Teach Me Tuesday: How do you engage your fans?

(Bri Castellini) #3

@HackettKate @Monica_West @Monica_Quinn @hermdelica @Sunny @mintypineapple @ghettonerdgirl @whoisjonporter @idgafwebseries @SecretLivesPS @shrutesnladders @Jessi_Almstead @jesus_acevedojr @OSTSG @Dylan @JoeAhern @spatulawilwheat @chelsaat @Rebecca_Frost @DarekKowal @kmd @MsSophiaStyles

(Meg Carroway) #4

I hafta do the alternate, but I like when creators don’t just make their episodes and disappear. I like when they stick around and respond to comments on the videos, or post pictures on social media even when they’re not like directly promoting a new episode or whatever. I just like to know they care enough about the content to stick around.

(Monica West) #5

I love fan art! Have been meaning to ask our fans in anyone would like to make some pretty posts to share. Thanks for the reminder @Bri_Castellini

Something that has worked for us is sharing our Amazon Reviews – taking a screen shot and then sharing on Twitter and FB. Our fans get excited when they see we have new audience members!

(Ghetto Nerd Girl) #6

It depends on the medium, but there are a few things I do. Since we are a period piece I like to share fave movies and trends from the era and that’s likely to start a conversation. I make it a point to respond to every comment on our YouTube channel. I also have tried to have open dialog with fans through Facebook live. I get messages though there sometimes so I feel like I know all of our fans who reach out to us.

(Bri Castellini) #7

OoooOOOOoooo maybe I’ll make you some fan art! I’m no artist but when has that stopped anyone from making fan art???

And yes- I love the review sharing! I love seeing your new reviews because I’m so proud of you guys :slight_smile: I share Stareable reviews of our projects as much as I can, partially because it’s good for my job and partially because I am just so honored someone cares enough about my content to tell other people about it! It really is fun to share that stuff- it makes it feel like more of a back and forth, and not a one way street (to @Meg’s point)

(Bri Castellini) #8

That’s so cool! How often do you do YouTube Live and how do you tend to build excitement/organise what you do on said Lives?

(Darek Kowal) #9

I berate them and attempt to instigate fights …

OR! I would do Talkbacks for each episode and give BTS info and stories, and talk about what inspired each story.

Otherwise, I try to tweet, post, and ask questions on social media. Does it work? I don’t know. But are we doing what we can? Yes, and sometimes that’s all you can do.

(Monica West) #10

It’d be such an honor to receive fan art from you! Thank you!!

I love seeing your Stareable reviews as well. I think something that could be fun is to use an app to make some beautiful IG images with text from fans’ reviews as well – have been meaning to do that for Best Thing too.

Question for you @Bri_Castellini – how do you go about asking fans to make images? Have you ever reached out to artists you admire directly?

(Monica West) #11

OH HUGE PS this site has CHANGED MY LIFE for making promotional images:

They have templates for IG, Twitter and FB in all the different dimensions you need so you don’t have to fuss them them so much anymore.

(Ghetto Nerd Girl) #12

I haven’t done it in a while but I like to do them after we post an episode. I like to do countdown videos too that I reuse after every episode post.

(Herman Wang) #13

I feel one of the smartest things we ever did was tap a local Harry Potter fan group for extras for a scene in one of our episodes. We all had a fun time shooting and people got to know about us and the show at a very personal level.

(Bri Castellini) #14

I’ve never actually gotten fan art/fan images! Even though my show is, like, VERY VISUAL and rife with art opportunities. I did get a few fans to dress up like Alison for Halloween, though, largely through this little set of images I put together for costume inspiration that I shared all of October. Maybe that’s the way to do it? Almost suggest into the world that if you wanted to do a thing (dress up, draw a picture, etc), “here’s the important aspects.”

(Alison costume photo for reference)

AlisonSumnerHalloween
AlisonSumnerHalloween.jpg700×700 60.7 KB

(Bri Castellini) #15

Very cool! And I bet it gave you a good pool of people who were willing to help you promote that episode when it came out, huh?

(Gabriel Crutchfield) #16

I’m terrible at this. I just keep sharing toilet humor memes. Sometimes they get likes.

(Herman Wang) #17

Definitely.

It was a bit of an editing challenge for that segment to make sure every single extra’s face was visible for at least a little bit of time :slight_smile:

(Bri Castellini) #18

Have you had any particular tactics that seem to work better than others, or are you still in the spaghetti-at-wall stage?

(Bri Castellini) #19

Well, if you’ve got a niche…

What about shows (online and traditional) that YOU’RE a fan of? What do you like seeing from creators you admire?

(Monica West) #20

the power of suggestion – I like it. Thanks Bri

(Joseph Steven Heath) #21

I try to reply to all comments/tweets/etc. I do have this slight problem where I think I don’t have a fanbase, but it’s because I’ve befriended a lot of the people who are my fans? And once they are friends for some reason, my brain goes “Well, they don’t count as a fan because they are your friend.”

(Bri Castellini) #22

Hahahahaha I do this too!! @spatulawilwheat tell em