Wednesday, December 08, 2010

The Power of Facebook Pages for Film Marketing

Facebook Pages have allowed independent films to build audiences and fans throughout all stages of their evolution. This means that small films with no marketing budget can reach hundreds or thousands of fans around the world by simply developing a page on facebook.

Even in the earliest stages of filmmaking, creating awareness of the film though the friends of the production team and actors can create a ripple effect and a buzz about your film. Awareness of the film can easily reach hundreds, not thousands of people even as you are in the earliest stages. Techniques such as adding videos, photos and events can amplify this awareness.

Integrating video on platforms such as Vimeo or Youtube with facebook and twitter becomes a powerful combination. Loading video of trailers or teasers directly into Facebook and tagging those in the videos also creates a sense of intimacy between the creators of the movie and its audience. The videos which may have been shown on a DVD as behind the scenes can be edited and posted now in a facebook page and shared.

Facebook is the largest photo site in the world. Filmmakers can take advantage of this by having high quality still photography from the movie set to red carpet events. Also they can post headshots of cast and crew which can be easily shared. This can bring a new level of connection that can may not be done in a mulitmillion dollar national tv marketing campaign. The pictures posted at various points of the development of the film project provides a 360 view of the life of the film creating a new intimacy with the fans

Using the events area of facebook can then be used during the film development from everything from auditions to extras casting to the film premiere. Events can also be used as reminders for the release of the DVD or other important milestone.

The combination of all these elements create a new way reach broader audience and bring your message in an efficint and intimate way to the fans.

I have had the opportunity to work with producers on their film marketing strategies from the development of the trailers to their social media content including a documentary project with Meryl Streep. You can see some of the detail on the IMDB page www.imdb.me/andrewkaplan

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