Media Platforms 101

New technology and platforms pop up every time you open your phone or a tab in your browser. With updated and additional software, media and social platforms, apps, algorithms, and search engine optimization rules, it’s hard to keep up.

When it comes to marketing, these are common attitudes:

Newbie: “I just need to get my book on Facebook, and I’ll be rich.”

Arm crosser: “I don’t do social media. I tried Facebook once. It didn’t work.”

Seasoned platform user: “You can’t teach me anything. I already know everything.”

First, let’s address these three myths...

“I just need to get my book on Facebook, and I’ll be rich.”

Facebook’s algorithm is a story for another day, but chances are nobody will know you exist on a page you just created. It does not get fed to everyone’s feed and it doesn’t show up in Google searches. The only people who will see your page are the ones you invite to it – unless you’re Marvel.

“I don’t do social media. I tried Facebook once. It didn’t work.”

So, the rich part didn’t work out on your only post. That’s not the platform’s fault. You need to build a community – an engaged community. That means you need to interact with your audience ALL the time. No. It’s not easy. If it were, everyone with a Facebook page would be rich. Maybe Facebook isn't even the best social media space for you to reach your target audience.

“You can’t teach me anything. I already know everything.”

You can be really good at social media and have great success. That’s fantastic, and it is fleeting. Platforms change continuously, constantly, and have already done so three times since you read this sentence. There is no way to be an expert in this space. Knowledgeable, yes. Good, successful, popular, yes. Keeping on top of changes, yes. You can’t know everything because you’ve already missed the last update. There is a saying: an expert is just a drip under pressure.

For the rest, the first thing to consider is your fear of the digital space. Sure, you need a device to download scriptwriting software and craft a project, produce, and more.

Social media and digital platforms are not evil. They are the delivery system for a message. They are solely networking spaces. They allow you to directly reach the people your script is geared to. If you don’t like what you see when you open up a platform, follow better people. Click on better stories. Post better content.

To optimize your marketing campaign, learn how each platform works or hire someone to do it for you. But even if you hire a professional, it's important to understand these things so you’re not in the dark.

You Are Not Your Market

If nothing else resonates, know this: you are not your market.

You may hate TikTok, but if that is where more than 60 percent of your target audience is, set up a profile and learn it.

If you produce content for viewers who are 14 and older, figure out what platforms they are on. How do they receive their stories? What apps do they use? How can you get their attention? Go to a junior high school and ask a group of 14-year-olds.

Besides multigenerational content, also look at gender. Women/girls may not appreciate the same approach as men/boys. The bottom line is to know your audience.

Chances are you need to consider publishing on more than one platform. This is marketing in 2024.

Create Your Own Media Platform

You don’t need a lot of money to create your own media. All you need is a computing device, the Internet, Google, and some creativity.

If you don’t have a Google account, set up one now. With it, comes an email and several other tools, such as YouTube and Drive (a file storage and collaborative site where you and a co-writer can edit a document at the same time).

When all of your devices are Android, they automatically sync with Google. A key component of Google is that it becomes a virtual storefront. You can set up an actual virtual storefront by filling out the personal info tab when you click Manage My Google Account, which you access by clicking the upper right circle with your picture.

Customize your YouTube account directly from that platform.

Spreadable Storytelling

Okay, now that you’re set up with the basics, it’s time to decide what type of content to share. A lot of this is experimentation to see what resonates. Have some fun with it. Play.

Your content does not have to be professionally made. It should have an element of professionalism and show that you are a relatable serious human. Fans would rather see someone they deem approachable. It’s why some people have such an engaged fanbase.

Test certain content on different platforms. Maybe a post gets more views on YouTube than it does on TikTok, etc. If I share the same video or picture on different platforms, I like to change the narrative so that it is unique to each. Mix it up by posting unique content to each platform.

It comes down to engagement and community. The goal of your posts is to draw in your community. Engagement with them – responding to their comments helps them stick around. Also, vet who you follow. Know what a Russian bot account looks like and block them. Block hate and those who are looking for a fight. Trust me, it makes your social media experience a lot more engaging and fun.

Don’t Be That Guy

If you need help on how to approach a demographic, ask the right people. Don’t ask the 40-year-old male advertising executive what a 20-year-old female will like. Don’t ask a 50-year-old golf pro where to get the best longboards. If you want to know something about a specific demographic, go to that demographic and ask them.

What do your ten-year-old daughter and her friends like? It doesn’t matter if you like it or not. She won’t make a special trip to Walmart to buy a Rolling Stones or Hank Williams CD. Instead, she’ll have Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa on her Spotify playlist. She won’t even know what a CD is.

We’ve seen some spectacular PR fails by companies that assume they know their market. Bumble is a good example from 2024. To get more females to join the platform, a billboard campaign was launched to tell women “Celibacy is not the answer.” That didn’t go over well, as you might imagine.

The Barbie movie script expertly showed an example of how markets can be fickle and change on a dime. One day everyone wants the Dream House or the Kitchenette and the next day they want the Mojo Dojo Casa House.

Don’t assume what’s in. The market ebbs and flows with each generation and calendar year.

The Avoidable Data Breach

One of the biggest PR and marketing fails starts and ends with your personal computer. Is it up to date with its security software? Have you ensured that your smartphone and tablet apps are updated daily? Do you check the source of a link before you click it? Do you back up your working documents and storage on more than one source?

I can’t stress enough how important it is to take cybersecurity seriously. Lurking malware in an attachment will infest another network. It’s not great for PR and it could cost your reputation.

We saw this happen publicly. Remember the 2014 Sony hack that threatened employee records, screenplays, emails, future film plans, and so much more? It wasn’t good. Couple that with Sony’s 2011 PlayStation Network hack.

Update your cyber security right now.

Miscellaneous Add-Ons

Encourage sharing

Besides your trailer, offer short clips, pictures, behind-the-scenes looks, one-minute shorts, interviews, and maybe contests for user-generated content you can promote through your own channels and feature in advertising. This helps your audience get excited about a release and engage with your content. Appreciation for your viewers goes a long way.

Merch and collectibles

Some projects demand merchandise and by not providing it, you can really miss an opportunity to encourage long-term viewings.

The Mask of Zorro from 1998 was a big miss. As a long-term Zorro fan, who used to religiously watch the old 1957 black and white series with Guy Williams, I was dying for merch. Surely, I was not alone. The Batman-like character itself has been beloved since 1940 but there has been very little swag.

Livestreams with talent who have influencer channels

An interesting stat appeared the day after the 2024 presidential election. Television ratings plummeted. MSNBC went from six million viewers on Tuesday to 600,000 two days later. CNN went from 5.1 million to 400,000. Special circumstances elevated the audience, but the extreme mass exodus was also a sign of the times.

More people are streaming their news in non-corporate-owned sources, such as influencer channels and digital journalists with massive followings. The Call Her Daddy podcast has five million viewers each week. Progressive news host Brian Tyler Cohen has over three million subscribers and 2.3 billion views.

There are numerous creators with smaller followings that still make a big impact and talk about the topics you film. Find them and get your PR team to send them a pitch for an interview. The clips are also good for future marketing.

In Conclusion

Like it or not, the digital space is where everybody lives now.

You may think TikTok is stupid, but it has over one billion active monthly users and expects to reach 2.35 billion by 2029.

So far in 2024, YouTube has over 2.5 billion monthly active users.

Most Instagram creators cross platforms to TikTok, Threads, and Facebook. Collectively, that’s two billion active monthly users.

This brings me to a video I used in my marketing workshops back in 2011. Everybody hated it. Yet, this video stands true today. We were warned.

When you work in marketing, you better start upping your game. And reality check creators, we're all expected to market ourselves and our work these days. You work in marketing, whether you like it or not.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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