The Ocean Agency

Today, many in the social media community have been writing about the box office success of Inglourious Basterds. It took home 37.5 million it’s opening weekend, which is pretty impressive.

Many in the tech and marketing community have been writing about a box office “Twitter Effect”. Essentially the “Twitter Effect” is amplified word of mouth, and has the power to sink movies in the box office (see Bruno) or create hits (see Inglourious Basterds).

While this type of thinking is very enticing for entertainment marketers, i’m not exactly sold on this whole “Twitter Effect”. Can’t you see some Ari Gold type pitching the aging studio exec:

“All we need to do is get some of those Twitter nerds out to the studio to watch a private screening, and then get our interns to twit or tweet or however you say it all of opening weekend! Then we ride the free word of mouth marketing wave to box office glory!”

While this is a pretty epic fantasy, there are a lot more pieces to the marketing puzzle. Most importantly, your product has to be good. The main difference between Bruno and Inglourious Basterds– critics enjoyed Inglourious Basterds and were only luke warm on Bruno.

So what can social media marketers learn from this so called box office Twitter Effect?

1)You need to be genuine. Pick clients and products that you believe in. If it truly is a product that adds value in someway, let’s say that it is funny, unique and interesting (Inglorious Basterds) people will talk about it. If it’s not, well, you have a Bruno on your hands.

2) Content creators and online influencers are of the utmost importance. One myth of social media is that it completely destroys the middle man, that consumers, and consumers only, determine what is of value and what is not. Well, while this is a powerful ideal, the truth is that consumers will always take their cues from someone. Today, those who provide these cues have more power than ever, as they can influence more people in a shorter amount of time than ever before.

Let’s go for gold with this metaphor. Think of every client in terms of box office potential. Who is going to buy your product, where will it be released, who does it appeal to?  Think about who the critics (influencers) are that will get the masses talking. What bloggers, reporters, and other “experts” will encourage people to buy the product? Lastly, how do keep the buzz going once the influencers and content creators talk about your product, how will you make sure those opinions are distributed effectively?