How important are social networks to producers and audiences as a form of film promotion?

Without doubt, the rise of social media has revolutionised the way films are promoted as in the digital age we live in, arguably, social media networking sites are important in the promotion of a film and crucially they influence the spectator whether to see the movie or not through their dominance over social media.

Firstly, social media as a form of marketing is brilliant for establishing a platform for fan interaction. For example, The Hunger Games Explorer created a forum of fan based material which was monitored by managers on the page therefore these promotional manager regulated and controlled what should be shared and the focus on the page. The material came from the 'best and most passionate fans' of the films and books who where then able to up vote the best material and in doing so it sparked discussion amongst the film which then could be shared through Facebook or twitter. The Hunger Games explorer is a 'a real time social aggregation tool'- to collect people to spread the word about the film through the Hunger Games Explorer. In addition, The Hunger Games marketing franchise were able to use other methods of social media such as a Twitter and Facebook. As an example, Capitol, the main antiprotoganists of the film, have a twitter account with 241000 followers which means that they are vigilant to any change on the twitter. It’s the kind of marketing moment that requires a lot of faith in the audience. Faith that someone, somewhere, will screenshot tweets before they’re deleted — and faith that the right people will click the right things and document that they happened. For example, the Capitol twitter sent out little 'snipets' of interest to engage the followers with the movie. This further blurs the boundaries between reality and the actual film. Furthermore, these 'snipets' trigger discussion and

(talk about the interaction of twitter interaction- i.e. capitol twitter page)