Social media marketing is in its infancy considering where it's at and where it appears to be going. Advertisers have discovered that pushing their message to the masses simply isn't enough anymore. Social media sites, especially Facebook, now have resources and options that allow products to be marketed so that the brand pulls in customers rather than reaching out to grab them.
Advertisers already set up Pages for their products that viewers can "like" and for creating user-generated content. However, with the exception of some really bored people, most viewers won't go to the pages without some prompt. When a product is given the thumbs up by someone a person trusts, that product is more likely to be viewed favorably by the customer. That pulls the customer to the product with the added benefit of a pre-determined brand approval. This marketing method is much more effective in the social media world because word-of-mouth, "friending" and "liking" brands give that product credibility and inspires curiosity in potential clients.
To provide that information to advertisers, Facebook is launching a new program called "Weekly Total Reach" that will track how products and brands are disseminated through its site. This is a powerful tool. By tracking the likes, friending, sharing, reposts, questions and general comments that a brand or product receives, the trail of the product can be viewed as it moves through the virtual world. This dynamic revolution will allow marketers the opportunity to develop techniques and modify existing strategies to reach additional customers.
As a filmmaker, this tool will help create sites that can go viral through intelligent guerrilla marketing. A wealth of data can be mined for nothing more than the time needed to prepare a Page and analyze the figures and dissemination trends. However, time is the key. Filmmakers need to have a plan in place to examine and exploit this data.
It's a gold-mine if it can be harnessed. A PMD must be ready to devote a substantial amount of time to social media marketing, not only on Facebook, but on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other sites. This time will be one of the best investments that can be made in marketing and distributing a film. The field is developing rapidly and a good PMD must stay current with upcoming trends and adjust the marketing strategy continually to gain the most benefit from these resources.
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