The Entertainment Industry & Social Media: Virality Isn't Hard to Come By
BY ANNA BOWMAN
Today, social media platforms exist as one of the most effective ways to promote online. Within the entertainment industry, social media is another form of advertisement, whether for your brand, your company, or yourself. Platforms provide a new realm of communication unlike any other the internet has seen before, and culls the divide between celebrities and their audiences: not only do posts feel more personal, but audiences are also able to connect with their favorite celebrities directly through comments and tags.
For the entertainment industry, social media is said to be a "leading driver" for growth. Trailers for new movies, like Star Wars: The Force Awakens are shared exponentially more on social media than anywhere else. In the first 23 minutes following its debut, the Star Wars trailer had gained over a million views solely through shares. There are a variety of positives and negatives that come from the entertainment industry using social media as a new way to promote: one of the biggest pros is the ease of sharing content. People are able to simply share and like whatever they want, which causes their friends to see the promoted content as well, causing it to be seen by more eyes. Likewise, social media inter-connectivity between producer and audience allows the producers to immediately gauge reaction to whatever content they're putting out; for example, Sonic the Hedgehog released a trailer in 2019 that was almost instantly met with backlash online due to the design of its main character. As a result, the film company reverted the trailer and reworked Sonic's design entirely--all as a result of reception. This could easily be seen as a negative, too: make one mistake, and your company's entire reputation could be harmed by being labeled as a joke online. Additionally, entertainment being so prevalent on social media comes at the expense of reality; people tend to believe whatever is being posted online at face value, even though a lot of posts on social media are fabricated and distorted depictions of reality -- even celebrity posts!
QUICKFIRE PITCH
Presenting: DAY IN AN OWL'S LIFE
Since Kennesaw State University is home to a very diverse culture, each student may have a unique daily routine -- not everyone just goes to classes and goes home, and not everyone has the same experiences as someone else on campus! By showing the "day in an owl's life", weekly episodes will be posted of a different student taking the helm of a camera and showcasing their daily routine during a random day of the week to show what their Kennesaw experience is like. It will give viewers a dose of college student reality, but also show prospective students what opportunities current students have -- especially since many students are involved in student life and campus events. Not only this, but by narrowing the student selection to those under Kennesaw's SOCM department, it could encourage prospective students to major under one of the categories available and serve as promotion for the department and its work!
The entire program would premiere solely on its own YouTube channel, but could be advertised across the different social media profiles that exist for Kennesaw State University's programs--especially any for the SOCM department in particular. These promotions would feature short, interesting clips from whatever "day in an owl's life" video is being posted that week, while the video being posted to YouTube would only be around 10 to 15 minutes long -- the typical duration for a "day in the life" video on YouTube.
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