bffs national conference training session: social networking

Social Networking

Getting to know your audience and getting to know each other...

BFFS National Conference 2012, 22nd - 23rd September, Institut Francais, London. Presentation by Brad Scott and Bryony Forde

What are you doing now?

• Established organisation with established social networking presence?

• Established organisation yet to get started on social networks?– Why? Don’t see the use; audience don’t use them; already

have enough members...?• Established club with accounts set up but suffering from

neglect?• New organisation used social networking from beginning?• New organisation yet to find time for it?

Why social networking?

• You need to be where people are• Can’t assume that people will actively visit

your website• Push stuff at them• Engage people• Never stop

Channels

• Email• Blog• Facebook• Twitter• Flickr (Group/Tag)• YouTube• RSS

Cynical? What you can gain from social networking

• Traditional uses: advertising screenings, the organisation in general or special events

• Have you thought of...– Making connections with other film societies/community cinemas,

filmmakers?– Making connections with local and national press and publications or

bloggers?– Getting chatting to film critics/actors/distributors?– Making connections with local shops/restaurants/venues?

Case study: Newcastle Community Cinema

“One particular coup was born of a Twitter conversation with the LA based film writer Ryan Levin. Ryan had originally been a TV writer for hit medical sitcom Scrubs, but through chatting with him it emerged he had completed his first feature film, a horror comedy exec produced by no less than John Landis, subtly titled Some Guy Who Kills People. After several tweets, Ryan graciously allowed us to premiere his new film, its first showing in the UK. Not only that, he even sent us a to-camera introduction to his film, specially recorded for us. This caused a few waves for us locally and further afield, and again served to market NCC as a cinema that can land exclusives and premieres.”

An extract from the Best Marketing & Publicity winning application

Case Study: Otley Film SocietyMy first contact with the Director was via twitter . After that, a mixture of twitter [DMs], texts and emails worked fine as a complete way of maintaining contact. He also put me in contact with Leeds Young Authors, which led to a live performance/Q&A being possible following the film.

Both Dogwoof and We Are Poets websites then advertised the screening, but WAP also tweeted about it regularly, which meant that an even wider audience was informed. I did all the normal stuff – posters and fliers and local press article in advance – but I also used twitter, which meant that followers like Minicine were able to retweet and spread the word even wider. I also have the Otley Film Society Twitter account linked to my personal Facebook page, so everything gets instantly copied there to make sure all my personal contacts are covered as well. There were certainly new faces in the audience,I had directly targeted the local poetry society, school teachers [by phone], and even Ilkley Literature Festival.

Case Study: Otley Film SocietyI find twitter a great way to keep in touch with what’s happening elsewhere – at the National Media Museam, Cine Yorkshire, local film societies and cinemas, and of course BFFS, BFI, ICO etc.

Because the vast majority of the OFS audience comes from Otley itself, one of the most useful contacts I’ve made and maintained is with a journalist from the local weekly paper.

My advice to any other society would be to utilise all the social media opportunities you can, but don’t do that at the expense of maintaining traditional contacts and using traditional media.

Ideally, you need to have several members of the committee involved, rather than doing it all yourself – a situation I still somehow haven’t quite managed to engineer . .

Case study: Otley Film Society

Not convinced?

• Having an active social network will help you– Engage with a (somewhat) younger demographic

(why not recruit a student to set up your networks?!)

– Create a sense of ownership within your audience, make it a place where they can feed back or make requests.

– Look more attractive to potential sponsors

Demographics

Facebook: Forest Row Film Society

More statistics

• 55% of Twitter users are 35 or older.• 65% of Facebook users are 35 or older.

• Forest Row: 126 of the 172 FB Likes give their location: 43% are in Forest Row, and 14% are within an hour's drive

Different channels, different users

Advertise your FB/TW profile

• On printed programme• In every email• On posters• On website (ideally every page)• On FB/TW!• Cross promote every channel

Hints and tips

Slow Build

Forest Row Film Society:• Facebook: Started 2009; 172 Likes• Twitter: Started March 2009; 460 followers;

882 tweets• Email: Started 2004; 302 on mailing list

Hints and tips

• Ask questions... – What would you like to see?– What did you think of the film?

• Not just about the film society

• Make sure committee members/volunteers are engaged and will contribute to the conversation –wider audience will then join in

Hints and tips

• When people ask questions or engage, respond!

• Be consistent with your message – especially if more than one person runs your networks

• Be consistent with your style – across websites, twitter, facebook and your printed materials - this creates a recognisable brand.

Consistency...

Printed leaflet

Twitter

Website

Hints and tips

• Promote other events. They’ll (hopefully!) do the same.

• Engage with other organisations in your community/locality to share audiences and create partnerships.

• Interesting films on in local cinemas• Film news, eg Cannes winners

Different tone for each channel

Hints and tips

Which auto tweets as...

Facebook vs Twitter

FacebookMore audience led, advertising screenings, leaving feedback, asking questions.

Older demographic

TwitterChance to engage with critics, distributors, filmmakers, press directly as well as your audience.

Younger demographic

Event promotion

• Facebook is a stream so single posts are not enough

• Post multiple times before a film:– Trailer– Link to good review– Link to page on your site– Include review quotes in text

Facebook

But it’s more than promo

• Engagement• Dialogue• Feedback• Develop a relationship

Link to blog posts with question

Other means of previewing films

Post scores, elicit comments

Engagement from other FS

Engaging tone

Film quiz

Local news

Twitter

• 140 characters• Addresses• RT (via)• Hashtags• Links + URL shorteners• DM• Privacy

Good RT

Somewhat dense RT

Hashtag

Mention other users in tweets

Because it is nice to see this

And then you can do this

Autoshortened

Follow Friday

Are you talking to me?

Not just a link...

What is?

How do I tell you?

Where?

Spot on, and with keywords

Hootsuite

Click activity

What works?

Have you thought about...

• Competitions– Enter by retweeting, commenting, liking. Ups the

interaction

• Youtube – Trailers and interviews about

films in your programme, create an account and peoplecan subscribe.

Have you thought about...

Reservations?

• “Our audience is mostly quite old or uninterested in this sort of thing”

• “We are a rural community, we can tell our audience about screenings as they’re just down the road”

• “We have a full membership – we don’t need it”

• “We set up a page but our audience didn’t engage with it”

Think outside the traditional marketing box.

• Think of the future, older audiences can only get older – engage the younger folks sooner rather than later

• Engage with other rural communities• Don’t get complacent • Look further than your audience – use it to

engage with other film clubs.

Talk to each other!

bffs national conference training session: social networking

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