Six Ways to Improve How Your Arts Organization Uses Google Analytics

Guest blogger Erik Gensler is the President of Capacity Interactive, a digital marketing consulting firm for performing arts orgs. This fall Capacity Interactive is hosting the inaugural Digital Marketing Boot Camp for Arts Marketers, a 2-day conference October 20-21 in NYC.  Conference topics include email marketing,  online advertising, fundraising, social media, and the topic of this blog post, website analytics. More information at http://www.dmbootcamp4arts.com

If you sell tickets or accept donations on your website, you are, at least in part, an ecommerce company.  And like ecommerce companies do, you must pay attention to your web analytics.  This becomes even more important as the percentage of overall ticket sales and donations on your website grows, as it most likely does each year.  How can you improve your website if you do not measure?  Or if your measurement is not accurate or complete?

Most performing arts organizations have a Google Analytics account.  For many orgs, it was probably set up by the vendor who built your website.  Often the Google Analytics code was added as an afterthought to the site and not really integrated into the site build.  You have a powerful tool at your fingertips, so why not make the most of it and set it up to provide you with the most useful and accurate information?

For organizations that really want to get a grip on understanding their online traffic and trends, here are six ways to improve you use Google Analytics.

1.) Configure Goals to track important pages and user behavior

What are the goals of your website?  For most arts orgs, goals include: selling tickets, raising money, engaging patrons, and providing information about programming and services.  You can configure Google Analytics (hereafter, “GA”) to measure these goals for you. If your goal is user engagement, for example, you can set up GA to track the percentage of visitors who spend more than a certain number of minutes on your site, or view more than a certain number of pages, or sign up for your email list. (Wouldn’t it be great to know the percentage of users that sign up for your email list? Or spend more than 3 minutes looking through your offerings? Or visit key pages?)

Technologically, goals are very easy to set up.  The only tricky part is if your goals involve Flash. GA can not measure Flash actions (such as viewing a video on a Flash player) without some custom configuration.

See here for more details on setting up goals.

2.) Tag all emails and promotions with Google Analytics Tracking Code

For driving sales, email is still king. Many orgs still do not know how much money each email they send generates in sales and donations. How can you improve your emails if you can't track how successful they are in converting sales? In order for GA to track your emails you must tag each link in the email with a GA tracking code. If you do not tag the links, GA just sees each visitor that comes from an email as coming from the site where they received the email (e.g. Gmail, Hotmail, AOL). All your email traffic will be categorized by the email service provider they came from, making tracking difficult.  The GA code appends the name of the email, say “October Newsletter” (source), to the fact that it came from an email (medium), with info about each particular link, say “Ticket Offer”, through a "campaign" variable.

So your email link will look like this:

http://www.MyOrganizationsSite.com/?utm_source=October_Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Ticket_Offer

You can build your links through this handy tool here.

In addition to tagging emails, you should tag all promotions and ads on third-party sites.  This way, you can differentiate the traffic from the promotion versus organic traffic on that site. For example, if you are placing ads on Facebook, make sure to label the medium as “CPC.” If you don't do this, GA will not be able to differentiate your ads from organic Facebook referrals.

Finally, in order to track the dollars generated from each email you must also have ecommerce tracking set up.

3.) Set up ecommerce tracking if you accept donations or sell tickets online

The benefit of ecommerce tracking is that it ties users’ behavior to sales. Once set up, any other metric that GA measures can be tied to resulting sales, so you can see, for example, which traffic sources are sending you users that purchase tickets or donate.  You can also see what pages of your site are most valuable, what geographies are most valuable, and how much money your last email, promotion, or ad generated.  This will equip you to make better marketing decisions.

Setting up the tracking requires some knowledge and technical know-how. A programmer must have access to your site's "thank you" page where they can pull in the summary of any sale.  This is relatively simple if the ecommerce is on your site. It gets a little trickier if your sales occur on a third- party site.  See here for more details on setting up ecommerce tracking.

4.) Set up automatic reports to send to key stakeholders

If you were a large corporation you'd have the resources to have someone research and pull custom reports to share with stakeholders each week, but most arts orgs don't have the manpower to spare.  Luckily you can configure GA to send custom reports to stakeholders at any duration (daily, weekly, monthly). You can send different reports to various stakeholders depending on their role within the organization and interests.

For example, the person who manages your online shop may want to see a weekly report on the keywords that are driving visits and sales to the shop.  Your marketing director may want to see the dollars generated by your emails each week and the top sources driving site traffic. You can set all of these up and have them automatically send to each user.  This tool can be found under "Custom Reports" on the left margin of your GA dashboard on the current version, or on the top menu of the new GA interface.

5.) Schedule regular meetings to review site performance

In order for any of your GA efforts to be successful, you should work to develop a "culture of analytics" at your organization.  Create a cross-departmental committee that meets regularly to discuss your site's performance. Select one person to chair this committee. The more streamlined GA information you can provide to the committee the more useful these meetings will become. After just a few meetings, users throughout your organization will be reaching out to you to help them answer questions about website performance.  As more and more sales and donations move to your site, these meetings will become even more important.

6.) Filter out your internal IP addresses

No doubt the staff of your organization visits your website many times during a typical work day.  You can filter this traffic out.  Within the analytics settings, go to "Filter Manager" and enter your IP address or IP range. (You can find your IP address at www.IPChicken.com).  This will block all internal traffic, which would otherwise skew your data.

These six items will help you collect and share more useful website analytic data.  Ultimately, you will be able to better measure how your users are interacting with your site, and use this information to improve your digital marketing efforts.

When Disaster Strikes, are you ArtsReady?

A year ago, we told you about ArtsReady, a program sponsored by SouthArts that provides tools for organizations to create crisis management plans. Now, SouthArts has unveiled a brand-new ArtsReady site with a step-by-step readiness assessment, task manager, and “battle buddies” system that will help your organization to protect its assets and continue operations no matter what fate throws your way. Not Just for Natural Disasters

With their work with UC Berkeley and Fractured Atlas, the ArtsReady folks learned that you can’t have a separate plan for each emergency- instead, you need a protocol for any kind of crisis (what’s called all-hazard planning). These hazards can include incapacitation of a key staff member, a financial crisis, and of course a natural disaster. Malcolm White, executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission explained in the webcast last Thursday that “It’s like dental floss, or insurance.” It’s boring, but necessary- and you’ll regret it if you don’t have it.

ArtsReady Features

• Assessment

The readiness assessment quiz is designed to take less than an hour. It lets you determine which functions are most critical, and how prepared your organization is if they suddenly go offline.

• To-Do List

Based on the input into the readiness assessment, ArtsReady generates a list of things your organization must address to be prepared for an emergency. But it’s not just a list- you can assign tasks to staff members and track your progress. The software will send out reminders of due dates and can remind you to update your plan annually or semi-annually.

• Critical Stuff

Katy Malone, Arts Ready Project Manager, describes this feature as a “safe deposit box” for your organization. It’s cloud-based storage for your critical documents. Don’t worry- Fractured Atlas triple checked it for security and reliability.

• Battle Buddies

If it’s one thing artists and arts organizations have learned from Katrina, Hugo, the World Series Earthquake, flooding, and crazy tornadoes, it’s that disasters are bearable if you have somebody to help you out. The ArtsReady site will connect you with organizations near you so that you can build a relationship and eventually become Battle Buddies- pledging to lend a hand if the other needs help. If you do need to declare a crisis, you can choose how much information to share with whom, and you can track your progress towards gathering the needed resources online.

Membership

Anyone can sign up for a free basic membership, giving you access to the Readiness Library. It’s full of articles and step-by-step guides to help you design your all-hazard plan. (Go sign up now! You heard me say it’s free, right?) A premium membership, which gives you access to the four features mentioned above, is $300 a year ($500 for commercial organizations). Be aware, however, that if your membership lapses for more than a few months, you’ll no longer have access to the “critical stuff” you stored in the cloud.

A network like this is stronger and more useful the more users it has. Accordingly, SouthArts’ goal is to get every organization on this network. Let me repeat that- their goal is that 100% of artists and arts organizations will use this product. To that end, they are working with state and local arts agencies as well as sponsors to try to lower the cost for everyone.

If you’re not convinced it’s worth it, take a listen to our podcast with Hannah Leatherbury, former E-Services Manager for SouthArts, and check out the Green Paper on emergency preparedness published by the Craft Emergency Relief Fund and Artists’ Emergency Resources last year.

Last.fm: Translating Digital Audiences into Live Audiences

Recently I was chatting with someone I’d just met about classical music. We exchanged favorite composers, and then I asked him about the last time he went to a symphony concert. “Actually . . . I don’t know if I’ve ever been to one. It just doesn’t occur to me to go.” It got me thinking- how many people out there love listening Tchaikovsky or Beethoven on their mp3 players but don’t know the first thing about finding a live music concert featuring their favorite composers or pieces of music? It goes for other genres too, like jazz and folk, especially for artists and presenters that can’t afford to saturate the mass media.

There are a few different services that suggest live concerts based on your existing music library and listening habits, and Songkick and last.fm are the most prominent. I also just discovered GigZme, which shows you all the concerts coming up in your area on a map, separated by genre (but they leave out country, jazz, classical, and folk- what’s up with that, GigZme?).

Songkick’s database isn’t set up to handle classical music, where “artist” can refer to any number of people (Composer? Conductor? Ensemble? Soloist?) and “track” titles are either ridiculously long (String Quartet in G Minor No. 10 Op. 90, Movement 1: Anime et tres decide) or completely unhelpful (Allegro). Songkick does, however, automatically import concerts from last.fm, so you don’t have to enter concerts into Songkick if you don’t want.

Last.fm, on the other hand, is much more suited to classical music, with artist pages for composers long dead. If a composer is tagged as being an artist in a concert, however, this has the comedic effect of advertising that the he or she is “on tour”.

The nice thing about entering concerts into the last.fm database is that you can tag not only artists, but albums and works, and sometimes you can embed previews of the music, all within the last.fm site by using simple buttons at the bottom of the editing page. That way, if someone has Puccini in their library, or has made the track “O Mio Babbino Caro” one of their “favorites,” a concert featuring Puccini will show up on their recommended events.

After entering both symphonic concerts and folk concerts into last.fm (anyone can add an event), I found it much easier to input the folk concerts. It’s very simple to embed previews for songs and links to albums because the names of the songs and albums don’t change. For classical music, however, it was much harder to dig through all of the tracks for a certain composer to find the right one I wanted to preview (because of the data inconsistently mentioned above). I found it easier to embed YouTube links to performances of the pieces. It was simple to tag the artists and composers, though. In the end, last.fm might be easier and more useful for orchestras’ pop concerts rather than their all-classical or “masterworks” shows, even though it’s doable for both.

No one wants one more site that they have to list all their concerts on. Believe me, I’ve spent enough time interning, I understand! But services like last.fm, unlike most events listing sites, can link your organization to existing fans of the artists you present. I think it’s worth it- why not try it out?

Remembering 9/11 in Art

As we prepare for this memorial weekend, Tech in the Arts rounded up a few highlights of events taking place in commemoration of the September 11th attacks.

WNYC's Guide to 9/11 Arts Events

While this is an extensive and comprehensive guide to events in New York city, we pulled out a couple of particularly interesting ones relating to technology:

• "What Matters Now?Proposals for a New Front Page" at the Aperture Gallery

This exhibition space will begin with blank walls. Over the course of two weeks, six artists will fill the walls with crowdsourced images, video projections and multimedia works reflecting what they believe are today's most pressing issues. The six artists are Wafaa Bilal, Melissa Harris, Stephen Mayes, Joel Meyerowitz, Fred Ritchin and Deborah Willis. The gallery will blog and tweet what comes out of the show online (hashtag: #whatmattersnow). Opens on Sept. 7, in Manhattan.

• 9/11 Memorial

If you can't make it to the memorial, you can preview it here. On the site, there's an interactive timeline, as well as information about a "100 stories app" that uses augmented reality to superimpose the towers onto Manhattan's skyline.

The September 11 Digital Archive

This site offers stories, emails, photos, and interviews mainly from visitors to the site. Unfortunately many of the interviews are in typed form rather than video, but it offers a large repository of information about people's reactions to the attacks.

9/11 Arts Project

A collaboration of artists, social activists, non-profits and interfaith groups in the greater Washington metropolitan area that explores individual, community, and global healing ten years after 9/11.

Follow #911art to be informed of the latest events in this festival of activities that began in August and will continue to September 15. Events include the charity concert, screenings of documentaries, live theater, speakers, and more.

 Shanksville and Flight 93

The National Flight 93 Memorial will be dedicated on Sunday in Shanksville, PA. Yahoo! News has published a very interesting interview with architect Paul Murdoch about the challenges of designing in a remote area and of the controversies and difficulties in designing a public art piece for a nation.

Google Resources for Arts Nonprofits

A lot of people search for “google arts grants” and end up at our site -- in particular, this article. The problem is, Google doesn’t really do arts grants (sorry!) -- no money to mount an exhibition, produce a new work, or do an educational program. Instead, they mostly give large grants to causes in developing countries, especially when they involve improving ways to manipulate data. What Google will give your arts organization, however, are tools to help you accomplish your mission and do your job better. Some of these tools are free, and some of them are free if you are accepted into the Google for Nonprofits program (and available for a price if you’re not). Below is a list of most of them.

Free Tools from Google

• Google for Nonprofits Blog

The first thing you should do if you’re interested in free tips from Google is to subscribe to this blog. It will keep you updated on all the new (free) Google apps and tools, as well as announcements about benchmark studies and contests that Google sponsors.

• Learn with Google

This is where you can view a bunch of short, easy to understand video tutorials about most of the tools listed in this post. You can check out how to set up Google Alerts to track mentions of your organization on the web. There’s a whole online classroom set up for Google AdWords (learning about it is free, but unless you get a grant, you’ll be paying for your AdWords). Also don’t miss Google Analytics - a free tool to track who visits your website, how much time they spend on which pages, and how deep visitors go into your site. (You can also check out the Google Analytics Bootcamp webinar David did this past spring).

• You Tube

Everybody knows about YouTube- but did you know that Google has provided some pretty nifty tips on how to get more hits on your videos and make them work for your organization? It’s true! There's advice on how to customize your channel, what content to post, and how to distribute that content. Video is the future, you guys.

• Website Optimizer

Have you ever wondered if you could increase online donations or pageviews just by tweaking your website a little? Now you can find out. Website Optimizer is a free multi-variant testing tool. It shows different versions of your site to different people in order to test which version is best. You can set up different things you want to measure (overall visits? bounce rate? pageviews? amount of donations?), the different versions of your site, and Optimizer does the rest. Testing to the rescue!

• Google Forms

Forms is basically like a combination of Doodle and Survey Monkey. You email a group of people a form, they enter their responses, and those responses are automatically entered into a Google Docs spreadsheet. Forms also provides a template that automatically generates charts to visualize your data. Busywork of entering responses into spreadsheets, be gone!

• Google Sites

This is a tool that would be great for larger organizations, or for anyone who collaborates remotely. It would also be useful for teaching artists who need to communicate with their students. Google Sites allows you to set up your own website where you can share information, like photos, resumes, notes, and more. Of course, you could also do this with Google Docs, but this way you can customize it more and you don’t have to constantly email people to give them access.

• Google Fusion Tables

Fusion Tables enables you to quickly and easily share data with others and then visualize that data using charts and graphs. The coolest thing about Fusion is its mapping capabilities. If any of your data involves a location, it will put those data points on a map. You can also set up the map to give different categories of data (number of performances, amount of grant money received, etc) different colors. This would be useful for arts agencies, any kind of touring, or education programs that target rural areas.

• Google Earth & Google Maps

More geolocation tools to tell your story online! With My Maps on Google Maps you can create a map of places important to your organization (click on “My places” and then “Create Map”). Maybe it’s a public art walking tour, or a map of where your art is being displayed. You can add pictures, links, and more to the points on your map. You can also annotate locations on Google Earth using much the same method. More customization is available with Google Earth Pro, but unless you are a Google Grants recipient, that’ll cost you.

• Blogger

Not much to say- a free blogging website. There are lots of other resources out there about blogging, so I’ll just leave it at- it’s free!

• Open Data Kit

From the website:

"Open Data Kit (ODK) is a free and open-source set of tools which help organizations author, field, and manage mobile data collection solutions. ODK provides an out-of-the-box solution for users to:

1. Build a data collection form or survey;
2. Collect the data on a mobile device and send it to a server; and
3. Aggregate the collected data on a server and extract it in useful formats."

This seems like it’s primarily for developing countries and social services, but I could see it being useful for arts agencies, like if you’re collecting data on economic impact.

Paid Tools- free if you are in the Google for Nonprofits Program

(By the way . . . if you’re dreading a huge grant application, don’t. The application is only one page and will take you all of five minutes).

• Google AdWords (Google Grants)

If you apply and are accepted into the Google Grants/Google for Nonprofits Program, you receive up to $10,000 of free AdWords advertising each month.

From the website: "Organizations that receive a Google Grant are awarded an in-kind online advertising account which can be used it in a variety of ways, including general outreach, fundraising activities, and recruitment of volunteers."

For more information about Google Grants, as well as a testimonial from an artist who was accepted, see Josh’s article from a few years ago (still relevant!).

• YouTube for Nonprofits

While it’s free to upload videos to your own YouTube channel, when you’re in the Google for Nonprofits Program, you also get (according to the website):

• Premium branding capabilities and increased uploading capacity
• The option to drive fundraising through a Google Checkout "Donate" button
• Listing on the Nonprofit channels and the Nonprofit videos pages
• Ability to add a Call-to-action overlay on your videos to drive campaigns

• Google Checkout

When an individual signs up with Google Checkout, Google saves their credit card information, making purchasing quick and easy. For vendors and charities, enrolling with Google Checkout means that you can have a simple one-click button for patrons to donate or buy. Again, this service is free if you’re in the Google for Nonprofits program, otherwise monthly sales under $3,000 cost 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

That’s some of the resources that Google provides to arts nonprofits. Have you used them? What has been your experience? Are there any others that our readers should know about? Share your comments below.

Streaming Options for Jazz Heads!

Last month, after releasing our report on Developing Jazz and Classical Audiences with Technology, NPR reported on findings from the ongoing Jazz Audiences Initiative project. Both studies have suggested that social networking sites and Internet music discovery tools often play a key role in developing younger audiences for jazz. With the recent U.S. launch of streaming service, Spotify, there has been much discussion about the usefulness and economic sustainability of 'On-Demand' platforms. While streaming content can be a powerful audience development tool, many are concerned that users are becoming more and more accustomed to free content. Today, I wanted to give a quick overview of three jazz specific presenting organizations and festivals who have launched 'streaming' and 'on-demand' platforms.

1. Smalls Jazz Club :

   Smalls is one of New York's premiere jazz clubs, boasting full line-ups just about every night of the week. The club regularly streams concerts      on its webpage from 7:30-closing time.

2. Newport Jazz Festival:

The Newport Jazz Festival has always been on the forefront when it comes to jazz festivals. This past year's festival was no different, as the lineup was mainly "anti-headliners", featuring many up-and-coming musicians. While the jazz festival hasn't been as successful in the past as its sister folk festival, founder George Wein continues to  experiment and push the boundaries. Both the jazz and folk festivals were live streamed and archived. The complete archive can be accessed at NPR's website.

3. The Checkout: Live from 92Y:

The Checkout is a new series created by Joshua Jackson, host of WBGO’s hour-long music magazine The Checkout, who is widely recognized as an unparalleled enthusiast for modern expressions in jazz. Curated by Jackson in conjunction with 92YTribeca, The Checkout: Live features some of the most exciting and innovative players on the NYC scene for monthly concerts that will are broadcast live on WBGO as well as streamed on WBGO.org. Portions will also be recorded for future broadcast and podcast as part of The Checkout. Performances are also archived at NPR.org/music. For a complete schedule of upcoming performances, please visit their website.

The Arts - Unplugged?

It’s summer, and many people are taking the opportunity to “unplug.” Some are checking into special unplugged hotel rooms (and even getting a discount if they turned in their electronic devices at the desk). Others are paying as much as $14,500 to check in to a clinic that would help them conquer their Internet addiction. Last March, GOOD and the Sabbath Manifesto promoted the National Day of Unplugging, where participants disconnected from the internet for 24 hours. All of this “unplugged” stuff got me thinking -- is the arts sector selling itself short as an “unplugged” venue?

Let me be clear -- I’m not saying that we shouldn’t plug in along with our audiences.  It’s imperative that we be able to interact with them in the same way they interact with everyone else in their life -- digitally. And technology can do amazing things in the service of art (I write about it every week). But in our rush to adopt technology as a tool for interacting with our audiences, are we forgetting that it’s not the only tool? Are we stopping to ask the right questions about how technology (especially mobile technology) affects our audience’s experience of our art, both positive and negative? When the lights go down and the curtain goes up, should cell phones be stowed away?

One of the signature aspects of art and live performance is to get lost in “flow”— being fully and actively immersed in the art. Until we started to invite audiences to keep their smartphones on during performances, the concert hall used to be one of the last bastions of a distraction-free zone.  The big question in the performing arts is, does mobile technology accessed during the performance enhance “flow” or distract from it?

Last year around this time there was an article in the New York Times about a group of scientists who went on a rafting trip to discuss (and experience) the effects of “unplugging” on the brain. After three days of an all-nature, no-tech diet, even the most skeptical of the group reported that they were all “more reflective, quieter, more focused on the surroundings.” By extension, does this mean that if we ask our audiences to “put away the gadgets,” as Martha Lavey is not afraid to insist upon, that they will be more reflective on the art in front of them, more focused on it? Of course, nature and art are two different things. Nature, as viewed by the scientists on the trip, was seen as relaxing, something to soothe the mind, to minimize distractions. We like to view our art as stimulating to the mind.

I’d guess our audiences probably experience both ends of this spectrum (and all the places in between). There are probably those who would appreciate being able to view the performance without distraction -- these are the kinds of people who liked this video from the Alamo Drafthouse (be warned, the video contains obscene language from the patron calling the Drafthouse). But then there are people who expect to be able to check their email during the show. And there are yet others who want to use their cell phones to participate in the show, be it live tweeting, voting on the next piece to be performed, or just checking in. So who do we try to please? And which way leads to the most meaningful experience?

I think that experimentation in this area would remove much of the mystery. If your company believes that your shows are more meaningful with mobile interactive technology, embrace it. See what happens, and share the results. Likewise, if your organization is convinced that mobile technology detracts from the audience experience, enforce your decision and embrace it. Maybe try giving a discount, like the hotels do. Position your shows as an escape from distractions and interruptions. See what happens and share the reactions with your colleagues. While it’s foolish to pretend this technology doesn’t exist, it’s something else entirely to reject it for a reason. But either way- make a decision, commit, enforce, evaluate. Then, possibly, revise.

What have been your experiences with mobile technology and both performing and visual arts?

*Photo Credit: Christopher Chan

Google+

Google+, the search engine giant’s new social networking site with 20 million users, has been getting a lot of press lately. There’s already some good advice out there for art nonprofits from the usual suspects (Devon Smith, Heather Mansfield). And artists are already exploring this new way of sharing their music and visual pieces. With technology this new, there is always a lot of experimentation by the early adopters, speculation by the commentators, and caution from the silent majority. But even at this early point in time, when the fate of Google+ is up in the air, there is one thing that I am certain of: that is that Google + represents a revolution in the integration of digital activity and the way we interact with the world around us. In this article, we’ll talk about what sets Google + apart, how it is integrated with other Google products, and what implications it holds for business in general and the arts in particular.

What is Google+?

Check out the Google+ intro video if you haven’t already:

There’s a lot of chatter in the blogosphere right now around the idea that Google+ is the ultimate content-sharing platform. The reasons given for this range from enhanced privacy controls making people more comfortable with sharing to the Sparks feature which allows users to find and share content without leaving the platform.

• Circles

One of the biggest things separating Google+ from the rest of the social media pack is its Circles. Instead of all of your contacts either being a friend/follower or not being one, they can be put into different Circles- friends, family, colleagues, etc. Then- and this is the kicker- you can choose who will view which posts. No more work colleagues or family members seeing your expletive-filled posts or pictures from that party.

Sure, Facebook has groups. But in a Facebook group, users choose to join the group--on Google+, you choose the names of your circles and assign who is in them. In Facebook groups, you can post on the group’s wall (which involves first going to the group page), but anyone who visits the page can see what you posted. With Google+, you can choose to share content only with certain circles, adding an extra layer of privacy.

• Enhanced Privacy Controls

Chris Brogan covers this pretty well in this short video. Privacy controls are more transparent and easy to find compared to Facebook.

• Sparks

Google is still primarily a search engine, so it’s no coincidence that they have an integrated search feature in the network. “Sparks” allows you to enter a topic you’re interested in (say, nonprofits), and every time you login, you can click that word to find many articles on the topic that you can then share with as many or as few Circles as you like.

• +1 and Search Engine Optimization integration

Even if you haven’t made a Google+ account yet, you’ve probably seen the little “+1” icons around the Web. It’s Google’s version of a “like” button. Unlike Facebook’s button, whose data Google doesn’t have access to, a +1 actually impacts search rankings. So, the more +1s a website, article, or video has, the higher it appears in searches, and the more likely people will find it and share it, etc.

If you want to learn more about the nuts and bolts, check out Mashable’s guide to G+.

While all these features may pave the way for Google+ to become the content capital of the interwebs, right now, companies, organizations and brands can’t directly participate in this content-sharing utopia.

Currently, the only way for brands to get their content onto G+ is through “real people’s” accounts- employees, constituents, secret admirers, etc. This makes it even more important that your organization has something interesting to say and compelling to share.

Integration

Imagine a world where the offers you receive are based on data not only from your activities, but your friends’ activities . . . where place-based businesses target customers not only by email and postal mail within certain zip codes, but by what street you are walking down, or which restaurant your friends have gathered at . . . This world, where social networking merges with mobile-based services and retail, is closer than ever to being a reality with Google+.

Already, Google Offers has been launched in New York and San Francisco, beaming coupons to customers based on their location and preferences. According to Stephanie Tilenius, Google’s VP of Commerce, Google Offers and Google Wallet (the company’s payment system) will be integrated into G+ as well as other Google properties such as Maps.

Edd Dumbill at O’Reilly Radar is calling this integration of social networks with other web-based applications a “social backbone” to our entire web experience, as opposed to the “walled garden” of existing social networks.

. . . social features will become pervasive, and fundamental to our interaction with networked services. Collaboration from within applications will be as natural to us as searching for answers on the web it today . . . Search removed the need to remember domain names and URLs . . . . The social backbone will relieve our need to manage email addresses and save us laborious ‘friending’ and permission granting activity . . .

All this integration, says Dumbill, will help computers better serve users.

Where does this leave business?

So the world may be changing. How should you prepare for that? Below are some tips from some smart guys at Social Media Explorer.

Jason Falls “Stay the course with what you’re doing. Wait for the brand-permissions and guidelines to come from Google on the Plus platform. Experiment with it for yourself to know how it works and how non-linear you have to be thinking to optimize the use of Circles.”

Mark Ivey Five questions to ask for starters, and to make sure you’re positioned for the G+ world:

• Are you in the game? Do you have a presence across paid (search, broadcast, etc), earned (events) and owned (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and now G+) media? These are your marketing beachheads, and you’ll need to work across the board to make sure you’re connecting with customers with your messages.
• Do you have a clear content marketing strategy? If so, you’re already using listening tools and engaging in related conversations. Adjust your strategy for G+-and stick to it. If not, better get one in order fast-I just met with two companies last week, neither had a content strategy, both are scrambling in catch-up mode.
• Is your content relevant? If you’re unclear on the role and importance of relevant content, read Michael Brito’s nice analysis piece on SME. Conduct a content audit, compare it to industry conversations, and judge for yourself. Is your content hitting the target? Are you involved and influencing industry conversations? What is your share of voice around key topics?
• Do you have a content engine and systematic publishing process? Then you should have apublishing model and be systematically chunking out content, carefully targeted to your key audiences. Run it like a publisher, with clear editorial direction, calendars, and hire editors to help you drive it- more tips here
• Do you have control over your destiny? Putting all of your eggs into one basket you don’t control is stupid. Why put all your resources into building Facebook Pages when you don’t own that real estate (No one knows how G+ will affect FB yet but the risk is obvious)? The same is true of Google+-it’s a marketing outpost, not your home base. Better to build your own blogs, communities and following, and diversify your investments across several platforms, along with following a carefully crafted plan. Build a defensible program that can weather any storm, since no one knows how this will play out (who would predict G+’s amazing launch?)

This is a great opportunity to step back, take a deep breath and assess your overall strategy and social media program. There’s no reason to panic.

Where does this leave the arts?

Ah- now THAT’S the interesting question, and it’s one our industry will probably be talking about for, oh, the next year or so. With G+’s emphasis on content and people (not brands), two conclusions jump out:

- Producing art that resonates with our audiences is vital, and

- People are our most valuable asset.

To be sure, these aren’t new ideas. What’s new, though, is that what our audience tells each other about our work now has as much or more digital presence than what we tell our audience about our work. The level of content-sharing that Google+ enables means that it is becoming easier for friends to share opinions about articles, art, politics, entertainment, etc at any time. Additionally, the more something is shared, the higher its search ranking. So getting people to talk about art online is more important than ever. Do you ask your audience what they think of your art? Do you encourage them to talk to their friends about it online, continuing the conversation long after they’ve left the building? Do you reward your super-fans who already post about your organization to their social networks? What about tying in the art you present or produce with trending topics?

A new social layer to the web means it’s all about giving ‘em something to talk about.

More cool articles on G+: The Social Layer: Six Thoughts On Where Google Plus Is Going Three Key Things Google Is Doing While We Focus on Google+ What the Circles Illustrate About Influence List of important updates coming soon in Google Plus

Developing Jazz and Classical Audiences with Technology

Technology in the Arts is pleased to present our new white paper Online Audience Engagement: Strategies for Developing Jazz and Classical Audiences, spearheaded by writer Tara George.

Many of you may remember critic Terry Teachout’s controversial Wall Street Journal article that asked if jazz could “be saved?” Teachout’s article, in response to the NEA’s 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, prompted a variety of reactions across the field. Despite much of the hostility directed at Teachout, his question and concerns seemed to be valid and worth exploring, especially since the survey indicatedthat audiences (particularly for jazz, classical and opera music) were shrinking and growing older at an alarming rate. An interesting twist came in 2010 with the release of the NEA’s Audience 2.0 survey. A key finding in this survey was that Americans who participate in the arts through technology and electronic media (television, Internet, handheld devices) were three times more likely to attend a live arts event. Much like Teachout’s initial article, this survey also prompted a round of discussion about correlation and causation. Despite the controversy and debate, it is undeniable that technology is one of the most promising tools that organizations can use to build a younger fan base.

This white paper explores the role that digital marketing is now playing in building audiences in the jazz and classical music realm. This report also highlights the work of several artists and organizations at the forefront of reaching and developing new audiences online. It’s important to note, however, that most of the organizations and artists here would classify their work and the music they present as a hybrid of multiple genres. Though that distinction falls outside the scope of this report, it’s an important trend to take note of that can have a direct impact on digital marketing. Finally, we have provided a concise 4-step guide as an example of how many organizations actually implement best practices.

Organizations Highlighted:

We hope that you find each case study in this report to be encouraging and inspiring! Here were a few of the organizations we featured:

• Mobtown Modern: was founded by Brian Sacawa in 2008. This organization fills a void in Baltimore’s vibrant music scene and serves as a catalyst for musical innovation and the creation and presentation of the new music of our time.
• New Amsterdam Records and New Amsterdam Presents: New Amsterdam Records is the for-profit record label subsidiary of New Amsterdam Presents, a presenting and artists’ service organization that supports the public’s engagement with new music by composers and performers whose work grows from the fertile ground between genres.
• Revive Music Group: serves as New York’s leader in conceptual and never-before-experienced live music productions—for a jazz and hip-hop celebration giving a unique aural exhibition of the undercurrents connecting the genres and ultimately fans of multiple generations.
• Search and Restore: is a New York-based organization dedicated to uniting and developing the audience for new jazz music.

Download this report today!

And please share with colleagues by clicking the "ShareThis" icon below.

Making Facebook Ads and Diving in to Analytics [mini-nar]

Mini-nar

We talk a lot about the free ways to use Facebook on this site, but this time Crystal will walk us through a paid service- Facebook Ads. You'll see how you can use them, how to target them to different demographics, and what you can learn from them.

Mini-nar - Facebook Ads from Technology in the Arts on Vimeo.

If you want to learn more about testing and Facebook, check out Podcast Episode #76 – Virtual Lobbies, Facebook Advertising Strategy, and Online Marketing Hits and Misses, as well as our webinar How to Make the Most of Your Facebook Page.

We are also looking for ideas for future mini-nars! If you have an idea for a subject that we could cover in about 5-10 minutes, please comment below or suggest one any time via Facebook or Twitter.