A beginner's guide to help independent filmmakers and other content creators begin to find, engage, and sell to their online audience.

1. Social Media
Marketing Strategy
for Independent Filmmakers
J. Brad Wilke
Smarthouse Creative
Co-founder & Principal
brad@smarthousecreative.com

2. What We’re Up Against
Feature films submitted to Sundance 2015: 4,105
Theatrical releases in 2015: 680
DVD/VOD releases: 1550+
Market size (theatrical): $11,000,000,000+
Market size (home): $20,000,000,000+
Avg. studio marketing budget (per film): $30,000,000
Avg. indie marketing budget: ~ shoestring and tape

3. Core Strategies
Audience engagement
Social marketing
Digital content management
Pre-distribution / Post-distribution mindsets

4. Workflow Overview
Core
Strategies
Filmmaking
Team
Social
Marketing
Lead
Digital
Content
Producer

5. Audience Engagement
• Facebook (broad reach social channel)
• Twitter (real-time social channel)
o Manage via Tweetdeck / smartphone
• Snapchat (real-time social channel)
• Instagram (photo feed)
o Manage via smartphone
• Website (base of operations)
• YouTube (ancillary content)

6. Social Marketing
Expand your audience & sell your film
• Facebook ads and promoted posts
• Promoted tweets
• Instagram ads via Facebook Ads Manager
• Promote your trailer on YouTube
• Links always point to conversion page
• Google AdWords

7. Digital Content Management
Track and manage files in the cloud:
• Squarespace for film website
• Dropbox for static file management
o Images, video clips, documents, schedules, etc.
• Google Drive for co-created / shared docs

8. Pre-distribution / Post-distribution
Marketing Mindsets
• Pre-Distribution:
o Focus on experimentation
o Interact and engage with individuals
o Build fanbase city by city
o Find your “true fans” (key influencers)
• Post-Distribution
o Hone your message and platforms
o Interact and engage with groups
o Maintain and deepen fanbase
o Empower your “true fans”

9. General Tactics
- Behind-the-scenes videos (one/week)
- Filmmaker Tumblr (multiple/week)
- Character backstory (via video, blog, etc.)
- Immersive story experience (web elements
reflect and expand on film universe)
- Sync content calendar to film festival run
- Pre-distribution and post-distribution content
- Live streams of film festival Q&As, etc.
- Twitter Q&A / Reddit AMAs

10. Success Metrics
- Social shares and interactions
- Engagement rate = interactions / total platform audience
- Festival attendance
- Ticket sales and attendance
- Theatrical ticket sales
- VOD rentals/downloads
- DVD rentals/sales

11. Final Notes
• Establish social platform presence today
• Engage and interact with your audience
• Share relevant content
• Support your fellow indies
• Experiment with new platforms and tools
• Empower your “true fans”
• Have a plan, but be ready for anything