Social
media has taken the world by storm—so much so that it has even
superseded the power of marketing films in their official movie
websites. Indeed, sites like Facebook and Twitter are much more
efficient in generating buzz and engaging people. This is why any
good marketing consultant will tell you that your business cannot
ignore the need for social media marketing.
A Bit of
History
The
practice of putting up movie websites began in 1994 with the sci-fi
film Stargate;
the site has long since been taken down. Back then, anyone with at
least basic knowledge of HTML can design their own movie site (or any
website for that matter). Eventually, movie websites grew beyond
animated GIFs and HTML codes.
Implications
Following
social media's debut as a marketing medium, teen vampire romance
Twilight
became the first movie to reach a million followers on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the producers of horror film Paranormal Activity caved in
under pressure from a million requests over social media for a
U.S.-wide release. The public’s response resulted in a $15,000 film
raking in a whopping $107.9 million domestic gross sales.
Social
media marketing, thus, takes into account this basic truth:
businesses must go wherever people go. Considering that there are now
around two billion social media users worldwide, it makes sense for
businesses to promote their brands by means of such things as profile
updates and hashtags. Social media as a core component should form
part of any company’s online marketing strategy.