more can I say about this subject, huh? I still maintain that people don’t come to social sites to buy, no matter how much those social sites are trying to reconfigure to suit the corporate bottom line. Research has suggested that many people “like” brand pages in order to get coupons though, which makes sense if you think that most corporate brands don’t give a hoot about you so in turn you will go with whichever brand offers the best deal, no loyalty and trust there. I don’t think this mentality is going to work out well for the indie artist so let’s just use Facebook to share interesting content, hold dialog and champion fans as much as we want them to champion us, OK? Let the sales happen on your own site (where you can keep the details, not give over the data to a third party) and offer the best items to your most ardent fans. Let the distributors deal with finding the strangers and giving them the non exclusive stuff. That method is expensive and transitory. Not worth spending your time chasing fickle strangers.

There you have it, the top 10 for this year. I wish all of you the happiest and most productive New Year 2012!

Here's to a great 2012

I recently answered a few questions for the kind folks over at Fanbridge about using online tools such as their service to connect with audiences for your film. You can see a bit of what they offer on the Joffrey Ballet Movie page that I am administering and on Dying To Do Letterman’s page on Facebook.

My answers got really long, so they are releasing them in stages. The previous post on my blog dealt with identifying the exact audience characteristics of the film and starting to connect with them early in the production process, like even at inception, like even when you are building up an artist identity.  Today’s section deals with ways filmmakers can use social media to build a following. You know, social media is more than just Facebook and Twitter and it is certainly more than just sending one way messages, canned and automated to a certain time of day.  Here is more of what I have to say about that.

What are some ways that filmmakers can utilize social media to build a following?

“First, they should be using it personally – well before they have a project to promote. The tools are just too easy to access and younger audiences just demand it. They really don’t know a world where it didn’t exist. People may see advertising, but they are now checking everything out online for information and personal recommendations, so if you aren’t there and your film isn’t there, it is like it doesn’t exist.

Social media is also not just Facebook and Twitter. It is anything on the web, any link that can be shared or commented on, anywhere you can upload content, which is pretty much the whole internet. You should be there with a unique voice. Speak with passion and have something definite to say. Not everyone will agree with you, but you aren’t really trying to attract everyone. You just need to attract a following of those who would be the most interested in what you are doing. Your following will grow slowly so be patient and give it plenty of time. Consistency is key so don’t be erratic with your interactions.

I laugh about books and posts that want to teach you to use social media in 10 minutes a day. It is like trying to regulate how you can maintain relationships in your life in 10 minutes a day. Yes, you need a routine, but the more effort you devote to this, the better it will work. Schedule blog posts, but don’t schedule tweets and Facebook updates. You have to be there for the conversations, you can’t do it “drive by” and expect people to follow you. You have to be present to cultivate a relationship; it can’t be like a message on your answering machine. People don’t have patience for the one way conversation.”

Something I did not say which is quite important here is the need to constantly develop content that grabs attention and keeps it. This is very difficult and important work. I read a tweet this week that said “Social media is free…free like a puppy” and it couldn’t be more true. The easy part is setting up the accounts (actually taking in the puppy) but the spend comes in time and effort (the puppy training, feeding, grooming, vet bills which are like your bills for the tech guy) you will be spending with it. If you aren’t prepared for it, it will fail.

I will be speaking more about this in an upcoming FREE workshop in Lafayette, Louisiana this Sunday November 20 from 2-5pm as part of the Southern Screen Film Festival. If you’re in Louisiana, come join us. This is not going to be a panel discussion, it is real information and real tools that you can take away and start implementing that evening.

I covered this in a past entry, but more of this opinion was voiced on today’s Social Times blog. I’ve seen many new services like FlickLaunch and Dynamo Player configuring their platforms to sell on a film’s Facebook page and Warner Bros has started implementing their own Facebook movie rentals for US residents including Dark Knight, Inception, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Yogi Bear and Life as We Know It paid for with Facebook credit or $3. I’d love to see their sales figures, but remember that a huge advertising and marketing budget was spent on these titles and they have all gone well into the DVD window and beyond. Most indie movies will not have the same kind of demand because similar marketing efforts haven’t been made .

Facebook sales will not be your biggest money maker because people do not come to Facebook to buy.

Facebook is a social platform. People come to Facebook to chat with friends, see what everyone is up to, post news about themselves. While you may have amassed a large following on Facebook, unless you are posting content of interest to your audience on your page regularly, chances are your “fans” have not been back to your page since they joined. They won’t see your fancy Welcome page or your newly constructed BUY NOW page. Most people are only reminded of you if they see your news in their news feed. The news feed is the first page everyone lands on when they go to Facebook. Sometimes they only see the Top News view, even though it is possible to change that to Most Recent, most people do not. If they haven’t visited your page in a while or commented on any of your news, your page has stopped appearing in their feed. NOTE: I am not suggesting you spend all your time shilling for your film on your Facebook page in order to stay in the news feed. A conversation with a shill is boring and a turn off.

Even though you can buy ads to drive more traffic directly to your page, it will take a significant spend to generate the number of impressions someone needs to have before they click on it. On average, an ad will be seen 5-7 times before any action is taken. Facebook is more about attracting and keeping attention that can influenced into a sale later on than it is about making a sale right now.

As the Social Times article contends, social media platforms like Facebook are the top of your sales funnel, the place where relationships and trust are built. After you have accomplished this, and it will take a while, then you can transition your audience to your own website where the sales can take place (here’s where something like Dynamo Player will work). Yet another reason to start your social media efforts and audience building WELL in advance of your finished film. This isn’t a campaign for 3 months, this is commitment for the full life cycle of your film and continues into the length of your career.

So, should you never try and sell streams on your Facebook page?

Undoubtedly there are hundreds of millions of people on Facebook and it is entirely possible that someone will try your film out if they see it’s available. If the cost to set up Facebook streaming is right (ie, low to free), you aren’t losing anything to try, but do not invest a lot in this. As DVD’s popularity continues to plummet, more and more people will be turning to online streaming rentals. Invest in having a good player on your site and spending upfront to access iTunes, Amazon, Netflix and game consoles. Spend the majority of your time and effort on your content marketing to pull you audience in, earn their trust, make them feel connected and give them viewing options.

If anyone here has implemented a Facebook sales platform for film and it has resulted in great success, let’s here about it.

I realize that good marketing is made up of a mix of tools. One of those tools is advertising and it is probably the easiest to use and the most expensive. In order to get attention for every window of release, Hollywood studios spend buckets of money on advertising because it is the quickest and least painful way to get attention. Do they realize that they are not building any lasting assets for their company when they do this? They are renting space over and over instead of retaining consumer attention that they can stimulate again and again. But that takes work and when the budget is reduced (or gone), access to the rental space is reduced too.

I’m sure you know that your website is the biggest piece of online real estate you own. You control it and when you attract audience attention, it is up to you to keep it and to keep in touch for the future. Studios don’t do this. They really don’ t see it as useful to contact audience directly or to hear directly from them. Just have a look at the Warner Bros. site as an example. You can fill out a survey that basically asks you to be their web designer. You can click on the Facebook link which takes you to their page where they have hundreds of thousands of likes. But look at how the page is used. Just advertising the titles.  A few comments are left but rare that they ever answer them. To connect is damn hard work and if you can just buy everything, why bother?

But I’m thinking indie filmmakers can’t buy everything, you can’t just buy an audience. This is why you need to pull an audience to you rather than push a message out. Pulling is much harder than pushing, much more time and much more work. Think of this pulling as building assets to continue to attract and add value to your audience so you can minimize the amount of cash spent on renting advertising space and so you can build and maintain a sustainable audience.

What’s an asset?  A strong website that has heavy traffic derived from SEO, link authority and interesting content. A blog that repeatedly attracts the interest of your audience because you know what they are interested in and you find or create information to give them. This builds your email signup list and RSS subscriptions (the basic message here is they WANT to hear from you, you have their permission to communicate with them). A social media presence that attracts a like minded community to your work. Communities expand over time. If you are working for the long term, you want this continued expansion.

Why are these assets? Because in order to monetize your work, first you have to  build up interest in what you do and a network of people who want to support you. It is you, your talent and your knowledge that keeps them coming back, not a PPC ad, not a half baked contest. YOU and what you have to share.

It’s going to entail work and lots of time though.

Once a year, the Social Media Examiner issues a report on the state of social media. I have pulled out a few of their findings that you may find useful in navigating the marketing of your film in the social media world. Please note, the participants come from different industries, not specifically media. Also, these findings do not mean that you have to strictly follow them. All projects are unique and have unique audiences. What works for one film/product will not automatically mean success for yours. Comments in parentheses are personal.

-75% of all Americans use social media. (if you haven’t started an account, it’s time!)

-nearly 25% of all online time is spent on social media sites.

-of the more than 3,000 survey participants, 1/2 have less than one year’s experience using social media for marketing.

-63% of people with 3 or more years of experience spend more than 10 hours a week doing social media activitie.s (I’m more like more than 10 hours a day!)

-The number one benefit of social media marketing is standing out in an increasingly noisy world.

-Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs were the top four social media tools used by marketers, with Facebook leading the pack. All of the other social media tools paled in comparison to these top four.

-A mere 40% of businesses plan on increasing their social bookmarking activities, only 36% of businesses will increase their forum activities.

-30% of marketers plan on increasing their use of geolocation services like Foursquare. Larger businesses are more likely to employ geolocation.

-Only 19% of marketers plan on  increasing their use of Groupon or a similar group-shopping site.

-Asked if they were outsourcing any of their social media marketing efforts, the overwhelming majority said no, though the number of those who are outsourcing  has doubled since the 2010 report, from 14% to 28%. (curious until I saw the next stat)

-Design and development, content creation and analytics are the top three areas that  social media marketers are outsourcing. Those with 3 or more years experience are more likely to outsource design and development tasks. (Interesting, those with more experience don’t outsource content creation).

-Top three other types of marketing being utilized included email marketing, search engine optimization and event marketing.

-Slightly less than half (46%) plan on increasing their online advertising efforts. Large businesses (1000 or more employees) were most likely to increase online advertising.

-80% of marketers plan on either keeping the same levels or increasing their use of press releases. Small businesses were significantly more likely to employ press releases than larger ones.

-A significant 55% of marketers either have no plans to use or will decrease their use of print ads.

-Most marketers (68%) have no plans to use radio ads. Only 10% of businesses with 500 employees or more plan on increasing their use of television ads.

A few months back I wrote a post addressing the calling out of people on Twitter for not autofollowing and how autofollowing is a bad idea. In fact, I said that I do not advocate using any automated programs for social media. It is surprising to me that so many social networking “experts” encourage their clients to do this. I realize that your time is often limited and having conversations with people is not your number one priority for your business. It is so much easier to broadcast out one way communication and that is why these automated tools have become so popular. Consider this, if you don’t have time for relationship building with your audience, don’t use social media. It is ok not to use it. Buy media advertising, set up a static website, use direct mail, these are all tools too and they are much more suited to the one sided broadcasting you are looking for than pretending with a bot.

Ways to spot a bot (which you are if you are using automated programs; you aren’t there see?)

-Your following to follower ratio is 1:1 and both numbers are high-You seriously can’t be having conversations with the 50,000 people you are following!

-You have the same message on your Facebook page, your Linkedin page, your Twitter stream, your Flickr account, you Tumblr account. Perhaps you think the connections you have on each of those sites is completely different. Have you considered that some of those people are the same and they get sick of seeing the same message from you 4 times? Stop broadcasting into the void and start speaking only when you have something unique to say on each platform.

-You seem to have a canned message ready for different times of day, every day. Do you seriously sit down and plan out what message you want to put out by the hour, every day? Do you do this in real life too? If you did, you would be very difficult to have a conversation with, mostly because you would shout out something and immediately leave the room, right? That is what you are doing when you “schedule” a Tweet or a Facebook update.

People, please listen. Social networking is SOCIAL. If you don’t have time in the day for a little social interaction with your audience/fans/clients, then don’t use these tools. They won’t work well for you. And for goodness sake, don’t pay someone to teach you how to automate your accounts and encourage you to sound like a robot! If you just have to automate, it is simple to find a free tutorial on how to use automated programs.

I personally think you will be missing out by not devoting some time in your day for social interaction, there is a lot to learn from real people on social media sites. You have to make time to do this work or have someone on your team who devotes quite a lot of attention to it [but I really think YOU should do it too]. For many people, this is how they discover new things. Not from being broadcast to, but from asking questions and getting responses, reading what their peers say, gravitating to sites where interaction is happening, getting valuable information from sites and people who are knowledgeable.

Just don’t pretend you’re engaging. Your automation fools no one.