Ever since my last blog post FIVE FACEBOOK TIPS FOR FILMMAKERS I’ve been getting a lot of questions from filmmakers on the best way to actually aggregate fans on Facebook (and on their individual websites) for the purposes of staying in contact with their audience and future customers. Remember, it’s not enough to just slap up a Facebook page for your film, you must also continually keep your fans engaged throughout the entire process of making your film. The purpose of this? Well it’s twofold…..
1. So you have sufficiently ‘primed’ your audience for the release of your film by the time it’s ready
2. So that you have actual potential customers for your film – an audience of people ready & willing to consume your film in the theater, on DVD, VOD, or however you are releasing it
What are the consequences if you don’t aggregate an audience properly?
Well imagine having a completed film and having to start from scratch trying to build a fan base… it could take months, if not years to accomplish that – all the while your film sits there collecting dust because there’s no audience to launch it to!
OK, so here’s my biggest recommendation for aggregating your audience PROPERLY….
YOU NEED TO CAPTURE EMAIL ADDRESSES
Why? Because Facebook Film Pages do not allow you to send a message directly to your fans, so you are entirely dependent on them seeing your communications on their ever-cluttered wall when they log onto Facebook. This is not a good strategy! Instead you should be providing a sign-in box where your fans can give you their email addresses (if they want) so you can message them directly with updates on your film, AND you can market to them directly once your film is ready for release and/or for sale. Want to see an example of what I’m talking about? Here’s a screenshot from the DELIVERED Facebook page that Linda Nelson referenced in the previous Case Study:
I also use an email capture on my own Facebook page:
Now you may be wondering where these email addresses go once you capture them right? I’m glad you asked! What you need is an EMAIL DATABASE that can handle this function for you (otherwise known as an Autoresponder or Email Marketing service). If you receive my Film Specific newsletters, then you are a part of my email database which allows me to communicate with 10,000 plus subscribers at once by pressing a single button. People ask me all the time which Email service I use – it’s called Aweber and I’ve been using them for over 3 years and can highly recommend them.
The next question I always get asked is how to install this Email Sign-Up box on a Facebook page or website. It’s actually pretty simple because once you register with a service like Aweber you will get a bit of code to use on your page or site and POOF – the sign up boxes magically appear! Then when someone signs up to receive your updates, their email address automatically gets added to your Aweber database where you can log in and start communicating directly with your fan base. You know those stories you hear about people selling tons of DVD’s off their websites? Well they accomplish that through doing an email campaign and utilizing a service like Aweber.
So what do you guys think? How many of you are already using email capture on your Facebook page or Website and what has your experience been?
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Great advice – also remember that the danger with ONLY having your community on FB is that FB owns the data. If they ban yo for some reason you lose all that info.
Zahra You right!, I prefer to have my website with my database.
Exactly Zahra! That’s why if you have options to sign up for your database both on your FB page AND your website, you’ll be capturing email addresses from TWO sources and storing them away in a place where YOU own the data!
Stacey*
Talked to Aweber and you can’t connect their email capture to an FB movie page yet. Only a personal page.
THANK YOU! Just the kind of info I am looking for. I just read Gary Vanerchuk’s book “Crush It” and I am anxious to learn more about extending my reach on-line in every way, shape and form. So thank you!
@John – the two examples I showed you above are on FB ‘Business’ pages which are what you should have your FB movie page on…. so it definitely works!
@ Suzanne – you’re welcome! You should definitely look at Aweber for managing your email database both on your FB Business page and your website.
Stacey*
Thanks for the tip Stacey!! I’ll definitely use it once my film is complete. However, I did discovered a way to import my Facebook friends’ email address to build a subscriber list for my email marketing to kick off my IndieGoGo project (http://indiegogo.com/denied). Of the 820+ friends I have, I captured 702 addresses. Together with addresses I collected over the years I had a total to 1271 – 82 bounced back and 1189 successfully delivered. Granted some of the address are probably not used often, but so far I’m looking at a 16% open rate.
/GM
@Gina – the whole point is to start capturing email addresses BEFORE the film is complete – it’s a long process – believe me, you don’t want to wait until your film is done to start this process….
Stacey
The post above is quite incorrect regarding the capture of e-mail addresses through Facebook. The e-mail addresses are saved at your e-mail management system, such as aweber or constant contact. Facebook never gets access to these e-mails, they merely act as a repository for the form. The data that is captured is actually captured by your e-mail management service. There are so many rumors and myths about Facebook and this is one of them. Remember, it’s a lot harder to get people to your website than to find them (or for them to find you) on your website. Half a billion people are on Facebook looking for content.
Also, the e-mail capture has to be embedded in a custom page. The page is not provided by the e-mail management company, just the code that is used on the custom page.
Hope this clears things up.
Hi there does this work with constant constant? Aweber says it does not work on FB only on your personal website
@amore – You can embed Aweber code on a custom Facebook page like in the sample I have above (The Film Specific example above is an email capture where the email addresses go straight to my Aweber database).
If you ask Aweber, they will say they don’t work on Facebook because they don’t understand what you’re asking
But believe me, just like in the examples above you can embed Aweber (or Constant Contact) code onto your Facebook custom pages and effectively capture email addresses.
Also, Linda Nelson who commented above is a Facebook Custom Page expert, so you can contact her directly with any specific questions about this or to do this for you….
Stacey*
Linda – you are right that there are so many rumors and myths about Facebook. And the biggest one is that there are ‘half a billion’ people on there. While there are many, many people on there – the fact is, that there are hundreds of millions (yes, hundreds of millions)of spam, duplicate (people w/professional & personal accounts), and inactive accounts.
While it is correct that we get to keep the email addresses captured by an aweber type service, the poster zahra is NOT incorrect in pointing out the fact that Facebook gets to call the shots, not you and not me. They are notorious for changing their policies with little warning & people are constantly jumping through hoops to make sure their images are the right ‘new’ size, etc. Facebook is NOT the be all, end all – as they would love to make you think. Don’t forget that many people on their use it for it’s original purpose – to stay in touch with friends and family. NOT to be marketed to.
So, it still is very important to have your own website and work hard to direct people FROM facebook TO your site. Don’t forget – you can find out a lot more abut your visitors with your own web analytics and adjust from there. Does Facebook let you look at your bounce rate on your fan page??? Yes, use Facebook. But don’t perpetuate the myth that the whole world is on it, let alone uses it.
A few things about facebook – so maybe there are only a few hundred million people on Facebook. Even if there were only 50 million, it would be well worth using as a marketing tool and a way to build an audience for your film. If you only accept people you know as friends, then you don’t have to worry about getting stuff you don’t want to see. Facebook is designed as much for business as it is for personal use. It has evolved nicely and has the cheapest, most highly targeted advertising on the planet. It also has great metrics. People have no way to reach you through your Movie Page, so you don’t have to worry about being anonymous or keeping yourself private and seperate from your film. I’m all for having both a Facebook Movie page and a website, but you can engage with you fans more effectivly on Facebook and that’s the way to keep them coming back. Many filmmakers don’t know much about website maintenance, nor can they afford to pay someone, so Facebook is also more cost effective and there is no space limitations regarding how much video or photo content you can upload. Both have their pros and cons, but it’s someplace that filmmakers should be. The studios are really getting into it these days, so I hope that indies embrace it, as well.
I can tell you from personal experience, facebook is a lot of work as is any marketing plan, elbow greese, but what an amazing technology we take for granted compared with trying to invade by print media, only a few years ago.
Well done,
Rob Krabbe
What a great bit of information!
And Linda, I agree- I did some work for a marketing company that specializes in social media outreach, and Facebook definitely is a good and cheap way to quickly reach your targeted audience.
I never really thought about the e-mail aspect though — Totally going to implement this for our film. Thanks Stacey!