Like any movie maker, it is important to me to have people
see, and hopefully enjoy, my movies. How do I get people to watch my movies?
I find it very difficult to promote my movies. Partly it is
because I don't feel comfortable promoting myself, and partly that I just don't
know how. I've read many blogs and articles, but I still haven't found
something that works for me.
They say that the best way to promote your work is to
produce high quality and unique movies. Even if you do, it is still hard to get
people to watch. Another twist to keep in mind is that, no matter how good your
work, not everyone will like your work, so you need to reach the people who
will like your work.
There are many "tricks" that people use to attract
interest, and it is easy to be tempted to use them.
Search Engine
Optimization
It seems like you find people who push SEO everywhere. This
can be done in a positive way, since there will always be people who want to
find what you have on offer. All too often though, it can be just a bunch of
tricks to get people to visit your site.
Time and again I've visited sites that seem to promise
something that interests me, only to find it isn't what I wanted. I get quite
annoyed when that happens. I often see people in comment sections expressing
their anger at this kind of thing. I must admit I used a similar approach with
my movie Who Shot the President.
Another problem with this approach is that it is self
defeating in the long run. For long term success as a movie maker you need to develop
a fan base. When you turn people off you've lost them forever.
Get More Followers
Many people believe that you need to build up the number of
people who follow you on Twitter and other websites. You can even buy
followers. Even when they don't buy followers,
some people resort to various tricks to get others to follow them. One
that particularly annoys me who follow me, then when I follow back, they thank
me and then un-follow me.
It was my practice to follow people who followed me, but I
now doubt that this is a wise approach. I follow far too many people to really
follow what they post, so why follow them. On the other side, what is the value
of followers who never see your posts? When I checked this morning I had 1,543
followers on Twitter. I doubt that even a tenth of them have ever noticed any
of my posts.
One good follower who supports you is better than a 100 that
never even see your posts.
Face Book Pages
Face Book pages are supposed to be a good way to keep in
touch with follows. With recent changes to Face Book, that has become more
difficult. Even before the changes, if someone didn't click on your posts on
their feed, Face Book would not put them on their feed anymore.
Once you're no longer on people's feeds, it is very hard to
get back on. Many people are angry at Face Book for this change. I wouldn't say
I was angry, but I am disappointed that people who said they want to know what
I'm up to are cut off so easily. On the other hand, is there anything I can do
to get people to interact with my page more, so they continue to get my posts?
Rules to Follow
I have started to
adopt some rules that I think will work for me.
Don't Annoy People - Do not do anything that would annoy me if someone did it to me.
Don't Look for Followers, Look for A Follower - Build
up your followers one at a time. It is the quality of follower that you need to
focus on, not the quantity.
Don't Lash Out at Criticism - A nasty response can
drive people away. A more constructive response can draw people in. This has
been a challenge for me.
I am sure that there are many more that will help me, and
fit in with my approach to life.
This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog
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