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

My "Junior Year" in NASCAR media

The Coca Cola 600 weekend in May 2010 was the beginning of my third year in my journey in NASCAR media or what I call the beginning of my "Junior Year". This means I am able to have a deeper understanding of the sport, the sponsors, the brands, the drivers, teams and the publicity machine behind the sport. My first few years were about "listening and watching" and networking. I was able to gain a broad understanding of the "matrix" which makes NASCAR one of the most complex sports around.

From grassroots family teams such as the Woods Brothers to the cutting edge teams such as Hendrick Motorsports and RoushFenway Racing, NASCAR has evolved into a major league sport with its own Hall of Fame this year.

Over the past year which I'll call my sophomore year, I started to actually make some small impact on the sport and build a network. In January, 2010, MediaMensch Networks produced the Social Media Motorsports Summit which was attended by many of the major teams and their pr/marketing firms plus a senior executive from NASCAR.

In the past few months at local press conferences I started to ask questions of some drivers such as Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and NASCAR Hall of fame driver and team owner, Richard Petty.

Based upon my experiences, I am starting to look at my niche of how the sport reaches their fans and ties into their drivers and brands using social media. As an entrepreneur, the other viewpoint is how organizational dynamics such as teamwork happen with in NASCAR. So over the next year, I am looking forward to building stronger relationships, writing more in-depth and regular stories about the sport and producing our 2nd Social Media Motorsports Summit this fall.

As with my journey in media, marketing and technology it is the wonderful people that you meet along the way who help you learn and mentor you that enriches the experience.

Creative Crowdsourcing - Cutting Edge Creativity

The journey in electronic communications began back in 1991 when I was advising my clients to adopt a new form of communications called MCI Mail (e-mail). On the heels of the fax revolution, many clients were slow to adopt and adapt. The clients who did saw great savings and a growing increase in productivity. Communications technology has always had the potential to make the world smaller and speed up communications. Now these communications are moving to the next level in a world of exchange of ideas with the masses or what is known as the "crowd".

Crowdsourcing has the ability to create tremendous creative breakthroughs for companies and individuals.

As part of my cutting edge journey in media, marketing and technology, I am working with GeniusRocket to promote this concept and educate marketing executives and entrepreneurs on the benefits of this new process. At GeniusRocket, we are creating amazing viral video content. You can see our case studies in the hall of fame and in the case studies.

We are in good company in seeing this as the vision of the future. One of the other companies in our space is called MoFilm and is also doing amazing work with global brands. In fact, the producer of Titanic and Avatar has actively participated in this crowdsourcing niche promoting this concept to filmmakers.

It is easy to become part of the cutting edge movement as a producer of content or a company who wants to tap into this creative process. At GeniusRocket, we tap into our community with a 'Request for Brilliance' (RFB). Join me in this journey! If you have any questions, I am happy to help you get ready to launch into this new journey.

Andrew Kaplan Live - Public Speaking, Radio, and TV

Andrew Kaplan,award winning Toastmaster and public speaker, is speaking to groups around the country regarding social media and branding. Kaplan brings a lively and interesting perspective to his talks which can be customized to your group. Kaplan brings his unique perspective of being an early adopter of social media combined with his backgrond working in traditional media. In 1987, Kaplan started a consulting practice to bring sales and mobile computing technologies to with over 200 companies including 30 Fortune 500 companies. If your organization would like to book, Kaplan as a speaker, please contact us with your dates, name of your group and topic.

Andrew Kaplan Public Speaking Biography


Andrew R. Kaplan is the Managing Partner of MediaMensch Networks, a company focused on building brands and communities using social media and traditional public relations. Over the past two years Kaplan has launched LinktoCharlotte which was one of the first and now one of the fastest growing Charlotte groups on LinkedIn. He also launched LinktoMotorsports which has over 700 executives from around the world and includes an advisory board from Motocross, NASCAR, NHRA and Boat Racing.

In 2007, Kaplan started blogging as a facebook branding expert in his blog Facebook Enthusiast. In 2008, MarketingSherpa.com voted an article featuring Kaplan's discussion of Facebook Branding, as #1 in its "Great Minds" series.

Kaplan recently has been involved with the local film industry as what he calls "an accidental actor". He has worked on 6 films from major motion pictures such as Leatherheads to local independent films. In January 2009, he received a "movie credit" as Social Media Marketing Advisor for the independent film In/Significant Others.

Kaplan is also on the advisory board, providing marketing and branding advice, to EVPowersystems which won the "2008 Green Idea of the Year Award" from the Charlotte Business Journal for the development of electric hybrid trucks and the eco-vehicle.

Kaplan began his career in college at WNBC radio at 30 Rock and worked in the early days at Home Box Office and The Movie Channel. After his career took a turn, he became one of the first trainers and certified consultants for ACT! contact management software. His company ARK Sales Automation Group brought sales and marketing technology to hundreds of companies in the NY/New England Market including Gartner Group, GE Capital, Virgin Atlantic, and Colgate Palmolive. He personally trained over 5,000 sales and marketing executives worldwide. He moved to Charlotte in 1995 to start his family and to build the new market around the banking sector and professional sports.

Kaplan enjoys giving back to the community and working with non-profits and received awards for leadership over the past few years including Toastmasters International NC President of the Year, NC Area Governor of the Year and Dickinson College's Alumni Volunteer of the Year. In Connecticut, he was one of the founding leaders and chairman of Corporate Volunteers In Action, a professional community volunteer group serving the Fairfield County area.

Currently Kaplan coaches business executives and creative professionals who are working on their own brands. He has active clients from countries such as Ireland, Germany, and Italy which found him using social networking. He also has a valuable team of coaches and advisors to help him reach his personal and professional goals as well.

Social Media Motorsports Summit

Media Mensch and LinktoMotorsports announces the Social Media Motorsports Summit to be held on Thursday, January 28, 2010 at the Westin Charlotte. This event is for executives, drivers, team owners, media and pr professionals who want to learn and participate in a dialogue about social media as the new frontier of reaching your fans to build stronger relationships and your brand.

Registration and information is available at www.socialmediamotorsports.eventbrite.com

Media Mensch Radio Show - BlackTurtle Media - Neal Thurman

Today's guest for the show on March 21, 2008 was Neal Thurman, VP, Audience Relations for www.blackturtlemedia.com.

Andrew Kaplan, host of MediaMensch, and Thurman discussed the development of the site for the young creatives, the creation of a citizen journalist blogging site for soccer which was sold to Yahoo. and his past non-profit project for linking inner city children with books called www.in2books.com

Listen to the Radio show at www.blogtalkradio.com/mediamensch

Part 1: Tips and Tricks for Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups is another area of Facebook which may be a valuable tool for branding yourself and your company. In this article I will talk about how Facebook Groups and how you can use it to attract customers, new friends, and people with similar interests.


What is a Facebook Group?
First of all, a facebook group is an area in Facebook where you can allow people to join who like yor topic. Topics can be around a place you live or want to visit, a college, a politician, your business, a hobby or any other idea you can think about.

How Much Does it Cost?
Setting up a facebook group is free.

How Do I set up my Facebook Group?
Simply click on the word "group" in the left hand bar of your profile and then find the tab or button to "create a new group". You will be asked to create a name for your group, choose a category that your group is in, and an overview of your group. There is also an area for contact information including e-mail address and website. In addition, you may add a photo or image so that your group has a distinctive look or feel on the home page.

What Types of Groups are there?
There are three types of Groups, Open, Closed and Private. An open group means anyone can join, a closed group means that the administrator (You) need to approve members after they apply, and private means that the group is not listed and only those who you will invite will know the group exists.

How Can an Administrator Communicate with Group members?
The group area allows for you to send out an e-mail to its members. This is a powerful feature because you can reach a large group of people by sending out a simple message from the group.

How Can Members Communicate with the Group?
In each group, an area exists to upload photos, post links and to write on the "Wall". These are powerful ways in which users can express themselves and communicate with others. In certain, instances, such as a group where you feel you want 1-way conversation, you can allow or restrict your members from posting. It just depends on the situation. In the case of a group around a politician or actor, they may want to control the photos that are posted.

What are Group Officers?
The best way to think about this will be any organization you belong to. It may need people to take on roles such as the President, VP, Treasurer. You may have a group for a trade show, so the officers might be the Host, Membership Chair, Sponsorship Chair, and Speaker Chair. If you set up a group for your family, it might just be something like Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, etc...For some groups, you can make up silly titles to make it more fun. A title for an entrepreneur might be "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer" or for an actor it might be "2009 Academy Award Winner".

How Do You Find the Groups?
If you are interested in a certain topic, simply type in the words into the Facebook Search box and select search. In the general search a "tabbed" window will appear with profiles, applications and groups containing some or all of those key words. Click on the Group tab and find groups. Also once you join a group, on the right hand side of the group, it will show other groups which members are interested in which may be associated. So if you join a group about your college or interest, other groups around that will also appear that other members have joined.

I realize there are many more tips and tricks around groups and I will be covering more of this in another article. Please feel free to list or post your favorite groups and some of your tips and tricks.

Leatherheads Movie Poster

Here is the official movie poster for Leatherheads...I love the slogan....the players were in cold mud for weeks during filming. Giant fire hoses would fill the field with water, so there was mud. There were heaters on the sidelines and many of the players were shaking from the cold...meanwhile the extras in the stands were sweating in winter garb and being given water.

The Engaging Brand - Facebook Podcast

One of the great things about the world of social media and new media is how powerful it is and how individuals who work each day at it can brand themselves as experts in their fields.

In my two years using LinkedIn and Facebook, I have had the pleasure of meeting bloggers, podcasters and authors who freely gave advice to help others learn. Many of us collectively worked together to promote each other's shows and blogs both by linking to them from our own blogs or interviewing an individual in a podcast.

In July 2007, I decided to begin to spend hours a day reading about Facebook and doing what I always seem to do, track down the leaders and innovators who are making this one of the most visited sites on the internet.

With this in mind, I am announcing that tomorrow, The Engaging Brand Podcast will be featuring a segment where I will be discussing facebook. This podcast was recorded "over the pond" with host, Anna Farmery. Anna resides outside of London.

If you want to learn some interesting facts and lessons about Facebook, I encourage you to listen to the podcast.

Here is a bit about Anna.
Anna qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG. She then joined the printing industry as a Financial Controller before being made Managing Director at the ripe old age of 25. She continued in industry with a growing reputation for motivating people, working for FMCG companies.

After 20 years of being a Group HR/Finance Director for major worldwide brands she decided to establish her own company - The Engaging Brand.

Please visit her website and feel free to engage her.

I look forward to hearing from many of you as well. You can reach me at ewarriorbizdev@gmail.com or on Skype as eWarrior.

My Jen-Zen Journey on Facebook

Back in May 2007, I joined facebook and by July, I had started a separate blog called www.facebookenthusiast.com for promoting my services as a facebook marketing expert.

Within facebook, I have started to gain clients who are part of the creative community. This includes authors and musicians.

Last week, I began to develop marketing strategies for the release of an independent novel which is a magical romance. The author, Julie Ann Shapiro, is relatively young, yet prolific in the writing of short stories and "flash novels".

This week we began to promote her first novel called "Jen-Zen and the One Shoe Diaries" We began to promote the book both inside and outside of facebook including looking for tie-ins with shoe companies and retailers.

We also will be pursuing other media outlets for possible development of the book and other stories which could be developed into film or television projects.

This is already a fun and rewarding journey as I learn about the marketing of fiction in the new world of electronic publishing and its intersection with social networks.

Here is a link to the page within Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=6708563066

MTV Redux - New Networks

In 1981 a few of us ventured into the land of MTV, The Movie Channel, Nickelodeon as part of a company called Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company. Over the past year many of those executives who spent the last 25 years building that company and lauching shows such as Spongebob SquarePants, Rugrats and networks such as NickJr, NickatNite have recently left to form a new company called New Networks. The plan is to have 101 internet channels of special interest. Herb Scannell, former, President of Nickelodeon and Fred Seibert, former head of Hanna Barbera and CEO of Frederator.com have teamed up.

Herb Scannell and I worked closely together at the Movie Channel including teaming up on the Star Wars "Robot Giveaway". Fred was learning his way around creative areas of on air promotions. This New Network is going to an interesting laborator to watch.