A quick peruse of two studios, Paramount and Sony, shows marked differences in their Facebook strategy and what’s working and what’s not… and why.
It’s worth taking a moment to dive into a couple of the posts to see what we can take away from their efforts.
Note, however, that these folks should be killing it on Facebook. They have a captive audience… we’re all huddled around our computers just wanting to consume content about film and they hold the keys.
A longer more in depth look on their pages is definitely warranted, but going back two months, here’s some insights that we can pull out.
note: Comments/Shares/Likes noted below are based on the time of posting.
PARAMOUNT PICTURES:
1.9 M Facebook likes
Post Frequency – looks like they are posting a once every couple of days. Sometimes they’ll skip a day. Sometimes they’ll post two on the same day. But there doesn’t seem to be consistent daily posts.
Comments: 5
Shares: 5
Likes: 369
O.k. – so what is the point of this post. This is doing nothing for Paramount and it doesn’t seem to get people excited about it either. It’s a useless call to action. If you are going to ask someone to do something… make sure it’s worth their while or at least engaging. This is neither.
Why not spend the time trying to figure out how to get the audience excited about going to see the film rather than asking if they are excited.
Finally, there’s very little, if any, value add here.
Comments: 55
Shares: 3
Likes: 2,476
Now, this still isn’t great… but it’s better. First of all, pictures work. We know that. Paramount has pictures that no one else has. So by releasing premium photo’s like this, it’s bound to get some traction. And it has.
The value is clear. People are engaging with it. It’s very clearly working.
And final example:
Comments: 17
Shares: 44
Likes: 784
This is just great. They’ve posted quite a few of these kinds of post on their feed. Shots from the back lot. What’s great about them is that they are native content to the platform.
First, they’re showing something that gets you excited about the brand of paramount. And in this case… lets just be clear, the brand that Paramount is creating for themselves on Facebook, not the brand that is associated with the movies they put out.
It is content that is shareable. Works well on the platform. Keeps you happy to want to be there and spend time with them when scrolling through.
Overall, over the past couple months, there have been too many false calls to action. Requests that lead no where. And content that isn’t quite native but wreaks more of advertising than anything else.
Link: 10 Tips for Indie Filmmakers on Twitter
SONY PICTURES
441K Facebook Likes
So, much smaller audience than Paramount. That’s interesting. Not sure it relevant though. Lets dive in.
Comments: 8
Shares: 41
Likes: 751
Already this is interesting. First, the number of shares and likes is telling. They have an engaged audience. Even with the smaller Facebook like count… right off the bat, you get the feeling this company has a very solid social media presence.
First, they are delivering content that is cool. Behind the scenes. Stuff you can’t see unless you get it from the source itself. The post doesn’t call attention itself like the example above (i.e. like if you are excited to see this film). It’s just delivering native content.
It’s branded with the American Hustle logo so we know what film its about. It’s got a cool picture of Jennifer Lawrence. Boom. Great stuff.
Scrolling down, and just two days earlier… this is on their page
Comments: 7
Shares: 21
Likes: 726
Looks a bit more like an ad doesn’t it? Maybe that’s why it did only half as good as the one above.
BUT… it gets cute points. First Love #Gwensday. Come on… this is great. Someone was having fun with this one and they definitely get points for effort on this one.
Didnt’ seem to resonate as well. But that’s o.k. — again, what’s catching here is the understanding of the platform… already intrigued and want to see more.
Comments: 20
Shares: 108
Likes: 1,552
Now we’re talking. This is a home run.
The picture is iconographic and works well with the text. There’s a logo on it so it’s branded and great for sharing. It’s simple and the picture is doing the work for them. The text isn’t too much and in your face. There isn’t some crazy call to action that makes no sense. It gets you excited to see the movie. It works within the platform.
So what can learn from these examples?
Now, in wrapping this up (note the caveat that we haven’t looked through months of posts); but, at a cursory glance of the last few months, you can certainly get a feel for each of these companies online efforts.
There seems to be more “buy” (i.e. calls to action) requestes on Paramount that require their audience to engage. Not always, necessarily, in the right way.
Both companies seem to forced to put out compulsory promotional posts congratulating artists on nominations. This would seem to be more about advertising to the industry than to the end consumer. Those kinds of promo posts seem to clutter the feed needlessly.
If there is one thing that seems to be glaringly absent from each of these sites is content that is proprietary to them, that could be incredibly shareable, that only they have access to, that movie lovers would love to see.
What about going into the archives of some of their great movies. Doing some throwback stuff. Doing some more cool integration with movies that are currently in production. Not just EPK stuff, but things are designed for this social media platform.
We’d love to hear what you think about this? Please leave a comment below to discuss.