How Arts Organizations Can Thrive in the Digital Age by Brian Solis

How Arts Organizations Can Thrive in the Digital Age by Brian Solis, FutureWorks and PR2.0 www.future-works.com, www.briansolis.com Web 2.0 Introduced a More Social Web Social Media - Short Version • Anything that uses the internet to facilitate conversations Social Media - Longer Version • Social Media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into content publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers. Markets are Conversations – Participation is Marketing the cluetrain manifesto If a Conversation Takes Place Online & You’re Not There to Hear It, Did It Really Happen? Controlling the Message is No Longer Our Primary Goal. Every Conversation is an Opportunity Shape Perception. Your Influencers are Already Driving Markets Online Not engaging with customers directly removes you from their radar screen The Web 1.0 Chain of Influence One to Many The Social Media Chain of Influence One to One – Many to Many Markets are Now Conversations Brand It’s a cycle driven by the voices and connections of people and their networks The Groundswell of Influence Psychographics Influence travels from the edge to the center Viewers Connector s Researchers Producers Tastemakers Influencers You Brand Demographics Social Media creates - Groundswell of influence - Trust - Unity - Community of stakeholders - A new generation of participants People, Power, Perception How do You Define Influence? It’s the Ability to Inspire Action and Measure It YouTube = 10 percent of all internet traffic (source: Ellacoya Networks) YouTube & Wikipedia among top brands (source: brandchannel.com) Five of the top 10 websites are social (source: Alexa) Over 100 million blogs exist (source: Technorati) 120,000 new blogs launched every day (source: Technorati) 1.5 million posts per day (17 per second) (source: Technorati) New Metrics for a New Era of PR Social Media is Not Blogger Relations Socialized Media = The New Marketing/PR Landscape Relations Traditional Media Curation Events Online/Offline SMO Content Creation Your Brand New Influencers Portable Media + Apps SEO Blogs / Comments Soc Networks Forums Mobile Roadblocks for PR in a Web 2.0 World • • • • • • • • • Perceived as not getting it Rely on hype and spin - disingenuous “Sell” stories instead of story telling No more than mere handlers Use stunts or events to generate excitement Spammers Invest in tools and databases instead of relationships No idea who they’re talking to and why they should listen Think of people as an audience and stories as messages • Old metrics no longer apply in the new Web Challenges Specific to Art Orgs • Baby Boomer vs. Gen X and Gen Y – Fundraising • Creative Commons vs. Stealing • Control • Playing vs. ROI – Trix is for kids! • Budget and resources are limited as it is • The state of the economy “A social media strategy could be the perfect way to address the graying of audiences - once the product is right.” - Beth Kanter Most Common Questions… • • • • • • • • • • • • How much time does it take to get an organization involved in social media? How can I utilize social media to increase our org's web presence? How to promote our message and encourage participate? How do I maximize social media usage with minimal time and money? What are the metrics to measure success for social media? With a graying membership, how to use social media for fundraising? How do you use social media to attract a younger audience? How to choose the right mix of tools? Is it better to use one voice on social media sites or more voices? How to integrate user generated content on your site? How does social media change the nature of relationships? What social media is appropriate for accomplishing what tasks? Source: Beth Kanter LINK Who’s Experimenting Today? Who’s Experimenting Today? Are you an evangelist or a consultant? Are you an extension of your company brand or are you an employee? Are you a leader, follower, or are you meandering through your profession? Are you confined to the role of a social marketer or do you represent something with longer-term value? Everyone is a Social Media Expert What are the Qualifications to Participate? •This is about “Public” Relations •Empathy •Market expertise •Understanding of competitive landscape •Relevant stories, benefits •True intentions •A customer approach •Observance of online cultures •Experience with social tools The New World of “Public” Relations • • • • • Contribute valuable user generated content - participation Become sociologists and market and niche strategists We become influencers Become resources and influencers in our own right Creates a new hybrid of PR professionals – – – – – – – Social Media Market analyst/expert Web marketer Customer Service Relationship marketers Viral marketer Conversationalist/listener Connect people through emotions and personality Engage people on their terms, through their passions and interests We are both architects and builders who are creating the blueprints for and constructing the bridge that connects customers and the people who represent the companies they believe in. Immersion = incontestable experience, perspective, and knowledge. Social Media, Social Media + Marketing, WOMM • Social Media facilitates conversations online • Conversational Marketing is the use of Social tools to interact with people • WOMM is campaign-focused, may or may not be transparent • None are rooted in broadcast, one-way streams or blasts • People = viral Who’s Responsible for Participating? • It requires a champion but, it’s everyone’s responsibility • Conversations occur everywhere, across a variety of topic s that usually correlate to specific marketing disciplines an d customer services • Everyone is in some way responsible for PR • Community managers • You It Takes a Community Effort It Starts with Listening and Observation • It's the listening that separates Social Media experts from Social Media theorists • The best conversationalists are the best listeners • There are always three sides to every story • Listening and observation paves the way for everything Social Media is About Sociology Not Technology • Social Media marketing starts with the observations of human behavior and interaction within online communities • It’s not about technology or the tools – Technology simply provides the tools to facilitate conversations online • Humanize your story by matching it to the culture and the people driving the communities you’re trying to reach – What matters to them? – How do they talk to each other? Anthropology Sociology Ethnography The Conversation Prism Charting a Social Map What to do… • ID ways to deliver value • Participate as a person and not a marketer • It’s about conversations, not messages • Cultivate relationships • You’re speaking with people not audiences • Humanize the story • Be a resource, not a sales person • Go “native” - become part of the community "You no longer market a performance that you sit and look at. What you offer is a complete experience that begins before the performance even starts and may continue afterward.” - John Munger, Dance/USA What Not To Do • Create profiles and expect a friending frenzy • Start a blog and hope for incredible traffic and links • Participate with irrelevant updates • Jump in and start pushing messages or schilling • SPAM • Fake it • Outsource it overseas Conversational Marketing is Not Campaign-Driven • It requires daily participation • It’s much more than “viral videos” or blog strategies – There is no Viral Marketing • Campaigns complement day-to-day conversations PR is no Longer Defined by Hits The Social Web Creates New Opportunities for Influence and Engagement Conversations/Keywords Traffic Leads/Sales Calls to Action Engagement Relationships Authority Education & Participation Perception Community Activity Fund Raising/Donations New elements are introduced into PR for measuring ROI and success The Conversation Index • Conversations serve as the foundation – – – – – – – – – Videos Podcasts Bookmarks blog posts and comments Tweets Pictures Reviews Meetups and events News or story aggregation • Conversations are trackable • A conversation index indicates your placement, status, ranking, perception, and participation in the SocialMediaSphere Traffic • A story on an A-list blog can generate anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 unique visits in 1 month • Making the front page of Digg can refer more than 10,000 unique visits in 24 to 48 hours • Gaining momentum on StumbleUpon can yield 20,000 to 30,000 unique views in 30 days • Hosting an event on Upcoming or Facebook can reach and secure hundreds and even thous ands of attendees • Videos on YouTube, Viddler, et al, can generate hundreds of thousands or even millions of unique visitors • This all equates to $ Leads/ $ • Tying marketing activity to sales is every executive’s favorite way to evaluate PR effectiveness • We can tie new PR strategies to lead generation or sales in a number of ways • Listening to conversations reveals opportunities to engage with decision makers – – – – Customer development and loyalty building Sales Events/attendance Contributions Social Media is not the Final Frontier This is Only The Beginning Social Media is a lesson. Social Media delivers new communications tools. Social Media is a distribution channel. Social Media is a means, not an end. Social Media is a revelation that we the people have a voice and through the democratization of content and ideas, we can once again unite people around common passions, inspire movement, and ignite change. This is About Human Beings Being Human vs. Humanizing Your Story Feel it. Live it. Breathe it. Love It. Be it. What doesn’t kill you, only makes you harder, better, faster, stronger You are the Brand You Represent. It's the poetry of relationship building. You get out of Social Media What you invest into it Trust. Relationships. Community. Respect the communities and they will respect you. Companies will earn the relationships they deserve Resources to Help You FutureWorks PR - www.future-works.com SocialMediaClub.com AllTop - http://socialmedia.alltop.com/ Social Media Today - www.socialmediatoday.com Society for New Comm Research – www.sncr.org PR2.0 – www.briansolis.com Now is Gone – www.nowisgone.com Beth Kanter - http://tinyurl.com/55lc32