Key Trends Of The Decade
This is the official Raindance list of trends we watch here in the office.
Top Web Trends To Watch in 2010
We really liked this article. It’s by Pete Cashmore, founder and CEO of Mashable, a popular blog about social media.
Top Trends For Independent Filmmakers 2009
Punch drunk yet? Here is what Raindance thinks were the top trends of 2009 for independent filmmakers.
7 Things Filmmakers Can Learn from Perez Hilton
After James the Intern wrote this article, Perez Hilton himself put it on his website. Over 6,000 people visit the page in a single day.
100 Trends To watch in 2010
Published by the advertising and marketing agency, JWT, this list is now considered one of the most influential trend spotting lists.
Tactics and Tips for promoting films with social media
December 31, 2009
Independent Filmmakers 2010 Survival Guide
December 11, 2009
Jigsaw Global » Sundance 2010
Digital Dive is a one-day immersion program to help filmmakers wrap their heads around the world of digital media content creation. Experts will present case studies, product demos, and practical information about how to get your feet wet with website, mobile phone, social media, and cross-platform production. A collaboration between Sundance Film Festival and Jigsaw Global, the workshop will be held at New Frontier on Main, and it is perfect for filmmakers and film industry professionals with minimal, hands-on digital media production experience.
December 11, 2009
10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010
This time last year, I wrote about the 10 ways social media will change 2009, and while all predictions have materialized or are on their way, it has only become clear in recent months how significant <br /> tweetmeme_url = ‘http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/10_ways_social_media_will_change_in_2010.php’;<br /> tweetmeme_source = ‘rww’;<br /> of a change we’ve seen this year. 2009 will go down as the year in which the shroud of uncertainty was lifted off of social media and mainstream adoption began at the speed of light. Barack Obama’s campaign proved that social media can mobilize millions into action, and Iran’s election protests demonstrated its importance to the freedom of speech.
December 9, 2009
Web Project Management Templates | 40 Web Project Template Files | Econsultancy
Template Files Contents * Web Project Templates * Digital Marketing Templates * Request For Proposals (RFPs) * Business Cases Overview
We’re building a library of template files to help you with your web and digital marketing projects. You can see the range of files below that we’ve already put together with more to come. These files come from a range of leading practitioners to show you how they are doing things and to give you templates that you can edit, modify and build upon. If there’s a particular template file you’d like, that we don’t already have, then do contact us and we can see if we can track it down.
December 9, 2009
35 social media KPIs to help measure engagement | Blog | Econsultancy
Social media measurement is something that I think should be undertaken with a sense of perspective, by standing back and looking at the big picture.
A widescreen approach to social media measurement ultimately looks at the things that really matter: sales, profits, customer satisfaction and loyalty. Besides, honing in on the detail might not be the best use of your time, given the obvious difficulties that arise, particularly with attribution.
But standing back and looking at the bigger picture is not going to be enough for your data-mad boss, is it? It’s a bit too soft focus, right? He or she is going to want to see proof that all this social optimisation is actually working.
If that’s the case, then don’t worry: there are lots of things you can measure…
It’s all about engagement
When we talk about social optimisation (a term I prefer to ‘social media’) we’re really talking about driving engagement and interaction. The goal of any social optimisation strategy is to provide the right tools so that people can engage with your brand / people / products / services onsite and offsite.
Here’s what you want to happen:
- You want people to make a noise.
- You want people to store and share things.
- You want people to love your website.
- You want people to visit more frequently
- You want people to refer your company to their friends.
- You want people to buy into your brand.
- You want people to buy your products.
Engaged customers and prospects are far more likely to do some or all of the above. So how can you boost customer engagement?
Give people the right tools
The tools and onsite functionality you need is going to depend on your business, your strategy and your goals. What you’re ultimately looking for is a wide range of tools to help people interact. It doesn’t matter whether this interaction happens onsite or offsite, but only that it happens. You can measure it either way.
This list of KPIs / metrics should help you figure out what can be measured (at a nano level) and also what kind of tools / functionality you may want to introduce. I still think it’s best to measure from a distance but if your boss wants the detail then this list should help you work out what to look at. In doing so you’ll able to determine the relative success and adoption of new features. You may also unearth trends and spot opportunities or issues.
In any event, taking a top-down look at interaction - and monitoring how customer engagement changes over time - can really help you position your company as a community-centric organisation, by proving that an investment into customer engagement is a wise one. Your boss should be happy if all goes to plan.
Making interaction a game
This list has been largely informed by a new social commerce startup that I’m working on. It’s essentially a marketplace that connects buyers with sellers. I created a ‘kudos’ algorithm that helps us curate the website. Items that are highly rated and that attract lots of comments / bookmarks / followers will gain kudos points. We apply different weightings to different interactions (for example, a ‘love this’ rating is worth less than a ‘follow item’). Editors / curators can then spot the buzz and act accordingly (better promotion, interviews, videos, etc).
We created ‘kudos’ for a few reasons. Firstly, we want to learn from the crowd. Secondly, we want the website to be highly interactive. Thirdly, we want it to feel like a game for the sellers, just like Digg is for the article submitters.
So tracking and making sense of interaction is a fundamental part of our web venture. Many of these metrics are factored into our algorithm, and in the same way you can score different interactions to create some kind of interaction index. It might help you condense all of this data noise into a more digestible format.
Caveats!
Before we jump into the list there are a few caveats…
- Not all websites are equal. Not all of these will be relevant to all sites (e.g. ‘Posts’ won’t be any good for sites without blogs and contributors)
- Not all interactions are equal. ‘Print page’ as an engagement measure is barely worth looking at… or is it? In any case, some of these things are more important than others (hence my scoring / ‘kudos’ algorithm).
- There is some crossover. For example ‘bookmarks’ and ‘wishlists’ may be the same thing on your site (although they’re not on mine).
- Some metrics will have sub-metrics.
- Avoid curve balls. If the widget sucks then it doesn’t matter that 10,000 people installed it last week. It will still suck and they’ll hate it.
- Human power is needed to really understand the detail behind the numbers, and to act on that knowledge. Interpretation is key.
- It’s about quality not quantity. Don’t go counting those spam comments!
- This is a bit of a braindump and I’ll certainly have missed out various things, so please leave your pointers and suggestions in the comments section below. What are you measuring?
A list of social interaction metrics / KPIs
- Alerts (register and response rates / by channel / CTR / post click activity)
- Bookmarks (onsite, offsite)
- Comments
- Downloads
- Email subscriptions
- Fans (become a fan of something / someone)
- Favourites (add an item to favourites)
- Feedback (via the site)
- Followers (follow something / someone)
- Forward to a friend
- Groups (create / join / total number of groups / group activity)
- Install widget (on a blog page, Facebook, etc)
- Invite / Refer (a friend)
- Key page activity (post-activity)
- Love / Like this (a simpler form of rating something)
- Messaging (onsite)
- Personalisation (pages, display, theme)
- Posts
- Profile (e.g. update avatar, bio, links, email, customisation, etc)
- Print page
- Ratings
- Registered users (new / total / active / dormant / churn)
- Report spam / abuse
- Reviews
- Settings
- Social media sharing / participation (activity on key social media sites, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc)
- Tagging (user-generated metadata)
- Testimonials
- Time spent on key pages
- Time spent on site (by source / by entry page)
- Total contributors (and % active contributors)
- Uploads (add an item, e.g. articles, links, images, videos)
- Views (videos, ads, rich images)
- Widgets (number of new widgets users / embedded widgets)
- Wishlists (save an item to wishlist)
Any good? Rubbish? Let me know what you think, and what I missed…
December 9, 2009
Truly Free Film: Why The Indie Film Industry Needs Producers via Ted Hope
Time and time again, I get the impression that the “Film Industry” generally does not value producers. I suppose I shouldn’t deduce that The Studios’ abandonment of Producer Overhead First Look Deals means that the business doesn’t value Producers, and just that The Studios need to control costs or that they have other ways of accessing content, but…
Well, it’s hard not to feel that it’s just that Producers aren’t respected. I suppose that financiers willingness to under pay Producers should not lead me to think that they don’t know how much a Producer does. Maybe they are just trying to get a good deal. I suppose that I could take it as flattering that experienced folks in the business, assume that my overhead is covered, that my assistant’s salary is taken care of.
So what is it that Producers do for the Film Industry at large?
- Producers bring new investors into the business, both in terms of sourcing them, and structuring deals that make sense from an investors’ perspective
- Producers look out for investors’ needs (substantially more than distributors do), as Producers think long term and need private equity to stay in the game.
- Producers provide development supervision to get the scripts right — and they usually get a lot more writing done without additional costs — because the authors know they are doing it to get the best movie made, and not just to justify their jobs.
- Producers inspire talent to embrace work for affordable yet just rates — because everyone knows that the producer is doing also for the love but for a whole lot longer.
- Producers counter-balance industry pressure to increase costs and keep movies’ budgets at levels that make sense — which is good for the industry.
- Producers innovate — be it in the search to deliver a better film or to control costs, innovation is in their blood.
- Producers develop talent and take the chances on emerging artists.
- Producers keep in touch with the audience, weighing where their tastes and habits are.
- Producers bring content, talent, technology, audiences, investors together.
- Producers help show the business and the culture where they might aspire to be going.
December 9, 2009
Eugene Hernandez: The Future of Festivals? - indieWIRE
To get a better sense of how they are changing, keep a close eye on three leading American events: Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca. Also, watch the moves of a new crop of filmmakers who are hitting the fest circuit in 2010.
New Sundance Film Festival director John Cooper piqued my interest in the shifting role of fests during a telephone conversation last week ahead of the announcement of the 2010 Sundance lineup. He said plainly something that a lot of festivals and filmmakers have been grappling with over the past year, “Film festivals themsleves [will] become part of a distribution strategy for a film. That’s what’s coming. It’s right around the corner.”
“We are going to see, in the future, a lot of films leaping into distribution right from the festival platform,” Copper stated, “If not during the festival then the day after—it’s going to happen this year.” Sundance is expanding its event into eight other cities for one night next month, but taking a wait and see approach on distribution initiatives. Meanwhile other festivals—namely SXSW and Tribeca—are aiming to blaze some new trails.
Over the past fifteen years, film festivals have been an important stepping stone for filmmakers seeking distribution. Hire a rep, take your film to a festival and (hopefully) sell it to a distribution company for a release six months to a year later. That approach generally works best for bigger films with name actors or high concept loglines. But, just a few companies are acquiring movies on the festival circuit right now. So, what about striking new work from emerging directors that is discovered at a fest but may not have the obvious hooks that attract traditional buyers?
December 8, 2009
Ted Hope: 20 New Rules
While you’ve been making your Thanksgiving shopping list, independent film producer Ted Hope has been cooking up some new rules for indie filmmakers to follow when promoting their films. Be thankful!
I am prepping a new film with the shortest amount of time I have ever had to prep a movie. It is also one of the more ambitious projects I have been involved in. There is so much to do I can’t afford to squander any time. The short prep is also unfortunate because now is a time that the producer has to do even more than ever before.
My to-do list may be more of a Wish List these days. Instead of doing everything I think I should be doing, I have to focus first on what absolutely needs to be done to get the film in the can.
Now is the time we should be doing things differently; yet given the opportunity to make the film I want, with the cast I want, even at a fraction of the budget that I want—how can I let that opportunity go by?
Having more options and better tools doesn’t solve everything, by any means.
These times are tough indeed. Everyone knows it is hard out there for an indie filmmaker, particularly for a truly free filmmaker. Most would acknowledge that it is harder now than it has ever been before. Few have revealed (or admitted) how the current situation will change their behavior. I think right now, with reality staring me in the face, I can only speak about what I wish I could do. There is still a big gulf between thought and expression. How does the present alter what we all wish to do on our films?
Personally speaking, I would say we need to evolve the definition of what it means to be ready to shoot a film. Granted, more can always be done on the creative level, and that is certainly worthy of discussion, but here we are discussing the apparatus, the infrastructure, the practices that can lead to a more diverse output, robust appreciation, and sustainable practice of ambitious cinema. So, what would I do if I really had my shit together? I have been trying to answer this and share my thoughts along the way.
Today’s version:
1. Recognize it is about audience aggregation: collect 5000 fans prior to seeking financing. Act to gain 500 fans/month during prep, production, and post processes.
2. Determine how you will engage and collect audiences all throughout the process. Consider some portion to be crowd-funded—not so much for the money, but for the engagement it will create.
3. Create enough additional content to keep your audience involved throughout the process and later, to bridge them to your next work.
4. Develop an audience outreach schedule clarifying what is done when—both before and after the first public screening.
5. Curate work you admire. Spread the word on what you love. Not only will people understand you further, but who knows, maybe someone will return the good deed.
6. Be prepared to “produce the distribution.” Meet with potential collaborators from marketing, promotion, distribution, social networks, bookers, exhibitors, widget manufacturers, charitable partners, to whatever else you can imagine.
7. Brainstorm transmedia/cross-platform content to be associated with the film.
8. Study at least five similar films in terms of what their release strategy and audience engagement strategy was and how you can improve upon them.
9. Build a website that utilizes e-commerce, audience engagement, and data retrieval. Have it ready no later than one month prior to the first public screening.
10. Determine and manufacture at least five additional products you will sell, other than DVDs.
11. Determine content for multiple versions of your DVD.
12. Design several versions of your poster. Track how your image campaign evolves through the process.
13. Do a paper cut of what two versions of your trailer might be. Track how this changes throughout the process.
14. Determine a list of the top 100 people to promote your film (critics, bloggers, filmmakers, etc.).
15. Determine where and how to utilize a more participatory process in the creation, promotion, exhibition, and appreciation process. Does it make sense for your project to embrace this?
16. How will this project be more than a movie? Is there a live component? An ARG (alternative reality game)? An ongoing element?
17. How can you reward those who refer others to you? How do you incentivize involvement? What are you going to give back?
18. What will you do next and how can you move your audience from this to that? How will you not have to reinvent the wheel next time?
19. What are you doing differently than everyone else? How will people understand this? Discover this?
20. How are you going to share what you’ve learned on this project with others?
As I’ve said, I know I am not doing all of these yet on my current production, but that leaves me something to strive for on the one following. The goal is to keep getting better, after all. But man, I wish I could be doing more!
The desire to do more is so huge, but time and resources limit me, limit us. Sometimes it feels like an accomplishment to at least get the film financed. Still though, I can’t claim to be doing my job (producing) well if I am not doing all of these. I have to do better. I know it is even harder on smaller jobs. Still though, as much as our job descriptions keep expanding as our salary level decreases, this list is what we must accomplish. Or at least it is the list I think we need to accomplish right now.
I am going to shut up now and get to work. There’s too much to be done.
December 8, 2009
What's The Social Technographics Profile Of Your Customers?
Companies often approach Social Computing as a list of technologies to be deployed as needed — a blog here, a community there — to achieve a marketing goal. But a more coherent approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them, based on what they are ready for. You can use the tool on this page to get started.
Forrester’s Social Technographics® classifies consumers into six overlapping levels of participation (see short presentation). Based on our survey data we can see how participation varies among different groups of consumers, globally. We also analyze the participation of people who buy technology.
December 8, 2009
Online Canadians Have Aggressively Embraced Social Technologies -- And So Have Canadian Marketers
I’ve spent the last year living and working in Vancouver, Canada — speaking with many Canadian interactive marketers and agencies, and collecting survey data on Canadian consumers — so I’m pleased to say that yesterday we released a new report, Canadian Social Technographics Revealed, and added our latest Canadian data to our free Social Technographics Profile Tool.
In researching this report, I learned that:
* Canadians are the most active social networkers in any market we survey. In our Social Technographics Ladder, we refer to those who regularly use social networks as ‘joiners.’ And Canada boasts a higher percentage of joiners than any of the other 12 countries we regularly survey: 57% of Canadians told us they use social networks at least once each month. (The next strongest social networking market is the US, where 51% are joiners.) Canada also has more ‘creators,’ critics,’ and ‘spectators’ than many other countries. [An edit to avoid confusion: while Canadians are the strongest adopters of social networks we’ve found in our surveys, they are not the strongest users of social media overall (which would include not just social networks but also blogs and other social platforms) — that would be the South Koreans.]
* Many Canadian marketers have been using social media for years. With all those socially engaged consumers, it’s no surprise Canadian marketers have been pretty aggressive in adopting social media too. The report includes several great examples of marketers successfully using social media, and I found that some of the most innovative marketers (like Vancity and Molson) have been leveraging social media for 3 or 4 years now.
One of my favorite examples of social media marketing in Canada comes from the political realm. NDP leader Jack Layton recognized that his followers were among the most socially engaged in Canada, as you’ll see below. So he used Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to energize NDP voters before the 2008 federal election — and that helped the party gain 31% more seats in Ottawa than they’d had in the previous government.
Canada-political-ladder
Go and have a play with our Social Technographics Profile Tool and you can find free cuts of this data by age and gender. (Clients can also ask us to cut the data by other factors, like where people bank, which mobile carrier they use, or what province they live in.)
RSS feed: http://cinema-enthusiast.tumblr.com/rss
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