And the Winner Is … Facebook

“Something like 70 to 80 percent of frequent moviegoers under 25 visit Facebook seven or eight times a day.”

While movie marketers utilize each of the major social media networks, they say Facebook is currently their preferred platform.
 
“Facebook is really the focus for us right now,” said David Singh, executive VP of creative content for Disney. “Something like 70 to 80 percent of frequent moviegoers under 25 visit Facebook seven or eight times a day. In fact, I think marketers are fixated on Facebook because we tend to use it a lot ourselves.”
 
According to Nicole Butte, VP of new media for Focus Features, marketers prefer the ease with which movie stills, clips and other content can be shared on Facebook, which earlier this year surpassed MySpace as the top social media network with well over 1 billion monthly visits .
 
“Because it has an open API (software) architecture, you can really integrate a lot of what you’re doing,” said Butte, noting Facebook’s acumen for supporting online games and other viral components.
 
Twitter, however, does have its uses.

All the studios extensively utilize the fast-growing Twitter platform to, among other things, push out release updates to followers, as well as connect fans to talent.
 
TV networks in particular have embraced Twitter, conducting live events on the service to coincide with the airing of shows. For example, for its encore run of the “Glee” pilot last month, Fox presented onscreen the live Twitter feeds of cast members.
 
Showtime did something similar last season for David Duchovny series “Californication,” with select cast members Tweeting live for every first-run episode (although the tweets were kept on the computer and not ported over to the TV screen).
 
“It’s become such a great promotional vehicle for the show,” said Rob Hayes, senior VP and general manager of Showtime’s digital media group.
 
However, as a medium for virally sharing movie marketing materials in the run-up to a major release, Twitter still can’t match Facebook, according to Butte.
 
“In terms of features, Facebook is definitely ahead,” she said.
 
Likewise, MySpace’s reduced relevance (it’s now the No. 3 social media network) and closed architecture have rendered it no longer the network of choice for movie marketers.
 
“We’re not using MySpace as aggressively as we were two or three years ago,” she said.
 
 

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