Social media is a great way for filmmakers to connect with their audience. As a filmmaker, you might need a social media strategy for a number of reasons:
- Promote a film you’ve made
- Help find more freelance film work online
- Network with other filmmakers
Unquestionably social media can be used as a solution to all of these problems. In short, how you use social media depends on what you want it to do for you.
To help we have created a step-by-step social media strategy for filmmakers.
1. Define Your Purpose
So, as a filmmaker how can social media help you?
Perhaps you are a producer who needs to find an audience for your upcoming film production. Or maybe you need to find more consistent freelance work.
Firstly if you want to create an audience for your film. You can gather an initial audience on social media, and get them excited about a project before you make it.
In another case, if you want to find more freelance work you can also use social media to promote yourself. Online can also be the easiest way to network.
Before creating a social media strategy you need to decide what your goal is. Basically, what do you wish to gain as a filmmaker from using social media?
2. Choose Your Platform
You will need to decide which social media platform is best for you. To begin with pick one or two platforms (you can always add more to your list later).
- Facebook is still the largest platform. It’s good for groups and sharing news.
- Twitter is good for starting conversations and finding people.
- Instagram is for images, but also these days for short video clips.
- YouTube is for videos, arguably the best way to engage with people online.
At this point pick the social media you feel most confident and comfortable using.
3. Create Your Content
Indeed you will want to create high-quality content for your chosen social media. Your content can come in a variety of forms.
- Videos
- Images
- Tweets
- Descriptive posts
- Short video clips
- Gifs
For example, if you want to promote a film on Instagram and Twitter, you could share behind the scenes photos and insights on the film’s progress.
Want to use social media to help promote your work? try using Facebook and YouTube to showcase clips of projects you have worked on.
Want to meet more filmmakers and network? search Twitter to find and follow potential clients.
Facebook groups are also a great way of networking online.
Lastly, no matter what the purpose is for your social media strategy you can do all of this effectively with as little as 30 minutes of your time each day.
4. Schedule Your Media
In the past, people would upload content constantly online.
These days it is better to focus on quality. Even so, you will want to be consistent with your online activity.
Try to update your social media at least five days a week. Also, you can make things easier by scheduling your content ahead of time.
All of these social media platforms have scheduling options. So you can batch all of your content to go out for the whole week on a Monday session.
Facebook has its own scheduling options for posts as does YouTube.
For Twitter and Instagram, you can use scheduling software such as Buffer.
If you are a busy producer create content ahead of time to go out throughout the week. Alternatively, use social media in real time, whatever is easier for you.
5. Unite Your Followers
Regardless of how busy you are, make sure to reply back to your comments.
Social media is all about connecting with people and starting conversations.
When you get a comment make sure to reply back as soon as possible. Also, try to create engagement in your posts by asking questions or creating surveys.
For instance, ask questions on Facebook groups and comment on other filmmakers’ YouTube videos. To save time you can batch tasks by replying back to comments too.
6. Get Inspired
Not sure what to post? Here are some great examples of filmmakers using social media effectively.
| YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Film Look | The Film Look | PushRec Any Possibility | Toomfoolery Creative North |
Social Media Strategy – Wrapping Up
In short, social media does not have to be a difficult technology to understand.
Just as we use it every day to keep in touch with friends and share information, we can use it as a tool for promoting our work and networking with other filmmakers.
If you are interested in learning more about social media strategy for filmmakers then check out these courses.
- Domestika → Social Media For Filmmakers
- Skillshare → Social Media Marketing for YouTube
- Raindance → Marketing & Selling Your Film
- London Film School workshop → Selling, Marketing & Distributing Film
Got any tips for using social media to promote yourself as a filmmaker? Let us know in the comments section below.
