On June 6th, the community of practice (CoP) of arts management and technology within NTEN that I co-lead held its monthly community call. Each month, we hold an "Ask Anything" call on a specific topic and this month our discussion centered on social media management software and work flow management software--what is needed and what is used. Highlighted social media management tools from our discussion include Hootsuite (which AMT Lab uses), SproutSocial, and Keyhole. Overall success with social media among CoP participants aligned with consistent, but not excessive, content that is interesting to the specific community. For example, one of the participants noted that every Tuesday on Twitter her organization hosts a staff talk about art. At the end of the CoP discussion, quality over quantity seemed to be the best strategy for success in a resource-strapped arts nonprofit.

Work flow and project management software resources discussed include Basecamp, Asana, Trello, Slack, Wunderlist, and Redbooth.  Most resources involve some sort of document and/or calendar integration. For example, Trello links documents from various cloud storage providers including Google and Dropbox. Uses and strategies for project management software varied by CoP participant, although cloud-based systems dominated the conversation. Interestingly, no one mentioned CRM integration with project management, something that clearly offers opportunity for those working in the CRM field.

Next month's call is July 11th at 3pm EDT with topic TBA. The Community of Practice is free but individuals have to register a profile to get access. Each CoP also maintains an online discussion where questions, issues, and jobs frequently appear. The online discussion often helps to determine the next month's topic. If you're interested in joining the community, just register, then add yourself to the Arts Nonprofits group. It is a useful partner to your AMT Lab news feed, as it provides synchronous discussions on topics or problems arts managers are facing in the moment. For example, the CoP discussion of social media management software uses in partnership with AMT Lab on topics like social media plans and white papers on social media tools give arts managers a kick-start on current practices.

Hope to hear you on the next CoP call!

Brett Crawford

Executive Director, AMT Lab