Facebook, a hive mind question
Once upon a time, I had a MySpace page, to which I happily added anyone as a friend. But right around hitting the 1,000 friend mark, I realized my patience for the site’s embedded idiocy — the 1998-style formatting, cheesy graphics, junior high demographics — was finite. I left it sitting fallow,1 even while recognizing it would be another way to promote the DVD release of The Nines.
Peer-pressured into trying Facebook, I added only friends I hung out with in the real world.2 I admire Facebook’s clean design and overall lack of hooliganism. The news feed is ingenious, and the company shows a willingness to borrow from the best (Twitter, Flickr, etc.). Still, I’m a sporadic user; I haven’t become addicted to Scrabulous or any of the real time-sucks.
This morning, I stumbled upon the “fan” architecture for Facebook. It’s a separate kind of page you set up for a person or thing (such a band or a movie), which users can subscribe to without the mutual-approval process of Facebook friendship. For example, here’s one for Amy Sedaris.
So I’m now contemplating whether to do such a page for The Nines, and possibly myself. I’d welcome any insight from Facebook power-users, because while I see a lot of potential in leveraging the news feeds to build awareness of the movie’s existence, I don’t know if it’s going to be worth my time or others’. The discussion and message board features seem useful, yet are only slightly more advanced than the IMDb equivalents. There may be good Facebook applications to make it a no-brainer.
I don’t know, but I have a hunch some readers will. Thoughts?
- Well, not technically “fallow,” which implies the possibility of new fertility after a period of dormancy. I’m pretty sure I’ll never be going back. ↩
- Which is why, if I’ve “ignored” you, please don’t take offense. ↩
February 14th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Having used Facebook personally, professionally, and for side-projects, I think it’s worth the time and effort to setup a Fan page for both the movie and yourself. The biggest reason: it’s really easy and quick to set these up. I set one up for a sideproject of mine, and it took maybe 30 mins.
Depending upon how shameless you are, it could also help you leverage some of the other fan sites on Facebook. I found a Ryan Reynold’s Fan page on Facebook. A The Nines Fan page would be a great thing to mention in the forums there. People would become a fan of the movie, which would then go in to their newsfeeds, and help get the word out.
Personally, you could set it up for yourself, or rather this blog specifically, and even add a link on this blog with a ‘Become a Facebook Fan of JohnAugust.com.’ That would help spread the word about this blog throughout Facebook by leveraging your current audience. It would also be a cool way for people to stay connected with you on Facebook, without attaching it to your personal profile. Think of a fan page as a business address.
So, in closing, yes, you should do both. It seems worth a try for less than an hour or so of effort…
February 14th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I don’t really have any recommendations as to what application to use (since I think most applications are turning facebook into myspace) but if you did make a fan page for yourself or the Nines, I would certainly add it to my profile. I was one of the lucky facebookers to have been ignored by you ;), but I understand your reasoning (I actually am the same way but thought I’d add a screenwriter since I’m working at being one as well). So yes, to make a long story short, I would be a fan/promoter of/for you on facebook.
PS — thank God the strike’s over. I can’t wait to see what cool new stuff you have up your sleeves.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Funny, because I’ve gone through the same thing (”graduating” to Facebook) for all the same reasons. I still check my MySpace once a week or so to see if there’s any activity, but if you’re not on there constantly people forget you exist.
As for the fan pages, I’ve joined a few. Mostly for movies that were coming out that I was interested in. To be honest I didn’t check them a lot after I added them, but it was nice getting updates in my inbox with the latest news.
I’m not sure how much upkeep the fan pages would have on your end, but it surely can’t hurt. It’d be a nice extension to the blog, and I’m sure most people wouldn’t mind being updated (reminded) on when The Nines was on DVD (availabe now!) or knowing when your next film was hitting theaters.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Aside from keeping in touch with old friends from school I hardly ever talk to I don’t really see the point of Facebook when it’s just as easy to chat over MSN or just send e-mails. That’s not to say that quite a few people seem to enjoy the site.
For promotional purposes though, it might work pretty well as a way to reach young adults.
February 14th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
There is a company that, for $5 a month, will ‘create’ a FB app for you, which basically allows you to publish an RSS feed to FB. So that would be an easy way for you to keep a Nines FB fan page updated. You could just create a category on here and publish that RSS feed to your FB app. Email me if you want the address (no affiliation, just keeping an eye on it for my own reasons).
As to the utility of such - While I don’t have your fanbase, I have a MySpace page for my sportswriting project and while I managed to get 800+ “friends”, there’s no way I have time to update the website and MySpace. I have a widget that publishes my most recent posts to my MySpace profile, but more than that, I’m just not willing to do. I did do a huge outreach around the time I relaunched the site last year where I actively tried to gather more MySpace friends, but I looked at that as publicity. I don’t know whether it really helped or not.
As for FB, I just created a ‘fan’ page for the same project. I haven’t tried actively promoting it, but I’m also kind of flummoxed as to what I would do with it, exactly. Will I get more people reading the website because I’m on FB? I guess eventually I’ll find out.
That probably wasn’t entirely too helpful.
February 14th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I swear, every time I come here, I learn something. I kept thinking there must be a better way to establish a presence on Facebook for artists to promote themselves (I have my first novel coming out in 2009). Facebook, despite all their privacy issues, is a great site, so I know I’ll be doing one of these. At the very worst, you’ll just have another way to inform your fans. How could that be a bad thing?
February 14th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Creating a facebook page is very streamlined. Everyone will use facebook, at minimum, for the next few years. Might as well learn now rather than later.
As for the $5 facebook apps, you get what you pay for. Use the existing facilities to push stories to people’s feeds rather than a hack, and you’re less likely to annoy people.
February 14th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
You could also have some adoring fan create a “group” on Facebook. I visit the groups I’m in often for updates, new wall posts, and to see who else has joined. The “I love Borat Group” was a popular one and still gets new comments posted on it to this day.
Additionally a group has “officers” that manage the page. An example for The Nines could be President of Green Bracelets. VP of Koalas. Secretary of XYZ. You get the point. And it’s more interactive than some page you visit to see when a movie is released and never come back. Just a thought.
February 14th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I only vaguely knew about this feature, so I did a quick Google and found this:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-you-need-to-make-a-facebook-fan-page-for-your-website-now/5971/
Hope it helps.
P.S. I saw The Nines the other day and really liked it! And I saw it via Netflix, not Bit Torrent.
February 14th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I use facebook rather sparingly. I’ve found I use it most to keep track of my movie ratings with the Flixster plugin.
I do however, think it’s a very good idea to set up the fan page for both yourself and for The Nines. The Nines is an awesome film that can actually appeal to a wide audience. I’ll be showing it to my mother next weekend, and I know she’ll in turn show it to her friends.
A way for people to tell others about the movie in a simple way like Facebook, is a great idea.
P.S: Any news on The Nines footage being released for people to take a pass at editing it?
February 14th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
I have to say that Facebook has been terribly useful for me. You get out what you put in, though, and building a community where you actually respond to people is more valuable than anything. You might check out ProBlogger.net’s advice on Facebook apps.
I think the Fan Club idea is a good one. Having other people manage your app for you is brilliant. You’d have to come up wit something to give them in return, however (like some of your valuable personal time - go to lunch with them or something).
Finally, there’s a Facebook friend adder that is very useful. http://freefacebookadder.com/ Use it sparingly, though. If you seem spammy, people will knock you and that could be bad.
February 14th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
John, after some time passes, (giving everybody a chance to view The Nines) could you dedicate some of your posts to the days of when you were writing The Nines? I’d love to hear about your process. From how the idea came about, to how you evolved that idea, to which scenes were most difficult to write & any other anecdotes that will give some insight into the John August writing process. Especially, how did your knowing you were going to direct the film, affect your established approach to writing a script?
Also, I saw Ryan Reynolds on Conan O’Brien (promoting Definitely, Maybe) & he had, I believe… a green string bracelet on his right wrist. Was that your idea or is he that committed to his characters?
February 14th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I would become a fan of The Nines and you if there were pages. And I know at least one other that would to!
February 14th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Absolutely! I’m a proud Fan of Kevin Smith & Barack Obama already and would love to add you on my list!
February 15th, 2008 at 6:23 am
I’ve been on Facebook for a while, and I even led a project to launch a Facebook application that ties in with my companies main product.
My experience with Fan pages and groups is that they “stick” much less than on MySpace. MySpace had the group-think, pile-on aspect going like I’ve never seen before. The bigger you get, the bigger you get.
Facebook has a more civil feel to it, and because of that groups and fans don’t have voracious commenting and promoting like they do on MySpace. The groups form, everyone joins, then one by one they drop off when they realize they have nothing in common (or just nothing to talk about) with the other 9000 fans of Family Guy. My news feed is filled with just as many “Suzy has left the group _____” as “Jimmy has joined the group _____”
All that said, Facebook is a legendary marketing device and you probably don’t care if a Fan group for The Nines is still growing in 2010 (unless you’re thinking Sequel? The Tens?). It’s a good idea to do it because a bunch of other people will see “The Nines” on their news feed when your fans here join. And, it’s essentially free (even with the time cost) so it’s all upside.
February 15th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Don’t have a Facebook, or a Friendster, or even a Blogger anymore. I hate communicating with friends through the internet (though I seem to be an incessant emailer and comment-poster) and MySpace, despite its teenie-bopper fanbase, has been more convenient than the others. I set out to use my profile specifically for networking and film “stuff.” Anyone else is deleted.
MySpace is troublesome, but since I’m not planning on spreading my life out over the Web for everyone to see, I put up with it’s idiosyncricies, and honestly it’s been good lately. But, like BofA, one more F-up, and I’m pullin’ my money out.
February 15th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
you will reach a whole new demographic if you go with facebook. not only is it always on the top 3 of most popular sites on the internet, but it is becoming an increasingly good way to actually do real networking (though that might seem like a joke to some people). also, there are probably hordes of movie buffs out there that would go to a page like yours. being uninformed is a terrible reason not to know something. after all, it took me a while to find this website, and now i visit everyday. i say go with it, just see what happens. you can always press the delete button..
February 15th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
It’s definitely worth making fan pages. They wouldn’t take too much time to establish, and really you wouldn’t have put too much effort into maintaining them. Just send out updates every so often (but not too often). It’s essentially free publicity.
February 15th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Done and done. I’ll blog about it next week, but in the meantime, here are pages for…
John August
and
The Nines
February 17th, 2008 at 10:38 am
I teach screenwriting in a midwest state university and repeatedly point my students toward your blog. I use Facebook as a means to push links to relevant articles out to my students who have all ‘friended’ me on the social network. I find Facebook to be the best of the quick update scenarios (thanks to the newsfeed) unlike the mired MySpace.
The only other social network you might want to consider is LiveJournal. Quite a few writers and wannabees ‘hang out’ there and you could set up an LJ that feeds off the RSS of your blog. LJ is perhaps the most popular network for discussing all things involved with writing for novels and the screen.
PS - thanks for the blog entries. Your insights into the strike AND into the writing process have been great motivators!
February 17th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Well, I was going to suggest setting one up for both of them, but I guess you beat me to it. Kudos.
February 17th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Is the icon for the ‘hive mind’ from Bee’s Honey Toasted cigarettes?
February 18th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Wow, maybe I can return the favor for all the stuff I’ve learned from reading John’s site. Social networking, Web advertising, and the Web in general, is something I actually know about. (I’ve started building professional advertising sites in 1993, working for a company owned by former Apple designer Clement Mok, and while I don’t do that full time anymore I still have my own sites and friends in the business.)
“the 1998-style formatting, cheesy graphics, junior high demographics — was finite.”
For the uninitiated, allow me to translate this into an appropriate opening:
So, I was on the Web…
;-P
“I left it sitting fallow, even while recognizing it would be another way to promote the DVD release of The Nines.”
MySpace’s promotional value is still outstanding. According to these guys (and I’ve seen a similar analysis in the print media trade rags):
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/01/09/social-network-stats-facebook-myspace-reunion-jan-2008/
MySpace still has almost double the number of subscribers, and is growing faster with about 15% more new subscribers per month.
Even if you believe this (outdated) article, and the many like it that come up when you search on Google:
http://www.forbes.com/2007/07/20/facebook-myspace-internet-tech-czccm0723class.html
The faster growth statistic for Facebook is in precisely the demographic you want to avoid, John: Teenagers.
“Peer-pressured into trying Facebook, I added only friends I hung out with in the real world.2 I admire Facebook’s clean design and overall lack of hooliganism.”
To me, Facebook can be as annoying as MySpace, but in a more authoritarian manner.
Customization comes in the form of a zillion dumb applets, rather than a new graphic layout, but once you pile on applets your own home page gets fairly cluttered. Since the layout is centralized, there isn’t the in-your-face terribleness of many a MySpace homepage (with awful blinking things and ill-formed css that renders strangely or crashes the browser), but that also means there isn’t much personality to any page, either.
The hooliganism is also centralized (Facebook Beacon, for example), and by agreeing to obey the central tenets, hooligans become sanctioned (all the stupid spamming applets, for example, are perfectly legal in Facebook land, so long as they adhere to the API guidelines).
The dichotomy is very much MySpace as anarchy and Facebook as authoritarianism. Everything in Facebook being centralized and relatively uniform gives it a “cleanness” in its presentation, to be sure, but it also makes it rather boring in my opinion.
But, that’s more of an aesthetic judgment about what packaging one prefers for their irritations: chaos or order. The other, bigger problem Facebook has is its heavy reliance on applets as the means of customization, along with what appears to be a very clunky API and server load balancing system, that leads Facebook to be very, very slow. I find it to be sluggish even in the middle of the night and unbearable during peak hours, even when I’m at work where we have at least an OC-12 drop.
“The news feed is ingenious,”
It gets real old real fast. Then it gets annoying. And invasive.
Ultimately, do you really care that one of your friends just became a Ron Paul supporter, or added Slayer’s Greatest Hits to their favorite albums?
As a marketer, promoter, or advertiser — of course you do, and so do I. For those purposes we care a lot about having other people care about what their friends are doing on Facebook (and about having what their friends are doing be adding links to the things we want to promote). After all, if they don’t, the system is a bust for your purposes.
But, from the user perspective, I find it’s not that interesting for very long (mainly, and this is a platform gripe, because there’s no system for easily filtering the news feed to only show what you care about so it becomes just another system for spewing infoclutter).
“So I’m now contemplating whether to do such a page for The Nines”
Yes. That’s the only truly useful thing about Facebook, MySpace, etc. — the ability to use them as platforms for marketing and promotions (well, that and cruising for teenagers, which isn’t really my thing now that I’m not one).
“I see a lot of potential in leveraging the news feeds to build awareness of the movie’s existence, I don’t know if it’s going to be worth my time or others’. The discussion and message board features seem useful, yet are only slightly more advanced than the IMDb equivalents. There may be good Facebook applications to make it a no-brainer.”
Even though I don’t particularly like Facebook as a platform, I agree it’s already a no-brainer, because it’s not really all that hard to set-up or maintain (as mentioned). You aren’t wasting all that much time even if it’s a bust, but now that you’ve posted here that you set them up, we’ll all virally help you promote the DVD and your fan page and then that News Feed will actually do it’s job.
February 19th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I’ve been looking at different production blogs online, and wondered if back then you considered setting up a production blog for Nines as a way to promote the movie. If not, other than the obvious lack-of-time factor, why not? Just trying to get a handle on how production decides whether to blog or not.
Thanks.