Twitter and Film Marketing

by Grace Leong

The basic idea behind film marketing – is that after you have made your film, you want as many people as possible to know about your film, so they may buy tickets to see it.

As attested by numerous social media commentators, Twitter is huge now, at a growth rate of about 1300%. Major corporations like CNN and Ford are on Twitter and marketing guides for Twitter have sprouted up everywhere on the internet. Raindance had a bit of a snoop around and found an article ‘10 Tips for Twitter Un-marketing’ by Leigh Duncan-Durst who is said to have sampled 3000 social media sites, tools and applications. Based on her work, we offer our concise and value-added version of Top 5 Twitter Tips for a Film Marketing Campaign.

1. Understand the medium

Twitter is not webcasting nor a promotional channel for marketing. Twitter is more like blogging (some say micro-blogging) or short message or group chatting. Thus Twitter is about sustaining conversation. The greater the level of engagement, the stronger the network and the quicker or more flexible you are in responding, chances are, the more positively you will be looked upon. As a guide, best practices of corporations with a strong Twitter presence prescribe daily monitoring and response.

Be prepared for long-term commitment. Don’t get started on Twitter if you are not prepared to commit. Otherwise you end up undoing all the networking and relationship-building you achieve.

A good tweet may be an insightful observation or a kickass link. Read the 3 golden rules of Twitter etiquette for more background information on Twitter. More people will choose to be a follower of your tweets if you consistently offer insight, value or service through them. Start giving if you want to gain.

Finally, know that Twitters prefer to speak to people, not brands or companies. Check out twitter.com/comcastcares which is a wonderful example of personalising technical service to customers.

2. Creating dialogue and audience

Twitter is excellent for fostering open dialogue and gaining a network of prospective audience or customers. Sneakily (or skilfully) promote your film by telling them about it and asking them what they think. This creates an open line of communication. Be careful not to engage in overt marketing or appear pushy.

Since Twitter marketing is very much like a word-of-mouth campaign, try to strike up conversations with influential twitters or bloggers but be prepared that you may influence but not control what they say about your film. Go for it if you are confident.

3. Increase presence and influence

Think beyond expanding the number of followers. You can increase influence by increasing your presence online as well as offline.

Look beyond Twitter online and don’t limit your responses to tweets. Twitter ties in with other social networking sites and blogs. Keep your eyes peeled for blog posts and respond to them. Bear in mind also that Twitter can be linked to more traditional online channels such as your existing websites.

Another useful thing to do is to try to create affiliations with organizations, publications or activities which also do their own publicity to help get your word out.

When creating promotional messages, don’t go beyond 120 or 140 characters. This will make it easy for tweeters to tweet or retweet about your film for you.

For Grace's final Twitter marketing tips