The Peril of Tweet Seats

Stop me if you’ve heard this one – your local symphony has an upcoming production, and in order to draw in a younger crowd offer Tweet Seat tickets. The young kids come, spend the performance merrily on their phones, and head home. The next week, the symphony is slapped with a cease and desist – wait, what? I’ll start at the beginning. Tweet Seats are a new engagement tactic for performing arts organizations, utilizing social media and modern technology. The idea is that some seats in your house are reserved for people who wish to utilize their phone during the show. These patrons use Twitter or other social media to discuss and engage the performance at hand. Usually these seats are less expensive and in the back of the house, so as to not disturb the other patrons.

Some people (read: me) love the idea – others hate it, and the most thoughtful question its ability to truly increase engagement. Regardless, Tweet Seats are here to stay. Huffpo has written on them, Wolf Trap has used them, and now some troll claims to have successfully patented them.

The story dropped back in March, but it’s still very relevant to anyone considering using Tweet Seats in an upcoming production. Inselberg Interactive is the company holding the patent, whose language refers specifically to sporting events, but they have already demanded license fees from a nonprofit theatre in Connecticut. Ars Technica has the full story and analysis, but it basically boils down to this:

The company holding the patent doesn’t claim to have invented the smart phone technology or the social media apps Tweet Seats utilize. They claim to have invented the process of, I don’t know, tweeting at live events. Still with me? Good.

Patents, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office protect inventions and improvements to existing inventions. They also, according to my one semester of law class, must be novel and non-obvious. This patent was issued in 2005: Twitter didn’t exist and baby Facebook was just starting to let high school students in. At that time, this probably was a novel idea – but it was just an idea. Patents don’t usually apply well to ideas, they need a more tangible form.

Patents can be challenged and litigated against, but that costs time and legal fees. Given that this troll has turned their focus to the non-profit world, it’s unclear if those are available resources.

And when you consider that patents have a minimum shelf life of 14 years, I don’t think it’ll be going away unless someone smacks them down in court.

Did Black Friday Shopping Kill Social Media Advertising?

“Marketers looking to get more the most bang for their buck with […] advertising might skip social media altogether” – Lauren Gores (Mashable)

The words stopped my social media manager heart cold – Facebook barely contributed anything to Black Friday sales and I can already hear the complaints now: Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year. Everyone goes shopping on Black Friday. Everyone advertises on Facebook. If Everyone didn’t use Facebook to make purchasing decisions on Black Friday THEY NEVER WILL and we might as well give up now.

I could hear hypothetical red buttons being pushed as non-profits all over the country shut down their social media outreach. I was panicking. But were my fears entirely founded? Could non-profit organizations have a profit-driven relationship with social media, or is it strictly for community engagement?

This matter is irrelevant if non-profits are not using social media. Fortunately, the 2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report indicates that nonprofits are extremely present on social media. Ninety-eight percent of the nonprofits surveyed reported they had a presence on Facebook, and 72% maintained a presence on Twitter. This is especially impressive when you consider only 66% of American adults online use Facebook (Brenner) and only 15% of online adults utilize Twitter (Smith). Additionally, nonprofits manage an average of 2.9 pages on Facebook and 1.43 accounts on Twitter (“2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report”).

Why are these organizations so aggressively creating spaces for themselves in these realms? The organizations themselves identified marketing and fundraising as the top two purposes for maintaining a social media presence (“2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report”). These purposes are separate and not equal, however, as 93% identified marketing as a purpose while only 55% identified fundraising. Most reported that the responsibility for their social media pages fell to the Marketing department in 2012. This was a departure from every previous year, when the task fell to Communications. It is pretty clear that nonprofits feel their social media presences are vital marketing tools in a digital age.

Of course, I should return to the original question – should we panic at the concept of using social media to hawk one’s wares because mega retailers couldn’t hack it on Black Friday? Maybe. IBM reported that Facebook generated only 0.68% of online sales on Black Friday – less than last year’s Black Friday and actually much less than the sales generated on the Friday the week before (a whooping 0.82%) (“IBM 2012 Holiday Benchmark Reports”). Twitter contributed a grand total of 0% of the revenue – that’s not rounding down. That’s just a 0. Additionally, the IBM report also notes that the conversion rate of shoppers was only 4.58%, meaning that less than 5% of Americans who visited a webpage actually purchased anything on Black Friday.

Before anyone actually gives up hope for internet commerce, let’s consider these mysterious Black Friday shoppers. Marketers would have you believe it is Everyone who shops on Black Friday, as a matter of American tradition. This falls a bit short of the truth. A Gallup poll conducted before the actual day shows that only 18% of respondents planned to do any shopping on Black Friday (Newport). The majority of these respondents, 95%, listed the good sales/cheap prices as an “important reason” for their decision to shop on Black Friday. This is consistent with such a low conversion rate – potential shoppers visited webpages to search for deals and if they could not find them, simply left. So the idea of social media advertising being a failure is less true than it first appears: only a small percentage of Americans shop on Black Friday, most who visit a webpage do not purchase anything, so social media could not play a huge role in these sales because there was no huge role for it to fill. Additionally, as a Mashable article on the story pointed out, social ads “are a part of a larger strategy” that move people off their computer and into stores (Mashable).

Which brings me back to the question of whether or not social media should be used to sell things. The non-profits arts community has been considering this question recently as well. The past National Arts Marketing Project Conference (NAMPC) featured a panel on the subject. “Meet Your Customers Where They Live: How to Harness the Sales Power of Facebook” generated a lot of buzz on Twitter as attendees livetweeted the core messages of the panel. Twitter user Katy Peace (@katymatic) suggested the panel “has finally made a compelling case for this FB ticketing app.” Nella Vera (@spinstripes) quoted panelist Lisa Middleton in her tweet, “Lisa Middleton: FB sales for arts will succeed for same reason it failed for other retailers. Buying tix to cultural event is SOCIAL. #NAMPC”. Reinforcing the social element, Facebook profile pictures appear in the seat the user has purchased, creating a holistic, engaging experience.

“Tickets purchased on Facebook show Facebook profile pics in the seats purchased by that person. Brilliant. #NAMPC” - @ASC_CathyB

For me, that’s the rub. Social networks are called “social” for a reason. Social media marketing creates engaged online communities, and engaged communities will support a nonprofit. Only one third of the nonprofits who use Facebook to fundraise utilize individual giving (“2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report”). I think there is a real missed opportunity for non-profits to use social media as something more than marketing, and it lies with the few people who are willing to shop on Black Friday.

There is an interesting correlation between the users of social media and Black Friday shoppers. The largest group of respondents (34%) who indicated they would go shopping was ages 18 to 29 (Newport).  Social media usage tends to skew towards younger users as well; half of Facebook and Twitter users fall between the ages of 18 and 35 (49% and 60% respectively) (Hampton). These users fall within the age range of the Millennial generation. Millennials know what they want and are interested in advancing a nonprofit’s mission. The majority (55%) prefer to learn about a non-profit organization through social media and even more (67%) have interacted with a non-profit on Facebook (“The Millennial Impact Report 2012”). Millennials prefer to give donations to non-profits, and an incredible 75% of them gave a financial gift to an organization in 2011.

In theory, this seems like a perfect recipe for success. We have a large population (the Millennials), who likes giving to organizations, and we know how/where they would like to send their contribution. And yet, only about half of non-profits actually fundraise on social media and these efforts are coming from Marketing, not the Development department (“2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report”). Where’s the disconnect happening?

Perhaps it correlates to the size of the gifts: Millennials tend to give less than $100 to any single organization (“The Millennial Impact Report 2012”). Many small non-profits may not have the time or resources to invest in cultivating such small gifts. These organizations have to consider the future investment of these individuals, however. Seventy percent of Millennials did give online last year, they prefer to give online, and that probably won’t change any time soon.

At this time, a profit-driven approach to social media is still a fringe idea within the non-profit world. There are options for organizations who want to be on the cutting edge, like ticket sales and fundraising through social media platforms. These ideas, while nascent, have been used to a degree of success by the organizations brave enough to adopt them. For the rest of the non-profit community, utilizing social media as a marketing tool is still a good strategy. And, while it’s disheartening that social media contributed so very little to Black Friday sales, it probably is not relevant.

Happy New Year from Technology in the Arts!

Welcome to the new year! Technology in the Arts had an amazing 2012, and we're looking forward to an even stronger 2013! There's always room for improvement, and the staff was kind enough to share their tech resolutions for the coming year. Check them out on the right!

In 2013 I resolve to...stay off my sisters' Facebook accounts (maybe) and to make my daily photo blog an ACTUAL daily photo blog! - Elizabeth

In 2013, I resolve to use Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram more frequently than Chinese social media.

I will develop a good habit to reply every important email within one day.

I resolve to regularly read about latest technology.

I will convoy my exciting new findings of the world to others via social media.

- Vivi

I resolve that my 2 year old son doesn't start figuring out how to use a new tech tool before I do. - Kathryn

Publish an e-book on Gamification in the Arts, learn how to use my new smart phone (my first one oddly), and find an employer that loves technology and the arts as much as I do. - Andre

I will master prezi

I will be a better Facebook friend

I will spread creativity at least once a day

And, of course,

I will  read, like, tweet and follow technology on the arts! - Brett

This year I develop concrete social media campaigns and finally upgrade to a new phone! - Rachael

We had many great articles here on Tech in the Arts in 2012 - here's but a small sampling of our fantastic pieces:

Data vs. Message: Which wins arts patrons? 

Pinterest 101 for Arts Organizations

How Google Art Project Benefits the Public

Planning for when things fail

Wanted: Arts Managers

Gaming or Gamification: A Tool for the Arts

Looking at the Land: The Crowdsourced, Digital Exhibition (Part 1) (Part 2) 

Take off your fundraiser hat! Kickstarter Tips with Stephanie Pereira

Redefining Participation: Notes from the Newspaper Industry

Telemarketing is Dead - and I killed it

SFMOMA Families App Drives Away Gallery Fatigue

Interview with Terre Jones

As 2013 begins, we can't help but be excited about the future. What technologies are you excited to learn or master in the coming year?

Why in the Arts World Don't You Have a Pinterest?

Haven’t you heard? Pinterest: Now Officially Better Than Yahoo and Bing* *Sort of.

The story dropped earlier this month: Pinterest referred more people to websites in August than Yahoo and Bing. What that means is that more people visited Website X by clicking on content (generated from Website X) that is on Pinterest, than people did by searching for Website X on Yahoo or Bing. Which is huge – the little-social-media-that-could topped industry giants, if only by a few decimal points.

The report came from Shareaholic, a social media tool for sharing websites, on just about every social media platform. They have tools for sharing pages from your browser, to putting buttons on your site to allow your visitors to share your content. The Shareaholic Analytics tool tracks who’s sharing your work, and how visitors are reaching you – which is where this report comes from. Shareaholic Analytics also points out that traffic from Pinterest has doubled in the past four months and “is now the fourth largest traffic source in the world”. Can that possibly be true?

Maybe. Search Engine Optimization is a tricky beast and there are a few drawbacks to the report. Shareaholic can only measure the websites currently using its tools – which is a network of 200,000 publishers, who reach 300 million people each month. While that sounds like a suitable sample size, it does depend on the makeup and content of each website, their level of SEO sophistication, etc, etc.

Of course, why am I telling you this? The arts community, while generally not on the bleeding edge, hasn’t been idle on the Pinterest front. The always-cool SFMOMA has boards upon boards of art. The Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre boards give us a glimpse behind the scenes of their shows and soirees.  Heck, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra pins everything from fanmail and music jokes to gorgeous music halls and their musicians. The fact is, Pinterest’s layout and content lends itself to arts organizations. (But for real people, you can pin videos – and I have yet to see a performances board!) Shareaholic says that Pinterest is one of the best ways to send people to your website. Why don’t you have one yet?

It could be time, it could be money, it's probably a mixture of both. Maybe, like skeptics of this report, you need more time to make an assessment. There are larger implications here: that “sharing” is greater than “searching,” visuals more important than text, and that your friends know what you should look at better than some algorithm. This was still just one report, using one social sharing service, for one month, however, and only time will tell if these trends continue – but maybe you and your organization should take a closer look at Pinterest. We have tools to help you set one up.

Where We Are and Where We've Been - Annual Report

It has been almost a full year since I joined Technology in the Arts, thanks to the Master of Arts Management program at Carnegie Mellon University. As we enter another school year and prepare for a new group of research associates, we’ve got a look back at the past year. Research Associate Terry Boyd prepared this Annual Report with our highlights, summaries, and where we have room to improve.

Tech in the Arts Annual Report

If you're a fan of metrics, be sure to check out the report. Here are some of my favorites:

Highlights

• Staff size! We added 5 authors last year!
• Page views jumped by 63%
• Visitor total increased by 78%

Social Media

• Even though our Facebook page is only 2 years old, Facebook is our largest traffic source
• Over 7,000 clicks from Facebook posts led to our blog posts last year.
• Our Twitter account saw an increase of followers by 28%

There's plenty of room for improvement (always!) and we hope readers will join us in the next year! We also have a friendly, non-flash version of the report here.

Pittsburgh's GoogleServe 2012

Technology solutions can be a challenge to any nonprofit. You're trying to do too many things with too little staff, and the last thing on your mind is how you're going to find room in the budget for an IT guy or gal. Thankfully, if you're based in Pittsburgh, there may be a solution.

GoogleServe 2012 is a full day of local Google employees helping nonprofits maximize their utilization of the products and services Google can provide.The event, now in its 4th year, will feature sessions for both the clueless and those who already have Google products in place at their nonprofits. GoogleServe is hosted by HandsOn Tech, Pittsburgh Cares, and, obviously, Google.

HandsOn Tech is a local nonprofit, seeking to help other Pittsburgh-area nonprofits with technology training and support. I had the opportunity to attend one of their workshops last month, about using Google+ for Nonprofits and really enjoyed the experience. If you have time to volunteer your tech skills, I highly recommend checking out their site.

Pittsburgh GoogleServe 2012 will be held Friday, June 15 at Google Pittsburgh in Bakery Square. For more information and to register, check out their website.

In Case You Missed It - May 2012

Things are slowing down here at Tech in the Arts as we prepare to enter our summer schedule. A decrease in posts does not mean a decrease in quality, however, and this past month we had some great articles.

• Before you utilize social media, Playing by the Rules: Creating a Social Media Plan
• A practical guide of Six Ways Arts Organizations Can Improve Their Facebook Advertising
• Continuing our fascination with 'gaming' in the arts world by Touring the Lourve with a Nintendo 3DS
• Still Up for Debate: What is the Best Way to Fund the Arts in America?
• We always knew, but now it has been Confirmed by Nonprofit Quarterly: Generating online content is NOT optional
• Finally it's Time to Artify It
• Then maybe head over to Artstack: the Social Platform for Discovering Art through People
• Also consider Turning Around Education with the Turnaround Arts Initiative

Overall, a really great month. Here's to June!

25 Best Kickstarter Tips for Creative Students

While blockbuster Kickstarter projects receive a lot of attention, it's important to remember that small projects have more success on the website than these massive funding campaigns. We talk a lot about the best ways for organizations and artists to utilize Kickstarter, but what about students who haven't entered the field yet? Fortunately a Tech in the Arts reader pointed us to this article on BachelorDegreesOnline.com's blog with 25 Best Kickstarter Tips for Creative Students. It's got some great tips that every Kickstarter project could benefit from. One of my favorite tips on the list is number 24:

24. Engage your audience

A neglected Kickstarter page is one that will likely go unfunded. Be careful not to simply set up shop and walk away. Rather, you've got to stick around, posting updates, answering questions, and interacting with the people who have put their faith and money into your project. Your backers want to be a part of what you're doing, and you've got to make an effort to let them do that.

After all, isn't engagement the ultimate goal of web 2.0? To read the rest of the tips, click here.

In Case You Missed It - April 2012

April showers brought May flowers and some great articles here on Tech in the Arts. In case you missed it, here are some of our highlights from the month. We had the honor of featuring Kickstarter Art Program Director Stephanie Pereira in our speaker series, and offered our additional thoughts on her visit on the blog. We also took some time to reflect on how cities are thinking about art differently and Melissa Snoza of Fifth House Ensemble elaborated on how her organization thinks about art and technology. Since new technologies are constantly improving how organizations function, we took a look at Eventbrite’s Newest Ticketing system for your iPad!

The Google Art Project is often on our minds, and we took a look at its new home – The White House. It’s a global application, and we discussed it along with Art.sy as methods to help us understand our cultural universe. A universe that expanded into the realm of the internet with the BMW Tate Live.

What a month! As our school year draws to a close, we hope your May is as pleasant as those flowers we’ve been promised.

Let's Talk About Tumblr: Part 3 [mini-nar]

Tumblr is one of those platforms I love to talk about - and this mini-nar is for those who love it too. I've got cool tricks and tips, but this mini-nar moves are a pretty good clip. If you haven't seen our other posts on Tumblr, maybe check those out before you watch this. We discussed the arts communities possible shift towards Tumblr, some of the recent updates, and last week - in the second part of this series - we had a mini-nar on the basics of creating a Tumblr. If you feel you've got all that down, here's a lesson in really engaging a Tumblr audience. http://youtu.be/HAqAO0VgukA

Newsweek and Anderson both have great Tumblrs, and I was excited to feature them this week. Call Me A Heinzer is a hilarious Tumblr (and personal fave, as Tech in the Arts is an initiative from the Master of Arts Management program of Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College).

If you or your arts organization have a Tumblr, please let us know! Write a comment! I'd love to see what you're doing!

Let's Talk About Tumblr: Part 2 [mini-nar]

If you haven't heard about Tumblr, you haven't been reading Tech in the Arts. Tumblr just announced they will be including ads in their service soon, and has been making waves in the news. We've talked about the use of Tumblr for the arts communities, the latest updates to Tumblr, and now we're proud to present a mini-nar on how to use Tumblr. New technology can seem prohibitive, but this mini-webinar is designed to show you how simple Tumblr can be, and how other arts organizations are utilizing Tumblr. http://youtu.be/m8fT-RJhizc

Featured Tumblr blogs include SFMOMA, February 30th Productions, and Cave to Canvas.

Part 3 of our "Let's Talk About Tumblr" series will be posted next friday - but in the mean time, how are you using Tumblr? Is your arts organization reaching out to the community on Tumblr? Tell us about your success (or failure!)

In Case You Missed It - March 2012

March was a delightful month, and I hope you also enjoyed that brief taste of summer we got here in Pittsburgh. We featured some great posts here, and if you missed them the first time around, here’s a brief recap:

We took a dive into the world of QR codes with QRpedia, then headed to Wikipedia with part one and part two of our interview with Lori Byrd Phillips, a Wikipedian in Residence. Not yet satiated, we took on Pinterest in a mini-nar and a work of art that will Tweet back at you.

There’s also a theoretical side to technology and the arts, and we heard from a Millennial about the death of telemarketing. However, people love to give to the arts through Kickstarter, and we had a great discussion on the role of the arts in economic development. Not all is well, and we took a look at the loss of public funding for the arts in Europe.

Carnegie Mellon hosted a lovely TED event, TEDxCMU, which had some artistic implications.

We have another installment to our speaker series today (March 30), starting at 12:30 EST – with the Art Program Director of KICKSTARTER, Stephanie Pereira. Hit us up on Twitter to follow along with the conversation @TechInTheArts

Dang, what a great month! Here’s hoping April is just as awesome. Enjoy your weekend, folks!

Sweet Pantone Tarts

Spring seems to have sprung here in Pittsburgh, and having a week off on spring break makes everything seem lovely. It is under that guise I present this post to you purely for aesthetic reasons. Emilie Guelpa is a French artist/blogger/chef who has created these masterful (et très mignon) tarts inspired by Pantone colors. While I can totally imagine eating them in the café of an art museum, they were created for the magazine Fricote and posted on her blog Griottes. While the blog is currently French only, Guelpa promises an English translation version very soon. In the mean time, you can check out her Pinterest and dream about delightfully colorful tarts.

Well, that’s all I’ve got. I hope you have a great weekend planned and nice weather to enjoy it!