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I have used Facebook and Twitter at CHRP and in some of my personal projects and freelance work. The most effective use I’ve been a part of was for BuzzFlash.com, a progressive blog. They committed their whole staff to tweeting (and not just self-promotional stuff). They have around 6000 followers now, and routinely get 3000+ visits to their site per month from twitter and that’s going to double in six months. (you can see their tweets at @BuzzFlash to get some idea of it.)

BuzzFlash has it easy though, because they are already producing 3-5 new pieces of content per day in a market with thousands of people passionate about the current headlines. So they can tweet their own articles with shorter, funnier titles, and engage in the thriving progressive political conversation already going on on twitter. Other progressives are excited and proud to tweet to their followers about good BuzzFlash articles, and so the word spreads quickly.

With the arts it’s a bit different. We’re usually putting on one show for a few months and then we’re dark for a bit until the next show that runs for a few months. So to make it work you need to have something happen frequently enough that it’s worth talking about. You also need to respond to others so you’re not just facebooking or tweeting about yourself. And you have to be sharing something so irresistable that people can’t not share it with their friends. The worst part is that your investment (mostly your time and energy) won’t pay off for a long time.

The number one thing I’v learned is that social media is not free advertising.It’s barely even marketing. You’re goal is to create something useful for others for a subject they care about and want to engage with. And if you do it well, they will be all too happy to engage.

Consider these things before you commit the time and energy:
1. What can we provide to these people of real, tangible, unique to the internet value.
2. How often can we provide it.
3.  Why would they want to share it with friends.
4. How much control am I willing to give up.
5. Who is already doing this in my field.
6. Do I actually enjoy using these services. (If no, then don’t. It will drive you nuts, you will view it as advertising, and you won’t get a real response.)

Some decent examples I’ve heard of were: 1. A Theater company director facebooking or tweeting their thoughts on their work and the arts 2. Theater company Facebook Page giving away free stuff* 3. A lead actor sharing his thoughts on the rehearsal process and the play.

Sadly, it doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve kept a pretty active blog, twitter, and Facebook account for an improv group I play with, but we haven’t seen it convert many new sales, despite have some pretty viral videos and articles. We have seen the social media activities converted a lot of people we already knew, but wouldn’t have made the effort to attend. Once those people were in the door, they enjoyed the show and told a few friends. If we are lucky, those friends will come back and bring other friends, and maybe a year or so from now, our massive time commitment will finally pay off.

*I don’t like the “give away free tickets in return for your following me on Facebook” strategy, because you’re just teaching them that the only value you provide online is monitary. This is okay for getting them to buy cheap tickets, but it’s nothing they’d share with their friends.

Thanks for posting this, Marc.  I found this information really interesting and useful.

You welcome.

There’s also something to be said for raising brand identity. It’s another long term payoff, but social media is good for that.

If you’re thinking about starting a social media campaign, here are some great (and free) web applications that might cut down the workload.

TweetDeck - A very very good Twitter/Facebook desktop client. It’s only weakness is that it can’t update Facebook Pages (only Profiles).

CoTweet.com - Like a CRM for twitter. You can read tweets about you and follow up, or assign other “team members” to follow up. Then you cantrack the conversation. It helps unify a group of people working to tweet for a business.

Ping.fm - It’s a lot of work to set up,but you can eventually configure Ping.fm to post to multiple sites at once, including Facebook, Facebook Pages, and Twitter. If you have a blog, you can set it to auto-post.

ReFollow.com - Helps you sort your Twitter followers and bulk update them. You can also see and sort the followers of others, and mass follow relevant ones. This tactic is a bit underhanded and if used too often can attract negative attention, but it’s very good for getting a quick follower boost..

Wow Marc! You brought to light some incredible ideas about bran recognition, all via social media. I’m not really in a position to execute the strategies like buzzflash has, but that’s absolutely incredible! I didn’t know twitter could have so much power behind it!

- Jeff

Thanks. I’m glad it’s useful.

Most people don’t have the time to make it pop like that though, especially in busy arts organizations. There are still a couple of things you can do that are low upkeep and will definiteely be worth your while.

The best thing to do if you’re not ready to kick butt in the social media game is to just listen for the time being. Facebook makes this a pain, but Twitter makes it very easy.  Get TweetDeck (Google “Download TweetDeck”) and once you’ve set it up, make a “Search” column for the name of your organization. If you want to get crazy, you can make “Search” columns for important keywords in your field too.

Once these are set up, you can see what people are saying about you in real time. It’s great for addressing complaints, and identifying people who really like what you do and aren’t afraid to tell others.

You don’t even need a Twitter account to listen.

Even if you never reply to any of these, it will help you to know what people are saying about you.

If you want to be more active about it, here are some uses:

Find a person who tweeted something like, “I loved the Chicago Human Rhythm Project show last night” and offer them 2 for 1 tickets to the next show. Or offer them a 2 for 1 ticket to give to a friend. Ask them for their specific feedback so you can improve the show next time (and make them feel important).

Set up a keyword search for people tweeting “Visiting Navy Pier” or something touristy like that, and tweet them back ahalf off ticket offer.. This one is great, because most tourists have families in tow.