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"Alexander Hotz is a freelance multimedia journalist and public radio junkie based in New York City. Currently he teaches digital media at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Follow Alex on Twitter at @hotzington.\nWhen filmmaker Andrew Lampard began promoting his documentary Two Summers in Kosovo last fall, he didn\u2019t pay much attention to social media. Lampard used his personal Twitter and Facebook accounts to keep his friends informed, but he didn\u2019t use any social media tools to promote the movie \u2014 something he regrets today.   \u201CWe could have used social media to connect with more audiences,\u201D said Lampard, whose film focuses on the aftermath of the Kosovo conflict. \u201CAfter the war, Serb and Albanian diasporas popped up all over the West \u2014 in Europe, North America, even Australia. Beyond raising awareness among festival programmers, I like to think we could have set up our own independent screenings within the Balkans and these diasporas.\u201D While Lampard\u2019s film generated some attention in Kosovo, it went largely unnoticed outside of Europe. Could social media have made a difference? Lampard isn\u2019t certain, but for his future films, he plans to do what many filmmakers are already doing \u2014 using social media to aggressively promote their work.   \nOutreach\nLike Two Summers in Kosovo, most documentaries are produced by a small team on a tight budget. Since social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are free, it makes sense for documentary filmmakers to take advantage of them. But that doesn\u2019t mean that just anyone should be doing the outreach.  \u201CYou can tell when someone sits down once a day and just blasts a bunch of stuff, having little relevance,\u201D said Viki Psihoyos, who developed the social media strategy for the Oscar winner The Cove.  Psihoyos, whose husband directed The Cove, stressed that social media tools work best when the people behind them have a genuine passion for what they\u2019re sharing. For Psihoyos, The Cove is \u201Cher baby,\u201D so its online presence is something she takes very seriously.  \u201CI have a style that I have developed so I bristle when I see the tools used badly,\u201D Psihoyos added. \u201CBlatant marketing bothers me...Yes, I remind people that The Cove will be on Animal Planet, but I also ask who is live blogging it? I like to grow and feed a community.\u201D  \nDifferent National Networks\n\n\n\n \nThe Cove was successful in the United States, but it was made primarily to change whaling policies in Japan. Psihoyos used Facebook and Twitter to promote The Cove at home, but in Japan she used a platform called Mixi to ensure she reached the Japanese public. \u201CWe had to hire translators to set us up on Mixi, which boasts 80% of the market there,\u201D Psihoyos said. \u201CFrom the start, we have been hoping to get the Japanese people aware and active on the issues taking place in Japan.\u201D  \nFunding\n\n\n\n\n Aside from the ubiquitous Facebook and Twitter, Kickstarter, the online funding platform for creative projects, should be on the radar of every filmmaker short on cash. Despite being barely over a year old, the startup has proved itself an impressive resource for documentary funding.  \nThe Delta Smelt (working title), a documentary about the precarious fate of the largest estuary in the western United States, recently reached its $3,500 goal with contributions from 36 backers. Another film, Keepers of the Earth, easily surpassed its goal of $20,000 by raising over $2,500 thanks to over 300 backers. Amazingly, these successes aren't unusual on Kickstarter.  \nConnecting With Other Filmmakers \nIt\u2019s no secret that filmmakers choose Vimeo, the high-quality video hosting site, to share their clips. But the platform is also a great network for professionals to chat about their craft. Philip Bloom, a veteran filmmaker who has worked for Lucasfilm, BBC and others, uses the site regularly for feedback on his work and to explore the films of his peers.   \u201CMany of the colleagues I work with these days I\u2019ve known from social media \u2014 that\u2019s how we\u2019ve become friends,\u201D said Bloom. \u201CIt\u2019s a great way of learning about things and helping each other out. I think it\u2019s absolutely essential.\u201D  \nFestivals \n\n\n\n \nBefore the Internet, documentaries typically reached the public\u2019s attention once they were featured in a film festival. Social media may have made it easier for filmmakers to get the word out about their work, but now even festivals are using social media to connect with filmmakers and their audiences.  Jennifer Nedbalsky, the Program Manager for Human Rights Watch\u2019s Film Festival, said the social networking site for group meetings Meetup is important for her community outreach. \u201CIt\u2019s a wonderful way for audience members to involve friends,\u201D said Nedbalsky. \u201CIt also multiplies the amount of people you can reach, while taking less work from audience members to share.\u201D  Theresa Riley, the Interactive Director for the PBS documentary series POV, often learns about the films submitted to POV through everyday social media tools like Facebook, but POV is also experimenting with new methods to promote their filmmakers\u2019 work. Recently, POV asked viewers of Food Inc. to host a post-film potluck dinner with friends at their homes. About 130 potlucks were held, and viewers uploaded pictures of their experience on Flickr. POV also hosts live chats with the filmmakers via Cover it Live the day after a film screens.  \nA New Approach?\n\n\n\n\n Arguably the most ambitious use of social media by a documentarian is Vaquita.tv, a free web-based documentary project entirely reliant on social media for its promotion. The documentary itself, which is broken into seven web-friendly parts, sheds light on the dire situation of the Vaquita, a Mexican porpoise on the brink of extinction. With about 250 porpoises left, filmmaker Chris Johnson \u201Cfelt there was no time to spend years making a film to only watch the Vaquita go extinct during [the film's] production and finding a market.\u201D   The urgency of Johnson\u2019s cause is evident throughout the site, and in a recent blog post he even asked, \u201Ccan social media save a species?\u201D \u201CSocial media is a great ally during the production of a project, the marketing of it, and potentially keeping the issues addressed in your film in the media for a long time after someone has watched it,\u201D Johnson said. \u201CI believe that you never finish making a documentary film.\u201D\nMore Social Good Resources from Mashable:\n- The Real Value of Social Media for Social Good [INTERVIEW]- 5 iPhone Apps to Help Fight Poverty- How Non-Profits Can Maximize a Foursquare Account- 5 Cool Non-Profit Uses of Location-Based Tech- Are Social Media Giving Contests Good for Non-Profits?\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, craftvision"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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