Comics Marketing: Social Media Is Not The Answer, Even If You Want It To Be.
15 Comments | Posted: September 18th, 2008 | Filed under: Thinking about Comics Marketing | Tags: comics marketing, facebookFacebook is one of the best timekillers/ad display ideas that’s come across in quite some time. Where MySpace reveled in its Geocities-meets-Friendster garishness, Facebook made everyone conform to some sort of design standard and made sure that nobody in the office would know you were visiting the site due to an errant profile blaring “Crank That.” It gives you one “landing page” that lets you see whatever activity your friends wish to share with you and access to the various applications you may want to use.
As a marketing tool, it offers a nice extension of your brand, giving people who enjoy your comic book/strip a place to gather and talk about your projects:
However, this is why I would never, ever use it as my sole online presence versus having my own domain as the primary point of contact between me and the customer base:
Despite the fact that Facebook is free and super-easy to get involved with, that little login section is a barrier between the customer and you. Marketing is, at its core, about eliminating those barriers and making sure that your audience is able to listen to what you’re trying to say with as little work as possible.
More and more I’m seeing creators (such as Billy Tucci in Chris Sims’s comments) using Facebook as their main method of communicating to their fans. While I can see the appeal: it’s free and easy as hell, it’s not an example of reaching out with your message. Instead, Facebook groups and the like are preaching to the choir: people that have already added you as a contact. They know what you’re selling. Throw in the fact that all of your content is hidden from the search engines because of its closed system and it’s plain to see that Facebook is lousy for acquiring active, inquisitive customers unless you’ve got a social media manager doing the heavy lifting and customer engagement for you.
It boils down to this: If you’re serious about your product, you should have your own domain. If you can’t spend $10 a month maintaining your own domain, then maybe you’re not serious enough about your business. Business cards and emails shouldn’t feature a url like http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=26254088540 or http://www.myspace.com/therackcomic on them: they should present something that anyone can type in within seconds and look at what you’re trying to sell, be it www.therackcomic.com or http://www.dccomics.com.
Once you’re up and running, it’s important to note that almost every webhost in the world allows you to add a new domain to your existing account with them for the cost of registering a URL. With Dreamhost, it’s literally two minutes from “I want to buy a domain” to starting the initial stages of development, which in many cases could be a basic Wordpress installation, a template that will be customized, and a nice gallery package: perfect for title-specific websites. A great example of this is PhonogramComic.com, even with their “click here to enter” front page.
It’s easier than ever for creators and publishers to have a platform that allows people from anywhere in the world to see what they have to offer. Facebook and the like provide an easy way to do things, but it’s not the best way. Each new project is a chance to sell more of your work to new people – do the lifting so they don’t have to. Use social media and networking sites to fire up your existing base and keep them abreast of things, but use the web to get new people on board.
Amen to this. I don’t have a Facebook account at the moment (no current need for one, and I’m weirded out by some of their previous privacy-related shenanigans). I can appreciate why people enjoy it, but it breaks my heart when they use it as their primary method for public-facing promotional material. Fun fact: It’s not actually public-facing! Those of us without accounts can’t even just browse it.
RIGHT. ON.
I am a pretty untechnical moron, and even I can puzzle out how to set up a basic Wordpress install with a common template that has basic brand-friendly modifications and point a domain address at it.
It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it gives you complete control, and the early stages of (dare I say it?) brand equity. Why give Facebook your brand for free?
To play devil’s advocate, Facebook has massive reach – nearly 100 million users between the US and Europe alone – and it’s still growing month over month. As a word of mouth tool, it’s got amazing potential, and I’ll even tell you that I’ve had half a dozen Facebook friends ask me who Atomic Robo is in the past few weeks.
The trend toward users kind of engaging Facebook as almost a surrogate browser is growing, so I don’t know that the login screen is a big a deterrent as you’d expect. The obstacle to being discovered by new people on social media sites is that your access to new people is based on the number of people directly connected to your fans.
But to get any information about Atomic Robo from Facebook, they have to join that group and having to click around, etc, etc versus going to http://www.atomicrobo.com. It can create people that help engage and build the brand, but it’s still up to the website and the material to push the conversion.
That’s a good point, but at some time, as Friendster and MySpace have proven, the crowd will move on. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next wave of social media sites were more niche oriented (using ning and the like) and further away from the “everyone and their mother” model, particularly now as so many people are now adding their bosses and professional contacts to Facebook.
I’m convinced that a good 2/3rds of Facebook’s success is based around its design: from a distance, it looks like a generic text-driven webpage, not the hub of your social interaction online.
To play Devil’s Devil’s Advocate, I don’t think Kevin is saying NOT to have a Facebook presence, he’s saying to not ONLY have a Facebook presence.
Absolutely, Dave. I think if you’re serious about maintaining a Web presence, it would be silly to not be available at as many relevant social media outlets as you’re capable of keeping up with.
There’s a lot of times I follow links to see promo pieces—the Tucci Sgt Rock art was the most recent—and wind up at Facebook, which I’m not a member of and have no intention of being (I don’t have the time to keep up with that community). So then I can’t see the promo pieces.
Facebook and the like should be additional, not primary (or only) publicity machines.
Plus, I think Bully is too young to have his own Facebook page.
I could not agree more. This social phenomenon can be a real hindrance when talking to clients who think they can get a reachable professional online presence with just a facebook page.
“My kids are always on facebook. Why don’t I just have a page there?”
Useful as part of a larger online presence, but it should never take the place of a well planned websites.
What I don’t grasp is HOW people are using Facebook to market…is there some blogging or messaging functionality I’ve missed?
(Cause if there IS, I will use it post haste to pimp my own shit.)
That’s what’s always bothered me most about Facebook–I do not know what to do with it, other than play games and post dippy little jokes on people’s “walls.” Say what you will about MySpace, but the bulletin and blogging functions at least enable you to create some kind of content there with which to promote.
If you’re a business, recording artist, etc. you can make a page that Facebook users can become fans of. You can customize it with photos and videos, etc.
The other route to market via Facebook is to create apps. Because everyone has ninety billion of them.
Or groups, like The Rack’s group from the screenshot.
Agreed on most of the above about Facebook being part of the online presence, but certainly not the main presence of whatever your business/product is. Warren Ellis has talked a lot about the future of social networking and Ning, in particular, and the need to customize it to serve functions more personal to your own goals.
And, speaking of Dreamhost, Kevin, can you email me that info I had asked about re: hosting/domain names? Thanks a lot!
First, I want to say that you’re right on with the overall theme of your article. Acquiring a unique URL is a must-do thing for all creators. However, just a couple additional thoughts:
1) One doesn’t have to absolutely pay $10 a month for site hosting for a unique URL. One can set up a free blog at Blogger.com, then buy and register a unique URL/domain name. Then, Blogger will host your writing for free, you can put your artwork for free on Flikr and embed it, etc.
2) You’re absolutely right about Facebook user profiles and groups: Those are hidden behind log-in screens. However, if I’m not mistaken, Facebook PAGES are open to the internet and searched via Google. Non-Facebook users can also browse images, read notes and wall posts, et al., on those PAGES. I won’t put a link here so my comment won’t look like spam, but Google “Facebook Bad Lit” and you can see my page via the first result.
Thanks for your input, Mike.
1) Doing what you describe makes you beholden to ther terms and conditions of both those services, which means there’d be a Blogger-branded bar across the top of the blog and Flickr file information underneath each image. That is, if you were operating in accordance to the terms and conditions of those services. Not that there’s ways around that or anything. Honest. (Also, is it just me, or is there a real lack of attractive Blogger templates?)
2) Maybe Facebook should make the differences between “pages” and “groups” and “profiles” more apparent to users like myself so that when we create these things, we have half a clue about what we’re doing.