Arts and Social Media.
Copyright R. Finkelstein
Over Fourth of July weekend, I took a bus to New York City with my friend Nicole. We visited another friend who was participating in the Dance New Amsterdam’s (DNA) New York Summer Dance Intensive that I attended last summer. DNA was closed on the 4th, so we took 3 classes in a row on Friday; 6 hours of dance! While that seemed like a good idea at the time, on Saturday we were in a lot of pain.
Before heading to NY, I researched my classes online and found DNA to have the most extensive social media efforts of any dance studio or company. Not only does DNA have Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, a blog and a Facebook page, DNA has their own social network, DNA World! DNA World allows you to connect and network with friends, dance teachers, choreographers, bloggers and dance administrators. DNA World also has forums for discussion about dance and DNA, as well as pictures and videos. The DNA World blog is used for listing upcoming events, classes, dance news and articles, and special offers.
Other dance companies and studios are slowly making their leap into the world of social media with Facebook applications and blogs. Many dance companies and studios have Facebook pages and groups. Facebook is much easier to update and maintain than a blog. Through Facebook, arts organizations can easily reach their audience and update with YouTube and news. Broadway Dance Center, Joy of Motion and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre have Facebook pages.
Dance Place, located in Washington D.C., has a blog, Twitter, as well as a Facebook Page. There are not many comments or followers on the blog (same with DNA’s blog), possibly indicating the dance world has not turned into avid social media fans yet, even though I know the audience is online. I believe those organizations testing blogs are still experimenting with what type of content to include and how often to update. It is exciting to see so many arts organizations take risks to stay current, especially in this tough economic situation.
I am especially interested in dance, but I found this video about how an orchestra has used social media to garner more attention. Listen for the different tools they use and how people are responding to their efforts.
Do you know of any other arts organizations, theaters, museums, dance companies and etc. using social media as part of their marketing campaign?! Let’s talk about how your organization is using social media. How are you making it work and what difficulties have you struggled with?
Twitterpated with Twitter
I first discovered Twitter in the spring when my web communication class watched the Commoncraft Twitter video. I signed up because it was free, but more than half my class thought it was a waste of time. I think by the end of the semester more people were changing their mind about the growing microblogging “fad”.
Twitter is great because it’s ability to direct followers to more information. Shel Holtz (@Shel) refers to the idea of Twitter as a table of contents or a billboard advertisement. You would never just look at a table of contents or a billboard and be satisfied; you would see the message and then go to the destination to be satisfied with an article or product. He does point out that Twitter is best when it is used for conversations. I agree because of the idea of ‘markets as conversations’ outlined in the Cluetrain Manifesto.
I recently researched how nonprofits and development organizations are using social media. Some development organizations are using Twitter to promote their mission, publications and events. Web 2.0 for Development explains how Twitter allows organizations to share information, network with stakeholders and discuss ideas with a large audience. Organizations can create dialogues with their audience asking and answering questions. Like any other social media tool, time and resources are the investment made to achieve a high return. Some of the development organizations on Twitter referenced are UNHCR, the World Food Programme, OECD, and the World Bank.
Beth Kanter (@Kanter) discusses Twitter on her blog and shares ideas about how to decide who should tweet for your organization. She suggests creating only one organizational account because of the need for several daily updates. Staffing Twitter with a team of employees may be the best way to manage an organizational account. She highlighted Co-Tweet’s Twitter account to see how each employee identifies their tweets within the account adding faces to the organization.
Employees can have personal accounts and should be encouraged to create an account to humanize the organization, but they need to remain transparent about their affiliation with the organization. An easy way to remain transparent is to identify twitter handles on the staff page of a website or web sites newsroom and to identify their affiliation in the twitter biography and website link.
There are several tools, including Hoot Suite, which can update an organizations twitter account with individual employee’s tweets about the organization. Also, Hoot Suite enables scheduling tweets ahead of time, shortened URLs and measurement options.
At IFPRI, most people rely on e-mail to send information out within the organization. An information and knowledge management specialist at IFPRI recommended this article to explain how Twitter is similar to e-mail because of the abilities to respond, retweet, mention a person or topic, and send direct messages.
Before an organization, like IFPRI, uses Twitter, a strategy must be made concerning what types of content will be tweeted and who will do the tweeting. For individual use I recommend that everyone gives Twitter a try. What’s one more social media addiction?
