Digital Promotion, Marketing, and Distribution: Blogs

Blogs (or web logs) are information-rich sites where an author can provide periodic updates on a specific topic of interest.  The use of blogs for film marketing purposes can be tackled in a few different ways.  One approach is to form relationships with bloggers.  Well-known movie bloggers are extremely influential and oftentimes have the power to convince their readers to see certain movies.  Instead of spending hours and hours trying to book one of your principal cast members on the Late Show With David Lettermen (which can be extremely difficult), reach out to the bloggers who can possibly even have more influence than Lettermen –for free.  Send the most important movie bloggers clips, stills, trailers and reviews of your film, and if they like what they see odds are they will be willing to write about it.  Remember that bloggers are not traditional reporters.  Though it has become more and more popular for brick and mortar media outlets to also have blogs, most of the time bloggers do not represent the media.  They are extremely opinionated, can publish whatever they want to publish, and can do it quickly and without relying on physical embodiment of their work in a newspaper or magazine.  Form a mutually beneficial relationship with them by keeping them updated on your film’s progress frequently.  If you cannot get the most influential film bloggers to write about your movie then try contacting some of the other thousands of bloggers who will.  If a large number of smaller bloggers are all writing about your film all at once, then millions of people can be persuaded to see it.

Gawker.com is the most trafficked entertainment blog site, and although it is not exclusively a movie blog site, it has a very high readership and a significant number of independent-film fans are visitors.  Gawker is actually a family of blogs covering a range of topics.  What is interesting about Gawker is that if one of the blogs picks up a story that relates to another blog in the family, the story will be reposted and reach a whole new audience.  Other entertainment blogs with large followings include boingboing.net and twitchfilm.com.  Ain’t it Cool News (aintitcool.com) is another well-known film forum that provides extensive news which now covers almost every corner of current cinema.

You can also take an active role in creating conversation about your film by visiting other blogs whose subjects relate to your film.  The “comment” component of blogs allows visitors to post their responses and opinions for every blog post.  Utilize this feature as a way to plug your film.  Comment on blogs, and bring viewers back to your official site.  The blogs you visit by no means need to be movie blogs.  Go to blogs written on the subject matter of your film, and you will create a more involved conversation, as many readers of your special interest blogs are passionate about the subject.

As we mentioned above, fictional character blogs can be created and incorporated into the film’s official website.  On the official site for the popular TV show The Office, the character Dwight has an active blog that fans can follow.  This is an example of the content-rich material film marketers use to drive people to their websites.  If appropriate, turn your fictional characters into real life bloggers…