I'm moderating a panel today at the University Film & Video Conference in Boston. The panel's called, "DIY: Distribute It Yourself." My other esteemed panelists are Bart Weiss, Caitlin Horsmon, and Ashley Maynor. As part of the panel, I'm giving a talk on social networking and film distribution. Among other things, my talk suggests that there are (at least) ten questions you should ask of yourself as you start to think about social media with regards to any film project. Instead of asking my audience to remember (or write down) those ten questions, I'm posting them here:
Am I trying to connect with my audience for one film (or issue) or for a body of work?
Who are these audiences?
What makes me/my work distinctive, especially to my audience?
How might I use social media to manage expectations of my work?
Where do my audiences congregate online?
What style/forms of communication does my audience trust?
What modes of communication would be most useful between me and my audience?
What do I want people to do after seeing my work? (e.g., take political action, buy my DVD, change a behavior, etc.)
What and how much do I want to share -- of my project, and of myself?
How much time can I commit to working on promotion and distribution via social media ?
Also, at the end of my talk I'm sharing a few excellent resources with regards to social media and/or film. Here they are:
Think Outside the Box Office -- both the book
Friends, Fans, and Followers by Scott Kirsner
Tribeca Film Social Media Toolkit
Social Networking Sites and Our Lives - The Pew Internet & American Life Project
UPDATE (from Ashley):
The blog post I mentioned in my presentation, by Ted Hope, which is still relevant for those with films without distribution, can be found here. If you want to follow his blog, it's now hosted at Indiewire here.