In Today’s world, it is hard to avoid social media. It has slowly made its way into all industries in the past 10 years. The film industry is no different. For a cinema, social media marketing is important as it is for any other business. Established or new, engaging audiences is essential for your continued success. If new to social media, however, the correct way to market your cinema can be tricky. That’s why we are bringing you this guide of social media marketing tips for cinemas.
There is no such thing as perfect social media marketing tips. It depends on your business, audience, location, all sorts of factors. Still, there are a few general tips that will help grow your social media platforms. See what works for you and adapt it to your cinema.
Engagement is essential for successful social media marketing. This creates loyalty within customers and creates a trusting relationship. As a cinema, you want to achieve this bond with your customers.
10 Social Media Tips For Cinemas
That’s enough chitchat, let’s get into it! Here are social media tips and tricks for cinemas marketing.
1. Don’t Underestimate Any Platform
Undoubtedly, some social media platforms work better for certain types of marketing. Despite this, you should never underestimate the scope of any of the typical platforms.
You can pretty much share the same content across different platforms, so why not take advantage of them all. Post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, anywhere you like.
Facebook is the best platform for marketing but Instagram is the best place for sharing photos and videos. Don’t limit yourself by only using the platforms you’re familiar with. See which platforms gain the most traction and target them.
2. Engage
Engagement is very important on social media. If customers are sharing and commenting on your content, they want you to acknowledge this. Reply to their comments, share their stories of your cinema onto your social media, like their posts.
Engaging with customers leaves them feeling you care about them. These personal interactions are a great way to create loyal and dedicated customers. A lack of engagement will leave customers feeling you don’t care about their input or opinions.
To best encourage engagement you need the right tone, post only relevant content, keep it short and to the point, and post regularly but don’t overwhelm users. Many people focus on reach and forget to consider engagement. Thousands of followers don’t make a positive difference unless they engage with your content.
A study found if brands engage with customers online, they are 70% more likely to use that product or service. Now that is an impressive stat!
3. Get Into SEO
Now, this may be a bit technical but is a very useful marketing tool. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Don’t worry, it’s not as fancy as it sounds.
SEO determined what is being searched at the current time. For example, SEO could tell you that the new Marvel film is trending online. Thus, you would want to post about this. It gives you an idea of what content is doing well right now. You can use this information and apply it to your social media.
There are even some free SEO tools available online that offer basic functions. These should be more than adequate for your needs. Once used to using them, SEO can be a powerful tool that will undoubtedly help boost your online visibility. Out of any social media tips for any industry, SEO is a great tool to help boost your strategy.
4. Develop A Strategy With Social Media Tips for Cinemas
Diving into your social media without a strategy is not the best way to go around it. You need to be organised and have goals to see the best results.
First, decide who your target audience is. This can simply be cinema lovers. Then try to understand your target audience better, what movies do they tend to like? What times do they usually attend? Any information is relevant. With this, you can target your post directly at them.
Now create a detailed plan. What are you posting? When are you posting? What platforms are you posting on? It’s best to have all your posts ready in advance and schedule them to post by themselves. Social media marketing for a business isn’t the same as posting on personal accounts. You need to be organised and prepared if you want the best possible outcome.
5. Measure Your Success
You need to evaluate your success to know how to improve your social media. You should know what your goals are, so can evaluate your current success in meeting them.
Reach and engagement are the two most important things you want to measure. How many people are your posts reaching and how many people engage with them. If you see your goal results, you know your strategy is working successfully.
If you don’t, this is when your strategy needs to change. Say your engagement is low, you might want to comment on customers posts more. Alternatively, if your reach is low, maybe it’s time for a paid ad campaign. Simple staying with the same strategy whatever the response is not the way to market your cinema.
6. Use Hashtags
Hashtags are one of those things that you see everyone use but don’t know if there’s any point to them. Well, there is.
Using hashtags relevant to your cinema can double engagement. It is one of the best ways to get new engagement from potential customers. Any customer that searches that hashtag will be able to find your posts. However, there’s a trick to it.
Posting any old hashtags won’t make the cut. You need to be precise. Of course, you will use tags such as #cinema and #movies but you need to consider their scope. Your posts will be lost to a sea of posts if millions are using that hashtag. Vice versa, using a rarely used hashtag won’t encourage much engagement.
7. Paid Advertising
Paid advertising can be a very powerful tool. The most useful feature of them is being able to specify your target audience in detail. You can target users on location, age, interests, just about anything.
To get this right you need to know your audience. If you tend to show niche films, then try to determine what type of audience typically attends your viewings.
This is also perfect for special events. For example, a few years ago, many cinemas showed a live recording of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. For this, you might want to target older audiences that have an interest in musicals. This is one of the most significant social media tips for businesses. Being able to specifically target your audience will give you the best chance of seeing a positive response.
8. Give Incentives – Social Media Tips for Cinemas
No matter your industry, giving incentives is a great way to grab people’s attention. You can do this however you see fit. Competitions are the usual way of giving people incentives.
For example, you can offer 2 free tickets to the person who posts the best selfie at your cinema. Or, ask people to comment on their favourite movie line and the best wins a free slushy. Get creative, do this in whichever way you think is best.
There’s one thing for sure, offering a chance to win something for free will always grab people’s attention. Out of all our social media marketing tips, this one is sure to get some immediate response.
9. When To Post
When to post can be a little tricky. Usually, it’s at times you would never expect and different for each platform
- Facebook- 8 AM and 12 PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays
- Instagram- 11 AM on a Wednesday
- Twitter- 8 AM on Mondays and Thursdays
A lot of users check their accounts as soon as they wake up, explaining the early times we’ve included above.
How often to post doesn’t have as clear of answers. This depends on your audience. They will want to see regular posts from you, but be aware of overposting. Hogging timelines and annoying with constant notifications is the best way to discourage potential customers. How often to post should come naturally to you with time.
10. Use An Influencer
Influencers have taken over the world of social media. For a cinema, you might never consider using a promotional tool like this. You should!
Especially for younger generations, influencers can have a lot of sways. Get that one person who has a few hundred thousand followers to shout you out and the next thing you know you could have hordes of Instagrammers at your doors.
Influencers can sometimes abuse their power to get free things. Giving away a few free tickets shouldn’t dent your profit too much, however. Even better, find an influencer who targets the film industry!
Those Were Our Social Media Tips For Cinemas
Those were our best social media marketing tips for cinemas! Getting social media marketing right can be tricky at first. With time, you’ll see what works for you and can adapt these methods to best target your audiences.
Follow these social media marketing tips and you’re sure to boost your reach and engagement. Remember, these two things are essential for measuring the success of your marketing. You can have the most aesthetically pleasing accounts around, but if reach and engagement are low, they will not benefit your business.
We hope you found our social media marketing hints useful! Whilst you’re here, why not read up on some of our other film industry articles. We recommend How To Network In The Film Industry, Film Photography For Beginners, and How To Be A Film Critic to get you started!
Are You A Filmmaker?
Need financial backing to support your project? Our film investment can back projects of all sizes from independent short films to major releases covering all corners of the globe. If that wasn’t enough, promote your work, list your upcoming films and allow fans to pre-order or buy them with your very own Showcase site. Finally, with our concierge and service and extensive music library, allow us to help you find music for your film. Check out our Music Licensing service for starters!
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