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
An extract from the Best Marketing & Publicity winning application

“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.”

Case Study: Otley Film Society
My 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 Society
I 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


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


Hints and tips
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

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...

Twitter

Printed leaflet 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


Hints and tips

Different tone for each channel



Email


Which auto tweets as...


Facebook vs Twitter
Facebook Twitter
More audience Chance to engage with
led, advertising critics, distributors, filmmak
screenings, leaving ers, press directly as well as
feedback, asking questions. your audience.

Older demographic Younger demographic


Facebook
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


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 people
can 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.


BFFS National Conference training session: Social Networking

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