Social networking and community engagement technology made easy

The Australian recently published a story on how social media has been helping the arts here in Australia. They opened it with Jill Colvin, Sydney Festival’s head of marketing and her Twitter experience. She has some great things to say when it comes to the value of social media and listening to the conversation that fans were having, in regard to the festival.

What I really took from this article was that she understands social media. Her comments point to why social media works better for some organisations than others. She also made mention that joining Twitter was one of the smartest things she’d done because it’s attracted a whole new audience. However, she explains she is not just giving up more traditional forms of marketing. She has just added a new vehicle to reach those who come out to experience the festival.

“It’s such a different method of communication compared to the more formal lines,” Colvin says. “You can afford to be more flippant and have fun. . .”

For any type of social media to work, it takes time. We’ve previously written about the importance of listening. Colvin did just that.

“As people tweeted about their experiences, I could troubleshoot if there was an issue. I could send messages saying, `This box office is sold out go here instead’, answer questions, look after frustrated customers. It was a three-hour job, not a job in my position I could do every day.”

“You’re letting your customers help sell the product for you, traditional media doesn’t do that. It’s giving other people the tools to talk about the thing they love.”

“For it to work you need an organisation that’s very confident about talking openly and be comfortable about taking criticism as well as the good stuff. We have a very loyal and engaged group of people following us and they’re very opinionated. They really love it, but if you do something to annoy them, they hammer you.”

What about other forms of art?

“When Tim Cox and Chris Tooher finished applauding at the end of the Bell Shakespeare Company’s opening performance of Pericles last year, they thought they had a winner on their hands.

Imagine their surprise a few days later when the company’s chairman and general manager read a review that was hardly positive. “We couldn’t believe we were at the same show as the reviewer,” Cox says. “This is in no way a criticism of the reviewer because he or she must review it as they see it, but for whatever reason theirs was a minority opinion.”

A week later word got out that Pericles was, as Cox describes it, “a bloody good performance”. The season was almost sold out and became one of the best results the company has had.

Why? Twitter.

“Reviews are still important, no doubt about that, but when we received a not very favourable first review, very quickly Twitter seemed to come alive and people told each other [it was good],” he says. “We found when we got in the loop that there is another way of communicating. Once it was word of mouth but this is faster. We could see tweeting was affecting the box office. It’s another level of sophistication.”

So why is word of mouth so important? Because as the article points out, “Nothing beats a personal recommendation from someone whose opinion you trust.” Social media is a place where friends gather. I see people everyday on Twitter and other social media platforms asking opinions about things. They get responses from their friends and trust their opinion. Word of mouth marketing is the most powerful form of marketing out there. It would seem that authenticity beats out authority in many categories. If someone is your friend, you likely have similar interests, and your friends don’t typically steer you in the wrong direction.

The article also brings in the Sydney Theater Company:

“Like most other arts companies, the Sydney Theatre Company has an active website, runs a Facebook page, blogs and tweets. Marketing manager Rani Haywood likes the fact that Twitter is not regulated; the messages, good or bad, are from the heart.

“Word of mouth is even more critical to us now because of those outlets,” she says. “Young people are more likely to go with a recommendation from friends and they’re the people using these networks, but I wouldn’t say it’s more important. We still need a good review, this is just quicker and more far reaching.”

Imagine the potential you have when you create your own social network and use other means to drive people to it. Your own space. Your own rules. The technology we’ve developed at Community Engine was designed for this exact purpose: To harness the power of social technology and bring your audience to your own platform.

We also recognise that the arts have different needs which is why we’ve created different products for each: Visual Arts Engine, Performing Arts Engine , and Festival Arts Engine. Who can you invite into YOUR community?

posted by Piers Hogarth-Scott in the category Media Social Media Social networking
Tags: Bell Sharespeare Company, Festival Arts Engine, Performing Arts Engine, Sydney Festival, Sydney Theatre Company, The Australian, twitter, Visual Arts Engine