This post is about an indie movie made in my home state of Minnesota and near my home town. The movie is named Memorial Day.
From the bit that is online, it looks like it could have been a contender, but won’t because the movie makers hit a fatal flaw in their use of Social Media Marketing.
Their flaw is common among first time business owners trying to get their feet wet with social media as a way of marketing their product. Its thinking that if we post it on YouTube, have a website, Facebook account and twitter, that is all we need to do. No care, no feeding, no interacting. Set it on autopilot and forget it. (WRONG!!)
That’s basically what the people behind Memorial Day have done. From what I have seen and read, they seem to think traditional media is where to put the time and effort and leave the social media stuff do its own thing. Thinking they are winning the marketing battle on two fronts together. When in fact, they are killing their chances at success by this process.
If I were in Charge
- Put a contact button on the website that is easy to find.
- Respond and welcome each post and comment on twitter, Facebook and the blogs
- Ask “what can we do to help you get the word out about this movie?”
- Give the fans something to do
- Embrace new media, let the traditional media catch up
- Embrace the Embed Button
1) Put in a contact button
A simple change that would mean so much to so many. No contact means just that. Nobody can contact me and I can’t respond to their inquiry. This includes the media who want interviews, soundbites and back stories about the movie, its makers and its purpose. By not having an easy to find contact button, they are missing a lot of opportunity to push the movie to a wider audience.
2) Respond and welcome
Currently they have a website, a Facebook page, a twitter account and a blogger account. But nowhere on there is any responses to the readers. I would immediately change that. Get in there and welcome the posts, the comments and even ask them some questions. Get them social and involved.
3) Always ask them
“What can I do to help you tell others about this wonderful movie?” A simple question that will reap many rewards
Right now, it looks like they set it and forgot it. A common mistake by many first time business owners entering the world of Social Media Marketing. Forgetting that being social is a two-way street.
4) Give Them Something to Do
Fans are wonderful marketing people. They will get legions of people to follow them into a movie theater or onto Amazon if you only give them the tools and the directions on how to do that.
This is an indie produced film. Not made from a major studio with a full-time staff to market it. So I would use the fan base. Look at the feedback thus far and respond to their questions: How do they get their local cineplex to play it? Tell them how. How to get the local service clubs to buy it? Tell them. Give the movie an edge. Promote that certain proceeds will benefit a certain vets group or cause. Give them something to do to promote this movie. Feed their hunger and turn them wild.
As an indie movie producer, if your fans see that you have rolled up your social media sleeves and got in there and champion the cause; if the fans see you are behind it with your own blood, sweat and keyboards, thousands of others will line up behind you to promote this movie, guaranteed.
5) New Media, New friends
The current marketing plan for this movie seems to rely on traditional media and that the social media stuff will take care of itself. They have it 180 degrees backwards.
The new media is who you want to embrace. Do that and the traditional media will be breaking down your door, wanting in.
Me? I would boost the twitter follows from the current 38, to a few thousand. Set up a search for movie fans,movie reviewers, military collectors and those who write about social and entertainment. Doing follow ups with some of them, offering interviews, movie reviews and movie trivia. Getting them to look at the website and getting them to write about the movie.
6) Embrace the Embed Button
Locking down the embed button on the YouTube video for a movie you want people to talk about, is stupid in so many ways. Get people to embed it on their website. Get people to promote it to their readers and fans.
In the movie description, put a link at the beginning that goes back to the website. Get the people involved. Make it easy for them to spread the news, to comment and to promote. Make it really social.
I don’t know everyone in the movie theater business. But I bet one of my readers has a friend who does. And that friend probably has no idea this movie is out there until he reads this blog post and could have seen the clip had they not locked down the embed function. Now we will never know…
If you read a lot of the comments left on videos that went viral, it’s because someone saw it on another website and linked it back to YouTube. It’s where national media stories start from, is a link, a post and an embed from another website.
I can easily bet 90% of my readers will not click over to the website or the YouTube channel because I do not have a sample of the movie clip here. Had you allowed an embed of the movie clip. Had you also put a link in the movie description, you would have had a few hundred people heading over to your channel right now and to your website looking for more information. Looking for ways to get the movie themselves.
Social Fixes – May Help
From what I have read about the movie… what I have seen about the movie all say great things about it. And I wish the producers would at least consider correcting these errors quickly, to give the movie the chance it deserves to be seen by a larger audience. Social media would definitely do that for them, if done correctly.
