Colonialism has consistently been a force in the global purview, including the technological space. In recent years, the expansion of artificial intelligence has vastly increased corporations’ global influence. As the world’s technologies continue to advance and innovate, individuals must keep a watchful eye on the ways in which digital colonialism might repeat harmful practices from the past.
Due to the popularity and booming business of video games, Hollywood studios have capitalized on popular game titles by developing new content based off of their intellectual property (IP). This study sets out to better understand video game IP’s impact on film and television markets and what specific elements might impact an adaptation’s success.
Sustainability and AI were at the forefront this year at the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) Future of Museums Summit. What role will museums play in creating climate-friendly communities? And how can AI be used to maximize efficiency, increase accessibility, and deepen engagement? Read key conference takeaways from Xueer Ho and Dr. Brett Ashley Crawford.
An overemphasis on data-driven work within the nonprofit sector has been shown to result in cycles of disempowerment, driven by third-party data demands of funding bodies.. This compounds due to the many market orientations nonprofits need to adopt, particularly prevalent among the arts. A key to navigating these markets and funder requirements lies in identifying a specific data culture best fit for your organization and investing in resources and training in order to achieve that framework sustainably.
With AI’s ability to automatically produce content and process complicated datasets with high accuracy, museums worldwide are exploring ways in which this innovative technology can help them better achieve their missions and advance accessibility efforts. Through case studies, learn about three applications of this technology: content digitalization, language accessibility, and visual description.
The Walker Center in Minneapolis has a new website that has broken the mold and is venturing into offering content in a way that could help define a new paradigm of online content for large arts organizations. As the executive Director states in her press release: "The intent of the new site is to make visible our role as a generative producer and purveyor of content and broadcast our voice in the landscape of contemporary culture."
By becoming broader purveyors of arts knowledge and information The Walker makes itself more relevant in the broader context of the arts across the country. The expertise that was only available through a visit to a lecture, through a docent on a museum tour, or a talk-back during a performance is now available through the we interface as the Walkers experts are now the gatekeepers for the online content. Thus the reach of the organization becomes multiplied by those people who share content and the organization.
This platform has the potential to lure entirely new audiences through the principle that traffic online follows quality of content. Also by revealing the values of the artistic staff of the organization The Walker is potentially connecting with like minded individuals in the arts community across the world. This in turn could make them into a destination city for arts tourists. By using the multi-disciplinary focus of the institution they are harnessing the the trend but by putting it online they are making it about the global dialogue and making themselves a shining example of what is to come.
Having the good fortune of living in Europe for a few years with many of the world’s most beloved fine art institutions in my backyard, I was pleased to test a myriad of their recently launched apps. There is much to be said for the wonderful ways in which mobile devices can enhance the visitor experience. Of course, there are also downfalls attributed to the growing pains associated with mobile. Often I was impressed, entertained, educated, annoyed, and confused – sometimes all simultaneously. Since mobile planning and implementation can be a backend-focused undertaking for museum staff, the following simply offers the perspective of a museum visitor with a smartphone in tow.
BYOD (bring your own device): Mobile devices are increasing all-in-ones for just about everything. Visitors can skip the line for an audio guide because with the same (if not more robust) content available on their own familiar device, they have the distinct advantage of being audio and multimedia guide self-sufficient.
Dialogue: Museums are historically notorious for offering one-way authoritative information. Since most museum mobile apps are outfitted with social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter, visitors are afforded a voice to communicate with the museums (and they actually listen).
Save and share: I still bring my sketchbook with me on museum visits for notes and doodles, but museum apps make archiving and sharing objects of interest easier to come back to when they offer a “favorite this” feature. Other mobile tools such Pinterest and Twitter hashtags also make the impact of a visit more enduring and accessible.
Off-site relevance: Many museum apps make content valuable off-site as well as during in-person visits. For example, I dashed through Tate Modern’s Miró Exhibition in a rush, but later read about the impact of the Spanish Civil War on Miró’s work via the exhibition app while waiting to board a plane in Pittsburgh. This pared down version of a catalogue is easier to haul around and cheaper.
“Edutainment”: Why not learn while being entertained? The Andy Warhol Museum’s DIY Pop app is a great example of experiencing both. We have a frustrated museum education staff member to thank for sparking interest in developing a way to digitally educate the public on Warhol’s silkscreen process while replicating it using our own photos.
The Bad and The Ugly
Connectivity: Yes, a visitor may skip the line for the audio guide, but once in the gallery app download capability may be spotty since many institutions do not offer Wi-Fi (the cost of which can be a prohibitive expense). To make matters worse, the thick walls of many museums can make using a cellular network virtually impossible. If a visitor can access their cellular network, many multimedia rich museums apps can be data gluttons, especially for foreign travelers out of their network area.
No phone/camera policies: I’ve become a pro at the art of looking like I’m texting someone, when in fact I’m taking prohibited photos and spreading them on Twitter and Facebook. Some museums are finding it difficult to strike a balance between preventing copyright infringement and fully embracing the use of mobile technology. With apps like “Cards,” you can understand the dilemma of wanting to encourage word-of-mouth marketing while not irresponsibly promoting the dissemination of images not in the public domain. But, as a staff member of the Royal Academy of Arts pointed out to me: “If all the 50 people who came through in the last two hours went home to their Facebook and their Flickr, posted photos of this fantastic place with comments, think of the social media publicity. Think of the viral marketing.” Institutions like the RA are well positioned to proactively ask for artists’ permission for visitors to use and spread images of their work online.
For individuals such as myself, who are certain their value as a human is inextricably tied to the use of a smartphone, 2010–2011 was an especially great time to be wondering the galleries of Tate Britain, Tate Modern, The Royal Academy of Arts, The Louvre, and more. These institutions’ fledgling apps are a solid start to their entree into mobile tech. In the near future, (especially with the help of new culturally focused app developers) I’ll be excited to see the use of image recognition (a copyright nightmare), mobile transactions (e.g. tickets, membership, gift shop purchases), and the further adoption of augmented reality. Am I asking for too much, too soon? After all, I’m about a step away from expecting my iPhone to wash my dishes if I throw it in the sink. Isn’t there an app for that?
Author Bio
Ashley Paulisick completed her master’s degree in Art Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London in 2011. Her dissertation, titled “The Impact of Mobile Technology on Art Institution Visitor Experiences,” took her to some of the world’s most prestigious art museums, including Tate Modern and Pittsburgh’s own Andy Warhol Museum.
Ashley has also worked in arts administration and as a painter under the “pen” name Ashley Cecil. You can read about and see her work at www.ashleycecil.com and find her on Twitter at @ashleycecil.
Hold on, hold on! Before the grand reveal, a little contextual information. The Nonprofit Quarterly recently published the article, “Which causes do best on social media? That world according to Craig Newmark,” highlighting Newmark’s research on the United States’ top 50 not-for-profits (determined by Charity Navigator), their causes and which “do” social media the best. The leading not-for-profit organizations were grouped into categories of causes. Within these categories, the top 5 organizations were analyzed. The categories of causes include:
Animal
Children
Cultural
Disaster Relief
Environment
Health
Veterans and Military
Women
To report his findings and analyses, Newmark and his team at Craigconnects produced two cleverly designed infographics, “Who Rules Social Media? A Look at Social Media Impact by Nonprofit Issues" and "How the Top 50 Nonprofits Do Social Media." In addition to data and nifty graphics, the reports shed light on the staffing of these organizations, revealing that of the 21 not-for-profit organizations Newmark and his researchers personally spoke with, all but one employed either a designated full-time or part-time social media staff person. Furthermore, Newmark's research indicates
...revenue does not increase a nonprofit's visibility and interactions in the social media world. Some of the most social media savvy organizations are in the bottom quarter bracket in terms of revenue, yet they are clearly active on social media. It's about fostering conversations and interactions, not money.
The winners of the most talkative category on Facebook and Twitter (in terms of Facebook posts, Tweets and responses) are the animal and environmental causes, averaging between 88-134 Tweets per week; the loser, the veteran and military category. The winner of the most talked about category on Facebook and Twitter was again, the animal cause and the losing causes, women and veterans. Curiously, though women are the dominant demographic using social media, the “women” cause is talked about the least…
How did the cultural cause fare? The top 5 cultural organizations considered in the report were the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Opera and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Averaging 8 Facebook posts and 32 Tweets a week, the cultural cause ranked 5th and 4th respectively out of the 8 categories of causes. In terms of being talked about, the cultural cause ranked 5th both on Facebook and Twitter. Comparing revenues relative to social media activity of the top not-for-profit organizations, the Metropolitan Museum of Art ranked highly (considering its reported revenue of $319,054,654 is one of the lowest in the study). While the research and reports do not represent the cultural not-for-profit landscape in its entirety, excluding the hundreds of thousands not-for-profit cultural organizations that did not make the top 50 cut, the message is strong:
… the bottom line is that your main concern should be to cultivate conversations, relationships, and interactions within your own specific community, whether it’s 2,000 or 200,000 people. Work to move “your people” up the ladder of engagement, based on their needs. But know it will take an investment of staff time and resources to achieve this. These are the keys to keeping up in the fast-paced arena of social networks.
Who not only maintains, but stimulates social media activity for your Facebook and Twitter account? Do you have a designated staff person or team regularly producing your online content? If not, can you delegate the responsibility to a committed volunteer or intern? How can not-for-profit arts and cultural organizations make their online social media presence stronger and more impactful to move from 5th place to 1st? With a know-how for attracting and retaining wide audiences in playhouses, galleries, museums, halls, theaters and the like, cultural not-for-profits should have a definite advantage when it comes to the same, but online. Take a look back at your own organizations Facebook and Twitter activity over the last few months, then share your thoughts, solutions and impressions of the research with us on Facebook or Twitter.
Happy Friday! What’s everyone doing this weekend? Perhaps you’re saddling up to head to Louisville for the National Arts Marketing Project Conference. The conference starts tomorrow and goes through next Tuesday the 15th – in which case, enjoy the conference! If you can’t make it to Kentucky this weekend, a lot of the conference will be online. Three sessions will be streaming live and archived as webcasts if you miss them. The conference will also be accessible via twitter with hashtag “#nampc”.
The National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP) offers resources year round on their website to help your arts organization be better marketers. One of these is their newest ebook, 13 Social Media Infographics Every Marketer Needs to See.
The first in a series of free publications, 13 Social Media Infographics Every Marketer Needs to See is an accessible and enlightening tool for those interested in social media marketing. The publication covers the history of marketing channels, basic tips for social media usage, and then moves on to more complex topics like the demographics for each social media website. If you're looking for a way to make sense of all the social media out there, this is a great starting point.
Technology in the Arts also has a lot of great social media resources, including how to analyzeyoursuccess, tap into that prized demographic, and important current trends. How is your organization using social media to be better marketers?
With the announcement that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will make his first visit to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) today, the Technology In the Arts team thought it would be appropriate to take a look back on the groundbreaking social media platform and the impact it’s had on how arts organizations engage their audiences.
CMU is one of three campuses being visited by Zuckerberg during an East Coast college tour. While here, he will meet with faculty and students and give a talk to an invitation-only audience. He will be joined by Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's vice president of engineering.
Here’s a bit of Facebook Trivia to get us started:
More than 800 million active users
More than 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
More than 350 million active users currently access Facebook through their mobile devices
Facebook is also the most popular social network for all age demographics according to a Forrester Research Survey
One of the most interesting studies on how Facebook has affected arts and cultural organizations was conducted this past summer. ‘The Tangled Web of Social Media’ was a study commissioned by Theatre Bay Area in 2011. The study examined the social media habits of 207 diverse nonprofit arts and cultural organizations with the goal of understanding how social media was being used and what best practices emerged as a result. The study found that Facebook was by far the most popular social network used by these arts organizations. Another similar finding was that community members were eight times more active commenting on the Facebook posts made by arts organizations than mentioning those same organizations on Twitter.
Here are a few ways in which Facebook has revolutionized how arts organizations are engaging with audiences:
Giving Campaigns: Facebook has also impacted the way audiences can contribute financially to their favorite organizations. The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently published an article about a California boy, Paddy O’Brien, whose inspirational story about his struggle with bone cancer resulted in 1,000 donations to the Children’s Hospital who treated him via the Facebook Causes platform.
Ticket Buying: Companies like TicketForce have made it possible for many artists and organizations to sell tickets directly through their brand’s Facebook Page. The client operates so that ticket buyers do not have to leave the Facebook Page in order to purchase tickets.
Merchandise Sales: Facebook has also provided the opportunity for artists and organizations to sell merchandise on their pages.
Building Communities through Facebook Groups: Many arts organizations have also been experimenting with hosting group pages as opposed to “regular” pages. Groups can provide an opportunity for fans to interact with each other on a more intimate level. Beth Kanter recently featured a guest post on her blog regarding best practices for nonprofits interested in building a group page.
There’s no doubt that this social media giant has had an incredible impact on the way arts organizations interact with audiences and will continue to do so. Ultimately, many of these organizations are finding creative ways to interact with existing fans and build new audiences in a manner that has never been done before.
How has Facebook impacted your organization, either positively or negatively?
InSites Consulting is a European consulting firm with offices in Belgium, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Romania and a soon-to-be office in New York. The firm serves various industries from travel to media and retail to health and produces cutting-edge research focused on branding, customer experience, innovation, and marketing insights.
I stumbled upon this InSites presentation (oh happy day), and subsequently, a selection of the firm’s previous presentations (look to the right of the presentation view for additional goodies). It is far too rich in its research, insight and empirical evidence to hoard for myself-it had to be shared.
Titled “Social Media Around the World 2011,” the presentation supports what we at Technology in the Arts continually emphasize for all organizations in today’s digital age and especially for not-for-profit arts organization: you can no longer ignore the power of social media.
Even in the absence of raw data (for those of us who are skeptical of the methods used to collect the data and the empirical research presented) the message is more than convincing: with such a wide and growing audience, social media is the future of branding, marketing and networking. So, take a look at the presentation and once the shock-factor of what you just read settles, share with us.
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.
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 web analytics, online advertising, fundraising, social media, and the topic of this blog post, email marketing.More information www.dmbootcamp4arts.com.
We've recently been doing a lot of client work around email strategy. And one topic of particular interest to clients is figuring out what types of subject lines drive users to open emails and take action.
We've looked through a lot of fundraising and ticket sales emails and found that the following factors help to increase open rates:
1.) Don't be vague
Many subject lines fail to clearly delineate what's included in the body of the email. An email must explain its contents. I often see email subject lines that are very vague like this one:
Become a member today
Most people receiving your email may not even know what a membership to your organization means. In general, unless you are writing to a select group of constituents, you should assume your readers know very little or nothing about your offerings. Here is another vague subject line:
Join the music
You may think it is cute and pithy but what does this mean to a casual user? As a fundraiser for a music org it may mean a lot to you but to most readers this is very vague and therefore not effective.
2.) Make your offer feel like it is for VIPs by highlighting special benefits
The more special and exclusive an offer sounds, the more users will be intrigued to open it. If there are special privileges in your offer, highlight them in your subject line. Things like:
Receive the best seats in the house
A limited number of xxx available
VIP access to a rehearsal
One Night Only event
We have found that subject lines that offer VIP benefits have higher open rates.
3.) Use a deadline
Create urgency by using a deadline. Tie the special offer to the deadline.
Receive x if you act by 10/15.
Just don't overdo this or it will seem like you are crying wolf...or are narrating a TV infomercial.
4.) Make it about the user, not about your organization
Here’s a poor subject line:
Give now to help us make our end of year goal
Why? Because this subject line is all about the organization. You need to flip it to make it about the user.
Here is a much better subject line about the user:
Support XXX by 8/15 and receive a limited-edition signed cast album
Another one all about the organization:
Come to XXX performance on 10/15
Think about WHY the user should come. What will they get out of it? Also use terms like your and you, (not us and our) to be more user-centric.
5.) If relevant, mention a high-profile celebrity
Like it or not, people are mad for celebrities. If you have a high-profile celebrity involved in your event or performance mention them in your subject. If you have a high-profile director or artistic director, experiment with emailing with their name as the sender. We see that this often lifts open rates.
6.) Cut every unnecessary word
Try to make your subject lines as short as possible. There is no magic length but generally shorter is better. Take a scalpel to your subject line and cut out every unnecessary word. Think through your subject line to see if there is a better way to construct it that may use fewer words.
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.
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 iteven 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 pieceon 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 engineand systematic publishing process? Then you should have apublishingmodel 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 tipshere
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.
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.
The Walker Center in Minneapolis has a new website that has broken the mold and is venturing into offering content in a way that could help define a new paradigm of online content for large arts organizations. As the executive Director states in her press release: "The intent of the new site is to make visible our role as a generative producer and purveyor of content and broadcast our voice in the landscape of contemporary culture."
Happy Friday! What’s everyone doing this weekend? Perhaps you’re saddling up to head to Louisville for the 
