Post Magazine

February 2014

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www.postmagazine.com Post • February 2014 25 S ince digital social media technology has radically altered modern culture, communications, and business gen- erally in recent years in so many unexpected ways, it's hardly surprising to see that impact hit various seg- ments of the post production industry. What is quite intriguing, however, is the potential social media holds as a business tool for post facilities, and a handful of them are already beginning to explore that potential in creative ways. On a basic level, many companies tell Post they have been aggressively using social media as a communication tool to promote their business, communicate with clients, network, and generally raise their profiles for a few years now. "Certainly, it's a great tool for letting our clients and friends know what we've been up to, since many clients are into social media," says Mike Feuer, owner/partner of MindSmack TV (www.MindSmack.tv), a production and post house in New York City that recently opened a new social media events' unit called Social Prompter. "It reinforces to them that we continue to be forward thinking, because we are communicating in this way, and also it plays a huge role in helping people find out about us if they want to research us. It doesn't change the continuing reality that our business is primarily still a word-of-mouth/direct-relationship industry, but it does add clout to those relationships, certainly." Indeed, Andrea Minze, executive producer in the New York office of HiFi Project (www.hifiproject.com), a music and sound design company, suggests that Facebook, in particular, has evolved into an almost perfect "online hub for everything" that allows her company to engage in "brief conversations with both clients and people we would like to work with. We can do things in a more personal way, be more authentic, and yet with just a few words or some pictures, do it more succinctly on a very big stage. But, really, we've just scratched the surface of what we can do with it in terms of new business opportunities." And that is precisely the point. Some facilities that spoke with Post recently, discussed new business areas that they have already begun diving into, including organizing and managing social media campaigns for clients, and more. They all point to one poignant reality that makes such endeavors — though brand new and not fully formed yet in most cases — more than worth the time and resources they are using to explore them. That reality is the fact that such social media activities are uniquely well suited to the strengths and capabilities of creative and technology companies — those that dwell within the post realm, in other words. "With the changes in our industry and the economic difficulties that the marketplace has seen, we felt it was important to future-proof ourselves by providing more services, and these are services we already know how to provide," says Mike Feuer of some of the social media activities MindSmack has now gotten itself involved with. "We have creative people, we have a branding division [TheSmackPack.com], a Web division, software people, an entire post production facility — we do video on the Web, all those things. And we already had a culture of branching into different areas of the business, so these were all things we felt we should explore." The following is a look at some particularly intriguing social media "things" that MindSmack and other post-related companies around the country are currently exploring. Event Diagram s h a r E P H O T O S H E R E ! W E L C O M E sharE PHOTOS HERE! Photo Shoot with Photo Director & Branded Backdrop Screen displays photos and optional tweets in main event area Sharing kiosks allow users to upload photos to social media Roving Photographer captures event moments Brand Ambassador talks to guests about your brand E E D D C C B B A A Facilities are seeing new business and marketing opportunities. media by michael goldman

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