If you’re creating a website for your movie, don’t let yourself fall into the trap of buying a crazy domain name that no one can spell, that is filled with hyphens, or isn’t a “real” domain name at all but is a sub-sub folder of another domain.

As a desperate attempt to get a movie website up and running, or for lack of better options, I’ve seen many movie marketers employ bad movie domain conventions such as:

• filmname-movie.com
• filmname-themovie.com
• filmnamethemovie.com

All of these are poor domains — they’re too long, they contain dashes, they’re awkward to say. Just try to say DASH in a tv advertisement and you’ll quickly realize the trouble you’ve gotten yourself into: the DASH part of your domain will be forgotten or misunderstood and you’ll have wasted your money promoting a domain people can’t remember or properly type into their web browser or mobile device.

If you’re serious about landing a great domain name for your movie and don’t have the time, resources or knowledge how to go about it, hire a professional domain name consultant, domain broker, or digital property agent. Don’t skimp on getting a high-quality domain name as it’s a key part of your movie’s online branding and social media buzz building efforts.

Here’s a fun list of what one writer is calling the 10 worst movie domain names ever. Try to avoid getting added to this list

Some great ones here:

wearemarshall-themovie.warnerbros.com

disney.go.com/disneypictures/nightmare/

What are some movie domain names you’ve come across that make you shudder or that are so bad you’ve not gone to the movie and/or visited the website because of them?

Over 90 per cent of marketing departments are planning to launch a social media campaign in 2008, despite the fact that over a third are yet to use social tools in their organisation.

A survey, conducted by LEWIS PR at PR Week’s New Media Conference, revealed that 75 per cent of attendees are planning to use a blog as a social media asset in 2008 – an increase of 50 per cent on 2007. The number of firms planning to use social networking is tipped to increase from 33 per cent to over 70 per cent.

A quarter of marketers are currently setting no marketing budget aside for new media projects, according to the study. However, by 2009 up to 66 per cent of marketers will set aside up to 25 per cent of their budgets on social media efforts.

read more | digg story

How Much Does a Social Media Marketing Campaign Cost?

While you’re contemplating how to “test the waters” in social media marketing, your competitors are already there, or planning to be, and your customers have been there for quite a while.

“Everybody’s talking about how great social media is for marketing, but nobody’s talking about what it costs,” cry the CMOs. Verily they said: “Tell us the bottom line.”

OK, let’s tear down the wall – let’s talk about money.

The budget for an effective social media marketing campaign begins at $50K for a two to three-month period. I’m sure companies have spent less, and I know they’ve spent more.

read more | digg story

In recent years you may have heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In recent months you may have head of Social Media Optimization (SMO). As wireless and mobile media grow in use and popularity you will start to hear more about Mobile Media Optimization (MMO).

The purpose of Mobile Media Optimization (MMO) is to modify digital content so it is more visible & higher ranking in mobile media and mobile media search results as well as easier to tag, share, link to and republish.

Here are 6 Rules of Mobile Media Optimization (MMO)

1. Put your best content first - Include your most important concepts phrases and keywords within the first 20 words (including title)
2. Optimize for short keyword phrases - Since it takes longer to type on a mobile device, mobile users often search for shorter phrases — so optimize your mobile site for 1 to 2 word keyphrases.
3. Make mobile content bite sized - A good rule of thumb for editing text from print for use on the web is to cut it in half. Similarly, when moving/editing content from web to mobile media, try cutting it down in length or duration by at least 50%
4. Make mobile content tagging and bookmarking easy - Encourage and enable your mobile content users to tag and bookmark your content with the most popular social mobile media sites and tools. Add mobile bookmarking and tagging links and widgets to every page of your mobile site.
5. Make mobile content sharing easy - Ensure you have send to a friend and forwarding options enabled for all of your mobile content
6. Make mobile content repurposing easy - Encourage your users to use your mobile content (mocontent) for their own mobile websites (mosite) or mobile blogs (moblog) mobile applications (moapp) and in any combination of the above (mobile mashups: momash)

With mobile search still in its infancy, mobile marketing strategies and best practices are still being written. What other rules of mobile media optimization would you suggest are key to a successful mobile marketing campaign?

Internet marketers are turning more and more to social media to help build online buzz around television shows, internet tv, theatrical and dvd releases of blockbuster and independent movies. Some marketers are experimenting with creative new ways to use less-heard-of social network websites such as Twitter to help achieve their online marketing and buzz-building goals.

It’s common to see tv & movie Internet marketing campaigns include facebook and myspace marketing strategies, but in coming months, as Twitter begins to get more traction, we expect to see more video, television, movie & entertainment marketers experimenting with and finding success using Twitter as part of a well rounded social media marketing campaign. Such a campaign could involve a blog, microsite, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and other online marketing resources.

As an online community of people writing text-based, miniature-scale blog posts of no more than 140 characters, it’s not immediately apparent how Twitter could be used in movie or television internet marketing. But Twitter isn’t just another instant messaging tool. Twitter holds great potential for movie and television producers, directors, distributors, networks, PR teams and internet marketers for online communication, collaboration and relationship building with investors, internal teams, and targeted viewers.

Using Twitter, we see film & television developers & promoters coming up with new ways to reach their targeted audiences that include:

• providing insight and commentary in real time (ie on location during shooting)
• promoting special contests, sneak previews
• facilitating collaborative video production experience
• building conversation about the movie or television season or individual episodes
• opening dialogue between promoter and promotion participants
• movie & television website traffic generation
• promoting events such as movie premiers
• posting press releases

If, for example, during the making of a film a well known actor, actress or director posted regular Tweets via Twitter via their mobile phone it’s conceivable that hundreds if not thousands would follow and engage these immediate, seemingly intimate, “insider” posts.

Already, many TV networks such as ABC Family, NBC, CBS and MTV are experimenting with Twitter as a way to reach younger, tech-savvy audiences. MTV used Twitter to promote its MTV Music awards on June 3, 2007. The Disney-owned ABC Family network used Twitter to launch a new show called “Greek”, offering text updates and behind-the-scenes glimpses from cast and writers. NBC plans to use Twitter to drive traffic to a targeted MySpace page. This Fall, CBS will be using Twitter to promote its new shows.
What other do you see movie & television marketers using Twitter? What would you like to see a Hollywood or Indy film try using Twitter as part of their social media marketing campaign? Do you think Twitter to promote movies or television shows is more or less powerful / effective than building email lists or facebook groups to try to achieve some of the same goals listed above?

movie marketing
twitter marketing

If you’re researching social media & social networks, chances are good you’ve stumbled across Twitter in recent months. Twitter is an online community of people writing text-based, miniature-scale (max 140 character) blog posts about moments in their lives.

But Twitter isn’t just for individuals. Twitter holds great potential for improved online communication, collaboration and relationship building for business. Early adopters in social media marketing are picking up and running with Twitter, adding it to their client’s overall online media marketing mix.

Twitter offers unique opportunties for the enhancement & expansion of traditional marketing and social media marketing campaigns. We see companies and savvy Internet marketers coming up with new ways to use Twitter to their advantage. A few ways you might consider using Twitter in your online PR and Internet marketing strategies include:

• building relationships with prospective clients
• promoting events
• providing insight and commentary on an event in real time
• promoting special offers or daily specials
• facilitating collaborative experience
• building conversation
• sending press releases
• opening dialogue between promoter and promotion participants
• website traffic generation

Here’s a random sample of companies using Twitter as part of their social media marketing efforts:

• Amazon
• Dell
• Woot
• MTV Music Video Awards
• Mac Rumors
• ESPN
• Carnival Cruise lines
• Intel Software
• CNN
• Delta Airlines
• Eleven Marketing

And here’s a few news sites using Twitter to their advantage:

• CNN
• New York Times
• BBC 

What ways have you seen or tried using Twitter for online marketing or communication for your company or clients? Do you see a future for Twitter or is it just another passing social media fad to be replaced by a bigger-and-better social network or instant messenger mashup within the year?

Want to experiment with Twitter? Sign up for an account at twitter.com then make a plan for integrating it into your daily routine. Install Twitbin or Twitterific to keep updated. Explore this comprehensive list of Twitter applications.

twitter marketing

You’ve built a facebook group but you’ve only got a few members. How do you get the thousands of members you’d like and how do you keep them? Here’s some tips to help you grow your facebook group:

1. Build the Right Foundation – Set it up right. Make sure you choose a title, category and description that is most relevant to your brand or target demographic. Offer as much info as possible about your group including contact info, location, purpose. If you want to build real community, allow people to post comments, photos and/or videos in the group. You’ll likely want to make your group public so anyone can join.

2. Friends Build Friends – The best way to get people to join your group is through personal invitation – so get busy inviting your friends who are already in Facebook. Your friends’ friends will then notice that they joined a new group and may be interested in checking out the group.

3. Use Email to send Invitations – Facebook allows you to send group invitations to all of the contacts in your Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo accounts, so don’t forget to invite everyone who’s not already a Facebook friend.

4. Update Regularly – Don’t build your Facebook group then leave it to stagnate for 6 months. Update your news and photos and videos and comments regularly. Update your group bi-weekly or more if possible, depending on the nature of your group.

5. Promote Your Group Outside of Facebook – Promote your Facebook group on your website, in press releases, in your blog. Wherever you have a presence online is an opportunity to feature your Facebook group and invite people to join.

6. Be Human, Be Friendly – Welcome new members, send out periodic emails to your group, encourage them to invite their friends. Don’t abuse your members by spamming them with irrelevant information, but keep it focussed on the topic of your group. You’ll notice that many people who join your group will not already be your “facebook friend” — so send them an invitation to become your friend.

Need assistance building or growing a facebook group? Click here to contact the Facebook marketing experts at Eleven today. 

What issues are you facing with your Facebook group(s)? Are there other strategies or tactics you’d add to this list of tips for others to consider as they build and promote their Facebook or other social network groups?

social network
facebook marketing

Social Network Website for User Generated Advertising

So you need a video. Maybe it’s something for your corporate website, or you need a 30 second spot to advertise your latest product. Do you go down the traditional path of getting quotes from a half dozen local (or high end) video productions companies, or do you wish there was just a website you could go to post what you’re looking for and let people come to you?

Wouldn’t it be interesting to see what would happen if there was a social network website where companies could go to sign up and post their video project and have dozens of collaborators from around the world working together to compete to land the job?

Joe Trippi, the former campaign manager for 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, likes this idea so much that he has just launched an advertising-focussed social networking company at Geniusrocket.com.

GeniusRocket.com will connect creative people with the advertising world. The designers and commercial producers can compete for money. For example, people can compete to make a 30-second commercial for Geniusrocket.com using its logo and tagline — and the winner will land $5,250.
Trippi, who is also a senior advisor to Democratic presidential contender John Edwards for the 2008 presidential elections and runs a political consultancy called Trippi & Associates, is starting the company with Nicco Mele, Mike Ford Matt Gross.

What do you think? Would you post your project on a site like this? Would you rather pay bigger bucks to a reputable video production firm and be sure the job will be done right and on time rather than taking a gamble that anyone will pursue your project on GeniusRocket.com? Is this service something that will just appeal to non-profits or those organizations with smaller budgets who are willing to take a chance? What kind of quality can come out of a service like this?

Can anything good come from Bethesda, home of Geniusrocket? Bookmark Geniusrocket.com and check them out in the coming months. We’ll be watching too.

social network video advertising

What is Bacn?

You’ve not only heard of, but have personally experience thousands of spam email messages — but what about Bacn? Is it a new kind of spam? Well sort of. While spam is unsolicited email that you don’t want, Bacn has been described as email you want, just not right now. Bacn is unsolicited yet somewhat wanted, automated messages or alerts that are sent out through social network tools (ie facebook group messages, twitter updates etc). It isn’t spam, it’s the middle class of email. It’s the notifications of a new post on your facebook page, or a new follower of your Twitter updates, or the email newsletter you get from your favorite company.

In the context of social networks like facebook, be sure that as black hat social network marketers get a grasp of the social media space, and as we all add endless numbers of modules to our facebook accounts, there will be more and more solicited yet not-really-wanted-or-needed messages in all of our facebook and other social network inboxes.

What are you doing about limiting your bacn intake? Getting sick of all of the notifications you receive in Facebook now that the novelty is starting to wear off?

bacn

We’re often asked the question “What is social media optimization?”

Wikipedia offers a nice succinct definition of social media optimization as follows:

“Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, adding a “Digg This” button, blogging and incorporating third party community functionalities like Flickr photo slides and galleries or YouTube videos. Social media optimization is a form of search engine marketing.

Social media optimisation is in many ways connected as a technique to viral marketing where word of mouth is created not through friends or family but through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites. In a similar way the engagement with blogs achieves the same by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogsphere and special blog search engines such as Technorati.”

A fine fellow named Rohit Bhargava has been credited with inventing the term Social Media Optimization or SMO. Five rules for conducting Social Media Optimization are:

1. Increase your linkability
2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy
3. Reward inbound links
4. Help your content travel
5. Encourage the mashup