Well.. I might be overselling it.. just a wee bit.
A few problems have arisen over the past several months in trying to get indie film promotion and networking moving forward. At the heart of most of this is sucky internet. As of late I've actually had a good connection. Why? I don't know... but I'm going to follow the old standby of not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Additionally just the scope of indie film. Big Hollywood is easy to promote as their output and associated output is far less than 1% of the films made every year. Even if you eliminate national cinemas from the pool the majority of films made every years are by indie filmmakers. That's a hell of a lot films and filmmakers.
Participation is also a key factor. Not everyone is Timothy J. Cox or Kate Davies-Speak. I'd be willing to argue nobody is. Both of them have been instrumental in the promotion of indie film. Timothy J. Cox actively promotes films he is in and the works of others. Kate Davies-Speak uses her social media, I'm most specifically familiar with her Twitter activity, to engage those in indie film to share among themselves and promote each other. Her #ShowreelShareDay and #TrailerShare days have encouraged me to use the indie film community, whether they know it or not, to promote themselves.
I've mentioned the use of hashtags before for different promotions. What I'm aiming to try now is to build this to a weekly indie film promotion where filmmakers, actors, reviewers and others can share links to trailers, interviews, reviews, and have others retweet their links.
Weekly? A bit too much? Not really, because my ultimate goal is to build this to a daily promotion. Obviously I can't do that on my own. But Hollywood gets almost by the minute promotion, and much of that is given to them for free. But ask someone to do that for indie films and many will want to charge for it. Yep... throw free money at the rich and charge the working class.
My intention, at least in this function, is to get others involved with promoting indie films. Ideally those who will be open to having a regular social media promotion. That could be a day a year, a day a month, but eventually those days add up and over time that could build into a daily promotion. As the promotion builds we will eventually trend the hashtag, and if it builds to the point it gets in the top 10 then it will be getting more attention due to that, and that certainly is a goal.
I am going to start of the promotion on Thursdays. Probably beginning around 9 a.m. (East Coast/New York time) and continuing throughout the day till like 11 or midnight. I fully expect the first time, or first several times to flop. It takes a while to build up anything and I will start with promo tweets for a handful of indie films throughout the day. Of course anybody else who tweets the hashtag with their own promo tweet will be retweeted by me and hopefully others.
The hashtag is #MyIndieFilmPromotion
I will be tweeting and retweeting from two Twitter accounts: @SexAndBloodShow (shut up... I've already commented it was a poor choice for a Twitter url) and @MIFilmAdvantage.
The reason for Thursday is to keep from conflicting with my work schedule and Thursday is not the weekend, not the first day of the week and not a church day. I'm wanting to keep it on a day when people will less likely be occupied with something else.
What to share?
Pretty much anything that helps promote your film or a film in which you are involved or someone's film you are trying to promote. Trailers, IMDb listings, interviews, reviews, etc. If they'll fit in a tweet, by all means include them all. You can also add up to 4 images in a tweet too if you want to include posters, screencaps or other promotional materials. Sometimes when I have promoted films in the past I would create an image with a summary of a film, cast, etc. so I could include more about the film beyond the Twitter character count.
A few things to note:
Filmmakers - Often when I try to collect info for promoting films on Twitter with a Tweet. Rather than actually 'reply' with info like I've requested most just click on 'like'. If I want to actually collect any info then I have to search it out as a result. This is time consuming. Nobody knows your film, cast, social media links, etc. better than you. Not only will providing information help me out, it's a good habit to get into when it comes to soliciting reviews as it helps out the reviewer. What you can provide in a minute or two can take somebody else an hour or longer to have to search for it.
Reviewers - Let me be specific about what is and is not indie film. Indie film is not made with millions of dollars with big name actors. Indie film is individuals and even small companies making their own films. The United States has a problem with multi-million dollar movies masquerading as indie films because they are not made by one of the Big 6 studios. You are welcome to join in and help to promote indie films, but if you are confused about what they are and instead use the hashtag to promote bigger studio films you will be asked to stop.
Why this particular promotion?
As I've mentioned, internet has been a problem here. I've at least had a fairly consistent connection, but bandwidth often sucks. As I have been using mobile internet more, it does not require as much bandwidth as my computer does. This is a way for me to become more actively involved in promotion that I can also do on a phone or tablet.
I will tweet about the date of the first #MyIndieFilmPromotion rather than springing it on you. You don't have to specifically tweet within the hours I am. I will search the hashtag and retweet any tweets. You can also use a tweet scheduler online or a social media hub to schedule tweets. Any retweets are encouraged and very much appreciated.
