Social Media and the Performing Arts: Engagement First, Ticket Sales Second

Arts and Social Media

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This morning I gave a presentation for a group of senior marketing people from performing arts centers around the country on social media.   I've done a number of presentations and workshops for arts organizations over the years and have even created a wiki "Social Media for Arts People" with stories, links, and other resources, but haven't spoken to arts organizations recently.  It was a good opportunity to see how things have changed.

Every time I present, I like to customize the content as much as possible by looking at participant's social media presence  (ant trails) or examples from the particular field.   Last week, I sent a tweet asking folks to add their best examples into the wiki which helped me create the presentation.

The questions I got:

• How do know that our social media strategy can help sell tickets?
• How do we track and monitor our social media strategy?
• How do explain to senior management that we need to do this?
• What can we effectively with limited time?
• What are the best strategies for engaging people on Twitter/Facebook?
• What makes a good influencer strategy?
• What is the best way to work with interns?
• What are the steps to incorporating a social content strategy into our web presence strategy?

My big takeaway:   A successful social media strategy with arts audiences is more like an audience development or education program, not a straight ticket sales strategy. 

Last night as I was preparing my presentation,  I did a couple of deep diving analyzing a couple of twitters to look at the nuances of good practice for engagement.  

I followed the ant trails of the San Francisco Symphony Twitter stream - they are doing a particularly good job of conversational, relationship building tweets - not "BUY TICKETS NOW!" I screen captured a few as illustrations. It was one of the first examples I've seen of customer service for an arts organization. customer service, 

I dm the Sf Symphony to ask if their tweeting sold tickets. 

If you go back look at the tweeting from "Tweet An Opera" project, you can learn a lot.   Also, it is a good illustration of how engagement might lead to butts in seats, the holy grail of performing arts centers marketing directors.

I also learned that Dance Theatre Workshop did a similar crowdsourcing experiment on Twitter. They had followers tweet dance movements which were performed and videotaped on YouTube.

One of the participants was from the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, and they shared the story of how their tweet ups have grown in popularity.  They did a lot of listening and searching for local Twitter users.  They found some influencers who they cultivated.  They hosted a meet up and gave people a back stage tour of the facility.

advice

A big topic of discussion was influencer strategies.  I presented a framework to think about this. It's not all about numbers. Social Influence is about reach (number of people an influencer can easily activate a channel to), but there's also another fundamental aspect: affinity.   Affinity represents the impact an influencer can make on the audience and it's defined by strong interpersonal ties.   I think you need both kinds of influencers.

We had a very productive conversation about the best and more effective ways to work with interns.  Much of Jeremiah Owyang's advice is spot on.   If you think you can just shovel social media over the fence onto the lap of intern with out some mutual guiding, than it won't be successful.

If you know of interesting examples of arts organizations using social media, please drop a note in the comments.

Comments

[Steve Tate]

My wife and I purchased tickets last night for Madame Butterfly in Toronto next Tuesday. The sale was Tweeted and we jumped all over them... they also included a discount code for their eCommerce in the Tweet.

[Jon Husband]

My big takeaway: A successful social media strategy with arts audiences is more like an audience development or education program, not a straight ticket sales strategy.

Almost instinctive, when you think about it.

Almost the exact same thought hit me last week when I went to a Vancouver International Film Festival screening. We all see line-ups at such events, and we all look around at people and wonder what it is and isn't about them that leads them to interest in that film. We all have some point of curiosity or attraction that leads us to be 1) a film festival goer in the first place, 2) someone who has sought out that particular genre or mindspace, and 3) we are engaging in an experience that is specifically founded on one or other (for each individual) of the prismatic aspects of the genre, interests, curiosity, ambience, etc.

Various forms of social media can and will enhance this. Engagement and education are the lifeblood of building vibrant markets ... we're talking sophisticated information and social feedback loops. Which is where our wired nervous-system society interwoven with new forms of sociality is going.

Imagine .. with location capabilities and mobile devices with clear display screens and various search capabilities, the experiences available (presumably both good and awkward ;-) around a given film, or the festival experience and other entertainment activities in the vicinity. Not to mention cause-related activities that can be structured out of this too .. all while standing in line to fulfill / finalize the ticket sales (strategy ;-)

[Marc van Bree]

I'd say ticket sales third. Engagement first and second would be, for me, how social media can help with the arts organization's mission statement: bringing art to the community; extending the life of a performance. Ticket sales are there to support the organization financially, but the mission is to bring art to the people.

San Francisco has been doing a lot of great things, as well as the London Symphony Orchestra (musician blogs and tweets). There are a couple of shining examples out there and the classical music twitter folk are very active (just look at my list!).

Which brings me to thank you. Thanks for including my list in the presentation! Pleasant surprise to see it there! You're partially to blame for it too. ;-)

Will have a look at the social media + arts wiki and see if I can activate the classical music community to participate in it. I think there is some great potential for a great collaboration there.

As always, thanks!

[Dans Organizasyon]

Thank you so very beneficial to the community organizations, of course.