How can I expand my business in film?
I am looking to expand my company, Theme Parkology, of which I produce documentaries on theme parks, attractions, characters, legends and animator. I gave up on Facebook when I lost all of my followers after converting my two Facebook accounts. I need advice on how can I expand. Should I be focusing on other social media outlets, or my website design/outreach, or something else? For your reference, my website is www.themeparkology.com.
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Jan 7, 2015
I have looked into my social media only to discover that they're not meeting their full potential. What can I do?
Dec 31, 2014
I have learned from the best that there are three main things with the consumers; 1) Stand out from the crowd, 2) Involve the audience, 3) Raise emotions. I love your videos, I would say you've pretty much covered 1) and 3), but in order to have your own "tribe", you should consider something more concrete for the audience to talk to and with you, as well as each other.
Future's success companies are those who tell the best stories. What's yours? ;)
Dec 31, 2014
although its going to be painful to rebuild your audience - you need to grow your facebook followers again.
Post 10-15 second "video snippets" and promote them
Run a "user content" contest monthly or quarterly - they submit a video or pic from one of the attractions featured in your videos, they get the documentary for free.
tweet and update current projects, build buzz.
good luck
Dec 31, 2014
Hey Jerry. I love the idea of your company. Most of what I do involves some kind of storytelling, so I can definitely appreciate the work you've done.
If you were a client of mine, to really dig in I'd need to hear a lot more about *how* you want to expand. In other words, do you want more sales? Or just more attention / engagement? There's a big difference between just hearing more chatter from an audience versus actually growing your business.
But I can say that most entrepreneurs I work with are simply too excited about getting their website or logo or Facebook page "just right," and they end up getting distracted by this and missing out on bigger opportunities. Things like low-risk / high-reward situations like having lunch or coffee with lots of people, then developing real relationships with the ones who you sync with, and eventually helping each other out. I can speak from personal experience that it only takes one person to connect you to someone who can help spark something really big.
Besides the lunch idea, if you're really focused on business growth, if I were you I'd worry less about social media (but continue doing what you're doing), and focus more on building connections and telling your story in new ways. Here are a few ideas:
- Who can you partner with? Are there theme park experts or influencers that megafans follow? Maybe you can team up with some of those guys to get them to endorse your work and share your films with their fanbases. Give them free product for their personal use or for giveaways. (Low cost on your part, but potentially huge ROI.)
- To increase DVD sales, what major outlets are your films NOT on right now? And think big! Is your product available everywhere movie fans would expect it - both digitally and physically? (i.e. if it's not on Amazon, I'm probably not going to get it.)
- If you have a number of titles, consider hunting the elephant that is Netflix or Amazon Instant (again - I'm aware this is BIG thinking), and getting one of your titles on there for 'free' for the audience? Maybe that will be a catalyst to get people to then pony up and buy add'l titles.
Please let me know if I can help with anything else. Best wishes with your work!
Dec 31, 2014
I have a very low marketing budget & rely on social media for the majority of my marketing. I make sure to post daily, establishing myself as an expert in my field, by posting not only recent happenings but articles and information that will be helpful to my potential client.
Dec 29, 2014
Before I decide to give you advise, I need to understand what is the business model? How do you plan to make money of this website?
Dec 29, 2014
Jerry...the common response below is where I will start - what is it you are trying to accomplish and for whom (your target customers...But, I will then add:
- based on target client, determine all of the places online, in video, and in person your target client is. So first determine that, then decide the rest.
- I agree with the below, don't give up on Facebook, just get a professional if need be to get your social profiles set up properly.
- marketing strategies have multiple tactics - establish all of the touchpoints your target market is, including networking in the film industry, documentary, animation, etc.. to gather partners, affiliates, and target customers.
Dec 29, 2014
I don't think giving up Facebook is a good idea. Facebook is a place, where many of your potential customers, partners and employees are. You may also create Google+ page - it's very important for your website SEO. You could expand your business with Vimeo, too. And of course, it's a good idea to work more on your website design, and build more engaged, interactive and optimized user/customer experience. You must get the visitors returning back to your website and this could be achieved through conversation with them.
Dec 28, 2014
Who are you trying to attract? What would be an ideal place to expand what you are doing? Do you want to continue in niche Theme Park's? or would you consider branching into other types of Parks (national parks, Zoo's, city parks (ex Central Park). Your exact plan for expansion will dictate the nature of how you can promote your company via web and social media? Basically different audiences will have different requirements in terms of how they will want to receive your message.
Dec 28, 2014
What are you trying to accomplish? What are your goals what you mean expand?
I'm afraid I only know what Twitter is. What is SEO, SEM and PPC?