2 Ways A Film Composer Can Use Instagram
GETTING EYES ON YOUR WORK
I've realized that a huge part of using social media is to show people what you're working on in an interesting way, rather than promote yourself in hopes of finding work.
I like using the "Discover" page to figure out what kind of posts I respond to, and how I respond to them.
As any marketing person will tell you, try everything. Test many different kinds of posts, hashtags, wordings, and mediums. Check out this picture of my IG feed:
You'll notice post formats that you might find on the “Discover” page:
An interview, with a thumbnail of the subject seemingly telling an engaging story;
Captions that will make people stop and read. And if it's interesting enough, keep watching;
Screen caps of the DAW that are more than just screencaps. I put words and other images on them so they're a little more engaging;
Photos that may be interesting or relevant to your current or potential followers;
Red circles on peoples faces (or objects) that relate to what the content is about;
Images from projects I've worked on, which I take from the filmmakers I work with;
Promoting festival nominations or screenings. So far, I’ve noticed that not many strangers will care about these if they’re unfamiliar with the project. But your friends and current collaborators will notice, and the filmmakers whose film you’re posting about will really appreciate it.
Word-only posts, including tweets.
Pictures of your personal life can be wonderful too!
You can do all of these, or you can literally just post whatever you want. Ultimately, it’s up to you how much value you want to offer an audience. But, I think playing with these different ideas will allow you to learn what audiences want. (Which is exactly what producers, studios, directors, etc. all do).
Another thing you could use is IG Stories, which I tend to use as a very informal way to share things in my personal life. I cook a lot, and I've been into making pizza a whole lot... so I post a lot of pizza.
In fact, the only reason why I started to post food is because I knew my filmmaker friend would enjoy it. And it's really worked as a way to get people I want to work with to think about me every time I post.
Lastly, do some hashtag research. Ideally, you're posting 30 hashtags that are relevant to the content, and relevant to the kind of people that you want seeing your work. You can find film-related hashtag ideas on the How To Get Scoring Projects (And Connect With Filmmakers) post.
I only have around 600 people following me, but with hashtags, I'm able to attract 2,000+ people into watching my content. One post made more than 2,500 impressions - 1,500 of those from hashtags.
Ultimately, 82% of the people seeing my content were not following me at the time. Hashtags are Instagram's way of keeping us engaged within our community.
Click the image to see more info.
CONNECTING WITH CLIENTS
If you're looking to connect with clients through IG, I like using my "Filmmaker Appreciation" strategy, which you can also find on the How To Get Scoring Projects (And Connect With Filmmakers) post. The following elaborates on that idea a bit…
When I find a filmmaker I want to connect with, I'll message them and tell them how much I love what they're doing. More specifically, I'll watch all of their available films and be specific about what I loved about each of them:
I loved the characters you created;
The colors on this are super vibrant - really fits the mood of the story;
Wow, there's nothing like a great story mixed with VFX-related spectacle;
I feel like your short film could translate extremely well as a feature film;
You balanced the exploration of the human experience with the scale of a huge drama.
Be genuine, mean what you say, and focus on all the things you loved about it.
We'll talk a bit - maybe explore things other than film. But I'll never mention that I write music. I just want to focus on exploring their work and interests.
A few days later, I'll go back to my favorite film of theirs, take screencaps of my favorite scenes, and repost those on IG.
So you have these 10 images, straight from their film, being posted to an audience (your IG followers and whoever follows your hashtags) that have never heard of them before.
You’re helping them reach an audience that they may not have reached without this post. Or, at the very least, you’ve brought additional attention to their project.
In the caption of that post, I'll write nearly the exact same thing that I complimented them on in the direct message I sent.
Finally, also in the caption, I'll tag the director, producers, editors, and whoever else might have the decision-making power to say "let's hire Daniel."
It's best to do this when a filmmaker's project has recently premiered so I can help with its "awareness" momentum, but I've done this with year-old projects before too. The point is to highlight the types of films I love, support and encourage the creators whose work I admire, and continue building new friendships within the community.
People really appreciate the gesture. And sometimes they appreciate it so much, they’ll look into who you are, what you do, and how to get you involved on their next project.