Social Media
Brain Solis, a pioneer in social media and technologies, describes social media as “the online tools that people use to share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself, thus facilitating conversations and interaction online between groups of people. These tools include blogs, message boards, podcasts, micro blogs, lifestreams, bookmarks, networks, communities, wikis, and vlogs.” He then exemplifies with digg, Facebook, Myspace etc.
We can say social media to be a gathering platform in the web which provides engagement for the masses.
Marketing and Web
Marketing is no longer a trick of pricing, place, packing etc.; consumers are now creative, informed and they participate with the advent of new and simpler technologies. Marketing is now structured look into consumers as intelligent and sceptical human beings. Social Media and technology empowers the consumers by letting them connect and share their experiences.
Films and Social Media
Films even now experience the presence of social media and the wave generated by it.
The consumers of films are web savvy. It is not the posters that mark the presence of a film but its trailer in YouTube. Television is not only the source of a movie release but the Twitter, social networking sites and Blogs are getting into the league.
Use of social media for films promotion is very high paced specially in Hollywood cinema. Indian Film industry is now adapting itself to it. It is soon going to be a major player as the reach of broadband services gets wide spread and affordable.
Hollywood has a long story to say about its relationship with internet. Commendable outcome of the new-media and social sites had let to high marketing and revenue generation for movies like “Blair Witch project”. Currently Hollywood exploits every way to market itself on the social media. Citeable examples will be Twilight where MySpace and UStream broadcasted the live premier and the results were phenomenal: three million viewers, and two million unique visitors.
“Snakes on the plane” not only had massive online followers but also generated revenue through merchandizing online.
“Avatar” had a special Avatar Day which was highly promoted by Facebook and twitter and was the reason for high ticket sales, not in weeks, not in days but just in hours.
Warner Brothers came up with an innovative way to use twitter through its Site –“Welcome to the Wizarding Class”, depicting from Harry potter movies.
“Paranormal Activity” premiered the movie free of cost and encouraged to tweet their “tweet your scream”. The substantial part of their marketing was through social media
A visual example will be the case of “Watchmen” where the statistic shows the referred site for the word “watchmen” directed to 3 social networking platforms among the top 10. Facebook and Twitter bagged the 12th and the 21st position respectively. (Click for the source here)
This is just one side of the coin. The fundamentals are still intact. Films are a source of entertainment and when it fails the purpose even a good online marketing finds it tough to reverse the effect. Citing an example from http://www.ngonlinenews.com – “… online bloggers have been responsible for seriously damaging some films at the box office with reviews posted before the film is released. Aintitcool.com, for example, was cited as one of the reasons why Batman & Robin flopped at the box office.”
Indian Film fraternity has started using social media in its favour. Social networking is not only for movies but also to build up a web presence of movie stars and production houses. They use Twitter as their micro blogging platform and that indirectly markets the movie. Blogs of Amitabh Bacchan, RamGopal Verma, Amir Khan Etc. have a similar presence in web.
Social Media can leverage film marketing in the following levels:
Creating Buzz:
Social Media is now known for creating buzz. Viral marketing has taken the entire affair to a different level. Once known as ‘Teasers’ has evolved multiple folds. It has turned out to be the most economical way to market as it reaches to millions and millions of subscribers and generate the inquisitiveness. It helps in spreading word of mouth. You tube, Vimeo, Google Videos etc.
Participation:
Once on web, social media takes it a step ahead. Web 2.0 technologies have made sharing of information. Web studies say that 33% of web users share most of the material they come across. Web applications like bookmarking, RSS, tweets, Facebook etc. makes the process even simpler which was days ago done only through emails.
Engagement:
Web has personified the entire affair. It can be exemplified by the vast communities created by Harry Potter fans. They not only have their presence online but meet offline too. They create different twists to the story and share; they even gather comments under their kitty.
Reviews have their own place in the web. Social site applications now take polls of the common people and publish it.
Film marketing at all these levels helps it go be a common place affair and helps in getting audiences and followers. This in turn adds to the merchandizing business. Indian film industry has the long way to go in the field of merchandizing too and nothing helps well than the social networking sites in the new media.
Why social media is to stay:
Technology is simple and rampant:
Web 2.0 was once described to be a technology that one’s grand parents can use it without any guidance. The simplicity of a click has the capability to take the information all around the globe. New media can integrate with mobile which presently has a deeper penetration. These applications are capable of sending feeds and alerts from the social networking sites too. Lately mobile phones with Facebook button have also been developed. Technologies like 3G are already creating waves through its simplicity to communicate.
Affordable:
Though it is long way to go, broadband penetration is increasing at tremendous speed in India. Government has different policies to help the process further. The time is not far off when internet reach will be comparable to mobile reach too. This reach will help the Film industry to reach major segment of people and establish their presence.
Going from static to the dynamism:
The web has made the world change in the speed faster than ever anticipated. Social networks are majorly responsible for this effect and are appreciated by the users. Websites have shrunk to mode of information and social media has gained the vote of confidence. All these elevates the fidelity of social networks as now, user likes to participate and believe what peers say (not the owner).
Philosophy of every one’s world:
Social media comes with no bounds. Deepika Padukone and Sharukh Khan are equally found active on twitter as Sashi Tharoor. Demographics have transformed into communities and being in neighbourhood is all about being in friend’s/follower’s list. Films get a special advantage due to these transformations while marketing.
The Future
As the social media-fire goes wilder, the future looks prospective as web 2.0 plans to upgrade itself to web 3.0, hence forth being more intuitive and intelligent. Films are now capable of growing mature with globally digestible content and social media takes care of letting it reach without geographical boundaries.
This clearly speaks for itself that social media is here to say and as India grows with its religion in films, social media is sure to be its worship place.
Image cutesy: Click here
