Building dance audiences with social media

Transcription

1 Social dancing Building dance audiences with social media INTRODUCTION The following resource comes from the social media workshop led by Vicki Allpress Hill for DANZ on 21 May Social media is an important tool for dance, enabling us to connect directly with our audiences, deliver real time information in a cost-effective way and make the most of the available tools to promote our visually beautiful art form. This resource provides you with the key points covered in the workshop and provides you an overview of ways to build dance audiences with social media. You can use it as a guide to what s important to know and use the resources at the end or the many free resources available online to more deeply research any of the topics that interest you. The resource is divided into three sections: 1. Why is social media important to us? What it can give us What it is & isn t Six important social media platforms and their strengths Social media and The Audience Journey 2. How do we approach social media strategically? Strategic vs. tactical approach to social media Setting social media goals & priorities Choosing which social media platforms to use 6 steps for setting up a social media channel Integrating your social media channels Tracking results what can you measure? Toolkit for measuring social media 3. Tips & Tricks for successful social media implementation Ways to manage and streamline your social media What to include in a social media policy 12 social media best practice tips for you

2 1. WHY IS SOCIAL MEDIA IMPORTANT TO US? Social media combines the true grit of real time content with the beauty of authentic peerto-peer communication. The Buyer Group What social media can give us: 1. A strong and loyal following 2. Local and international profile 3. Immediacy of connection with our audiences 4. Links into new audience segments 5. Buzz that can lead to ticket sales 6. A safe place to explore new work and ideas 7. Feedback from our audiences 8. A better understanding of who they are 9. Word of mouth from our advocates 10. More cost-effective information channels. Image above: When Royal New Zealand Ballet dancer Jaered Glavin choreographed a work to Lady Gaga s Bad Romance and posted a video on YouTube of the studio showing, he could not have predicted that it would go viral around the world, attract over 43,000 views and generate vast amounts of media coverage as a result. 2

3 What social media is Real-time. Interactive. Conversation one-to-one or one-to-many. Device-agnostic. Transparent. Image above: Social media is about a conversation asking a question that draws out your users own experiences can help to generate response. What social media isn t One-way monologue. Promotional channel. Instant sales conversion tool. Marketing s sole responsibility. Magic bullet. [Social media] was a good way for audiences to feel part of your life without being stalkerish. Charlotte Wakefield, UK actress 3

4 Six important social media platforms and their strengths There are literally hundreds of social media platforms. The six that follow have been selected because, from my experience, they are the most effective for dance organisations. We all have limited time and resource, and it is better that we focus on a few key social media platforms and implement them well, than attempt to spread ourselves too thin. What: Facebook Who: Strongest amongst 35+ More than half of users female Median to high income Why: Scope for creativity Platform capabilities Conversation hub Audience engagement Storytelling Cost per Click (CPC) advertising What: Twitter Who: Just over half female More than 1/3 are 45+ Median to high income More than half are mobile users Why: Immediacy/ currency Connect with influencers Exposure of brand Customer communication 4

5 What: YouTube Who: Fairly equal female/male Primarily Low-medium income Some college education Why: Effective video hosting Develop engagement Find new audiences International reach Tell stories & showcase art form Effective advertising channel What: Blogs Who: Depends on the blog! Why: Position yourself as expert Find niche following Build search engine rankings Enable deeper audience engagement Profile artists, team, sponsors 5

6 What: Pinterest Who: Now 21 million users (fastest growing social network) 82% women Many are well-off Why: Latest thing for early adopters User-generated content Brand exposure Website traffic (each image links to site) Visual medium great for dance images Target those interested in crafts, gifts, interior design, fashion design High engagement average 16 mins per visit What: LinkedIn Who: Slightly more male-dominated ¾ use for business purposes 50% bachelor or graduate degree 50% $50-100K salary Why: Company branding/professionalism Development opportunities Professional networking Recruitment of staff & suppliers Social media and The Audience Journey In 2011 Australia Council for the Arts released the results of a study into how arts audiences are using the Internet to engage with the arts and how arts organisations are currently using the Internet to engage with audiences. Out of this came the model below of the journey that an audience member typically takes when attending an arts event, moving through stages from awareness through to postattendance. 6

7 Social media tools can play a key role at each stage of the journey. The diagram below shows which tools work best at which stage, based on my own practical experience. Image above: At each stage of The Audience Journey (a model created by Australia Council for the Arts, 2011) specific social media platforms and other online marketing tools can play a particular role. 7

8 Image above: Blogs such as The Australian Ballet s Behind Ballet are useful to audiences when they are preparing to attend a dance event, and then afterwards when they wish to delve further into your company, the production and the art form. 2. HOW DO WE APPROACH SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGICALLY? But before you jump in, I want you to pause and ask yourself why are you doing it? Ellie Mirman How to Set Social Media Goals Strategic vs. tactical approach to social media As with anything, it is important to approach social media strategically and not just tactically. The difference can best be illustrated with the following example: 8

9 Tactical approach - Let s start a blog Australian Ballet has a good one. Strategic approach - In what way can we most effectively break down the barriers to our art form, and which people are most important to reach? Setting social media goals and priorities How should we set social media goals and priorities? Firstly, start from the top. Social media must feed into organisational goals in order to be effective. Ask yourself - who are your target audiences and how are they using social media? If your target audience are male there is no point in focusing on Pinterest. What resources do you have available to you? What can you therefore manage and what is most important? Where are you in the Digital Marketing Life Cycle? Are you just starting out and feeling your way, or have you have a strong online presence for years? Are your audiences accustomed to communicating with you online or are you introducing new ways to them? Some typical social media goals: Information sharing Engagement Community Ticket sales/ memberships Awareness Customer satisfaction Web traffic Social media goals Audience insights Choosing which social media platform/s to use Consider each channel s match to your goals. How many can you manage within accessible resources? How do you wish to be positioned? Plan a phased approach to manage effectively. 9

10 6 steps for setting up a social media channel Set specific SMART objectives & targets for the channel. Which of your target audiences are to be the focus of this channel? Define the channel s purpose. Determine the tone of voice and the types of content you will deliver. Decide on the tactics (to dos) to achieve the objectives. Agree how you will you measure the outcomes. Integrating your social media channels No social media channel works well in isolation. Consider the benefits of integrating your channels: Deeper community and engagement. Each channel is a doorway to a different audience segment. Each channel has a role to play at key touch points. Think of every opportunity to cross-promote channels. What do I mean by integrating? Here are two examples: Image above: Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney has included three of its other social media channels in its tabs to encourage its Facebook users to engage more deeply and in different ways. 10

11 Image above: The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis makes clever use of Facebook plug-ins to socialise its website content. Tracking results what can you measure? There are analytics available for each social media platform, but overall what can and should we measure? This is of course dependent on your goals, but here are some of the most important metrics for dance organisation: The visibility, awareness and reach your social media activity has achieved. The level of engagement between you and your social media followers. The conversion of social media followers to website visitors, sign-ups, members and ticket buyer. The revenue that your social media activity has generated. The sentiment around your brand, product or service in the social media space. Toolkit for measuring social media Here are some of the tools available to you (for free or low cost) to measure these things: Google Analytics website activity and conversion Google Alerts what s being said about you on the web Facebook Insights fan growth, demographics & engagement YouTube Insights engagement with, and reach of, your video Klout your reach and influence on Twitter Tweetreach how many people your tweets are reaching Hootsuite or Sprout Social social media dashboards (manage multiple channels and get great reporting) Campaign results effectiveness/conversion of ad campaigns SocialMention your brand s sentiment and reach BlogPulse What s being said about you & others 11

12 3: TIPS & TRICKS FOR SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL MEDIA IMPLEMENTATION Ways to manage and streamline your social media We all have limited resources, and social media can feel (and become) overwhelming. There are a number of ways to make it easier: Resourcing think creatively about how to add to your social media team. Can one or more of your artists play a role? Do you have a savvy and trustworthy volunteer who has a passion for social media? Could you be overlooking the fact that your Administration Assistant would love to add this creative element to their role? Calendar create a social media calendar (use a spreadsheet or Word table) to plan your social media content based on internal and external activity. It then makes it so much simpler to post day-to-day. Dashboard use one of the social media dashboard tools to manage, pre-schedule and report on multiple social media channels. Hootsuite and Sprout Social are the two most popular. Meetings & Reporting meet regularly with your team to discuss social media content and let everybody share ideas. Streamlining use the same content in distinct platform-appropriate ways across multiple channels at once. Policy spend time creating a social media policy (see below) so that everyone on your team understands the goals, limits and boundaries. What to include in a social media policy Your philosophy on social media. Social media channels to be used. Responsibility for content & updating. Staff obligations. Acceptable content subject matter. Copyright & attribution. Frequency of posts & responses. Moderation. Disciplinary action. 12

13 Image above: Sprout Social is one of the popular social media dashboards (available at a reasonable monthly fee) that can assist you in managing your social media channels. 12 social media best practice tips for you Have a conversation, not a monologue. Be genuine and transparent. Be frequently active, but don t bombard you know what that means. Deliver relevant and varied content. Don t be promotional you ll lose followers. Think international (you don t have to limit yourself to a local audience). Don t be afraid to ask others to recommend and review you. Support others and they ll support you. Understand there is no fast track to fan base growth. Find the influencers and get them onside. Act as you would in any social situation. Cross fertilise whenever you can across your social media channels. 13

14 Image above: Sydney Dance Company Studios quirky photo created engagement. Image above: Facebook users love being asked questions that draw out their own experiences and are easy to answer. 14

15 SOME USEFUL RESOURCES Creative New Zealand Optimise 24 Usable Hours Devon Smith The Social Media Revolution 2 on YouTube Social Media NZ Technology in the Arts Resource produced by: Vicki Allpress Hill The Audience Connection 15