About SIFF
The Seattle International Film Festival is a organization dedicated to promoting communication through extraordinary films from around the world. The annual festival brings together filmmakers and film denizens from parts far and wide, including the greater Seattle area, the Pacific Northwest, and the globe. In addition to the festival, SIFF Cinema presents classic Hollywood pictures and other events throughout the year.
Current Reach
The mission of SIFF is simple: to create festival experiences that foster the film community here in Seattle. To generate awareness, SIFF has traditionally utilized basic festival promotional techniques to promote their annual festivities. This includes but is not limited to print advertising, marquee displays, and posters. More recently, SIFF has executed a broad web strategy, consisting primarily of a website promoting the organization and the festival’s entries. In addition to their website, SIFF has established partnerships with other Seattle-oriented organizations’ websites and various local blogs. On top of this, SIFF has begun a foray into social media, creating Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.
Challenges
The success of films and film festivals often depends on socially produced word-of-mouth. Positive word-of-mouth, especially that shared on-line, can make or break a movie. Merely establishing a presence within social media, where this word-of-mouth can be generated and spread, does not do enough to promote the festival or its films. Moreover, the impact of SIFF’s participation in social media is yet to be seen. Additionally, SIFF’s biggest fans are not always the most social individuals. How can the SIFF audience participate in a collective experience when being social-able is not always the M.O. of the biggest SIFF filmgoer? And, how can SIFF bolster positive word-of-mouth?
Suggested Strategy
You can’t make an anti-social person change all of their ways, but it is much easier to approach and take part in a community through one’s computer monitor than any other means. Also, we live in a day and age where messages, once they hit the social space, can no longer be controlled. SIFF needs to embrace all forms of word-of-mouth about their festival and its films. An active conversation with the audience must take place, fearless of what is being said. SIFF can invite conversation and get participation out of their audience through aggressive engagement with the filmgeek world. This will build social capital for the SIFF brand, and more social-able bodies will take notice. Therefore, it is proposed that SIFF implement three primary strategies to improve the way SIFF engages its audience. These steps will also serve to grow SIFF’s exposure.
- Take initiative and be responsive. Don’t merely broadcast information about SIFF events and films to social networks and Twitter, but aggressively participate in these social nets. Monitor these networks for chatter from interested parties and initiate contact with them. Continue to respond and engage interested parties, again and again. Even the most socially independent of SIFF filmgoers can appreciate being approached by SIFF as an official entity. This shows that SIFF truly relies upon and cares about their audience.
- Open the doors. Re-create SIFF’s website as a blog and establish commenting sections and forums. Actively monitor and respond to all posts.
- Break the rules. Hire an in-house social media director and allow him or her to feed information about the festival and films to established movie fanboy communities on-line, such as Ain’t It Cool News, CHUD, and the IMDb. Invite reviewers from these sites to press screenings and other advance screenings, and encourage them to report on their experiences on these fanboy sites – good or bad. Provide screeners to the reviewers as early as possible. Give your social media director license to circumvent usual promotional and critical channels as well. This social media director could also actively operate steps one and two above.
Necessary Tools
To accomplish the three-fold strategy above, implement these social media tools:
- Twitter Search, Google Search, Facebook Search. In order to take iniative and be responsive, SIFF will have to know when people are talking about them and what they are saying.
- WordPress. Download and install the latest version of WordPress blogging CMS to your website and re-craft your site appropriate to WordPress standards.
- Hire Matthew Stringer as your Social Media Director. Yes, hire me to do your dirty work. Trust me. I have enough experience both in the entertainment industry and the social media world as a new media producer to get the job done. And for a reasonable salary!
Conclusion
SIFF has made a lot of headway in to the web and social media, but much is left to be done. It is in this space that word-of-mouth and community is fostered, and SIFF needs to become a more active participant if they wish to see continued and expanding success.
Prepared by Matthew Stringer for Hanson Hosein’s Social Production Class, Spring Qtr. 2009, MCDM Program, University of Washington.
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Tags: film, seattle film, seattle international film festival, siff, social media strategy