How important is a social media "presence"?

[Oliver Daniel]

3 hours ago, silvertonesx24 said:

I've built a creative career with zero percent social media presence, 20% web presence, and 80% face to face presence 

That's excellent. 

In all honesty, I don't actually like social media. While it's very useful for positive outcomes, it's absolutely battered with non-stop bollocks which makes it very difficult to see the hidden gems of content. 

The video industry is changing massively, and this is because of smartphones and social media. (I'm sure you all know about the square format!)

Brands aren't spending as much on video (or are just plain alienated by it), and industries such as music give you laughable budgets - even big labels with big artists. 

So businesses are opting for regular video content but at a short form level, instead of spending a million billion $€£ on one 'hero' video. 

We're now seeing a massive amount of Uber style video providers - where you basically press a few buttons and you get a video for fuck all money. (YouTube Director, Animoto, Ripl etc). 

Many companies and agencies are setting up video in-house, and makingbit themselves. So there's quite an emphasis on videographers / filmmakers now being a consultant, as well as a creator. 

If you're just starting out or growing, you have to go all guns blazing to be seen. Also it helps if you have something unique to offer. Social media is growing so we have to take advantage of the right platforms for our audience. 

YouTube is a great platform however it's massively competitive. There's so many uploads it's difficult to get your stuff viewed when searched organically. 

Facebook is growing immensely with video, and is a serious consideration. 

Main thing is, keep creating awesome stuff and be happy with what you're doing.  

[ntblowz]

We have some clients that decide to setup in house production but only to dismantle them few months later, and at end still turns to us for video needs. There is a lot of variable in terms of skill, mindset and need to click with clients head which can be major pain in the butt (and they have to offer them monthly wage even if there is not much video to be made)

Though we do love clients who have idea on how video production works, they make life so much easier instead of back and forth changes with people who don't have much clue and art sense, they tend to make final video actually worse than our first draft.

Some big brands do spend less money and decide to go uber style provider, in our area it's 90 seconds, even Discovery tv and McDonald used them, I know Discovery got burned big time by amateur videographer hired by 90 seconds as 90 seconds tend to choose new videographer every time, MCD uses only 1/3 of their normal budget with 90 seconds compare to traditional tvc production.

[fuzzynormal]

8 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Anybody can pay to bump up their numbers on social media

Ask Donald Trump about this.  Aren't a lot of his "followers" just Twit bots?

[Jonesy Jones]

1 hour ago, fuzzynormal said:

Ask Donald Trump about this.  Aren't a lot of his "followers" just Twit bots?

I'm a Twit bot. Would make a great t-shirt too. That or deplorable.  

The answer really boils down to what you want to do as a filmmaker, or who are you trying to sell to. If you are selling your skills to corporations or other filmmakers, the presence may or may not be helpful. If you are selling to consumers I would say a presence is Yuge. 

[Richard Bugg]

There are probably a lot of ways to skin a banana, but talking to and doing things for people face to face seems infinitely more satisfying.

[fuzzynormal]

20 hours ago, Jonesy Jones said:

I'm a Twit bot. Would make a great t-shirt too.

It would be.  But I'm not saying that he doesn't have authentic Twitter followers.  Maybe some in Russia too.

[rotgg]

About the same as breathing

[noone]

On ‎19‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 8:50 PM, Oliver Daniel said:

I can weigh in on this. 

 

Unfortunately these days, if you're able to give yourself a great social media presence but you're work is mediocre (as compared to a poor social media presence with incredible work) - it's more likely the former will be more successful. 

 

Yes.

If I was making money from video or photography, I would be in trouble as I am more like Social Influenza than an influencer.

I post on Instagram and might get five likes in a week but one of those will repost one of my photos and get a hundred in a day.     That said, I am pretty anti social anyway and camera stuff is a hobby.      People that would otherwise cross the street if they see me coming do want me to take their photos when I am out and about with a camera though at pubs and clubs.

 

If doing this for money I might have to learn to like (more) people and would certainly need a social media manager.

[kaylee]

On 5/18/2017 at 6:17 PM, Liam said:

For the small time filmmakers, sometimes I feel like popularity is the only thing that matters. literally posting a lot about filming, and becoming a personality, is said by many to be very important, even just for submitting to a festival.. like it's not just about the quality of your film.

I feel really weird about advertising myself, especially to friends and family, and pretending I'm interesting

I'd rather slowly build up a following on vimeo by making films I'm proud of maybe.. which is obviously possible, but yeah.. do any of you do this? Thoughts?

liam i think you already answered your own question if i may read between the lines here

Quote

pretending I'm interesting

well lets see, do you WANT to be a poser, who people think is full of shit?? is it somehow WORTH IT for what youre doing rn???

the answers are no and no, and thats that.

heres my advice: build a social media following to whatever degree, organically, and small as it may be itll be there for you in the future, when you produce great work and you actually want lots of followers – active followers lead to more active followers. but just let it happen

i think its normal and very contemporary to have Follower Anxiety™ but its just media noise that makes us feel that way!!! its a general malaise... and the creative mind does not function well when we're under stress!!!

also: give yourself a break~! youre putting WAY too much pressure on yourself for no good reason!!! let yourself develop, and as that happens, and you make more and more stuff and find your voice as an artist, your vision of how you want to portray yourself online and in the world will become crystal clear. it happened for me~!

now i want you to stop stressing out and chill so u can have great ideas...!!! ? if this doesnt make any sense pm me lol

[Trek of Joy]

I work in digital marketing, so for me photo and video are vital tools for my job and most of the time I produce/shoot/edit everything I get published - but I don't consider myself a filmmaker by any stretch. If social isn't your thing, that's cool, but some presence makes it a lot easier for people to find you. If you have a blog or website to showcase your work even better. Use it as a professional marketing tool and make connections. Put your contact info on a card and pass it on. Its just another form of building relationships and engaging your audience. 

I've hired plenty of people for various jobs, first thing I do is google them and search them out on social to see who they are. You don't have to be 20 post a day vlogger active, a couple posts a week or so, show BTS stuff, write about your process, gear and so on. You can ignore it, but Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter/Instagram/Youtube has helped me with every job I've landed in the last few years and I"ll be leaning on it heavily at the beginning of next year when I search for my next job.

Personally anything I can do that gives me an edge over someone else is worth the effort. YMMV.

Good luck.