The report found that “on average, journalists found the answer to simple questions 70% of the time. A Web site success rate of 70% implies the site has a failure rate of 30%. Leaving 30% of press inquiries unanswered would be considered a very poor performance for most traditional PR departments.”

Furthermore, “the ability to find information on a PR site has a strong impact on the journalists’ impression of the site and thus on the way they perceive the company.”

The report lists the top-five reasons journalists gave for visiting a company’s website:

• Find a PR contact (name and telephone number);
• Check basic facts about the company (spelling of an executive’s name, his/her age, headquarters location, etc.);
• Discover the company’s own spin on events;
• Check financial information;
• Download images to use as illustrations in stories

What does this mean for orchestras? Besides the obvious, such as PR contacts, press releases and bios, you could provide an image gallery, the latest annual report, a mission statement and much more. Here is an incomplete list of suggestions:

• Press releases and press release archive;
• Public relations staff contacts;
• Add me to your mailing list/Update your contact information;
• Multimedia: image library/video library/audio library;
• Fact sheets: mission statement/key statistics, people, numbers and titles;
• Biographies: artistic leadership/guest artists/musicians/administrative leadership;
• Financial information: annual report/990-forms;
• Press kits: season announcement/recordings/other major announcements

The Nielsen Norman Group’s report further recommends several usability components:

• Provide fast access to basic facts and figures;
• Provide a simple way to contact a live human being in the PR department; journalists don’t have time to wade through deep, complex navigation trees or sift factual wheat from marketing chaff;
• In particular, pages must present information in well-organized chunks that are easy to scan. If journalists cannot find what they are looking for on a website, it could impact whether they include information about that company in the story;
• Present all press information as simple, standard HTML, designed for minimal download times.

As I wrote before, a blogger’s needs are different than the traditional journalist’s needs. You are working with a multi-media outlet. Images don’t need to be provided in a high resolution; most bloggers can work with a Web-ready image. Just make sure you provide information on how they can use the image and the appropriate credit to use. Video, audio and images can really liven up an online story.

If you provide content, make utilization and attribution easy. Consider providing sound samples, interviews, videos and images under a Creative Commons license, which uses “private rights to create public goods: creative works set free for certain uses.”

In May 2006, SHIFT Communications premiered a template for the “social media release” as an alternative to the standard press release. (A PDF of a template can be found here) The social media press release is an online document specifically geared toward new media content users and generators. Although it has its critics, the concept has found wide-spread use by many corporations. Even press release distribution services, such as PR Newswire, have adapted methods of distribution to accommodate the social media release.

The social media release includes multimedia (photo, video and audio) and features new media concepts such as tagging, bookmarking, trackbacks and even commenting. In similar fashion, SHIFT Communications also produced a template for the “social media room.” (PDF)

Keep in mind that these examples are templates. It is up to your organization to figure out what elements are feasible and which work best. Orchestra consultant Drew McManus offers additional advice on adapting materials for new media.

And lastly, keep in mind that, although journalists’ needs should be the focus and priority of your online media room, the public is sure to read your press releases and find your materials. This does not mean you should adapt your materials for a general public, that’s what other, mainly marketing, materials are for, but be aware that the public can and will read what you publish.

SlideShare

Organizations frequently have to share and present their ideas. Microsoft PowerPoint is perhaps the most commonly used tool to convey those ideas and presentations. Annual meetings with season’s highlights, education campaigns, advocacy campaigns and fundraising events could all benefit PowerPoint’s strengths in projecting imagery and bullet points. But why would you limit your audience to those who are gathered in the room? Potential patrons, advocators and donors are everywhere.

SlideShare is an online community for sharing presentations. Upload your presentation to share your ideas and connect with others. Users can easily find presentations via a search and tags and download or embed their presentations into blogs and Web sites.

SlideShare lists things you can do:

• Embed slideshows into your own blog or website;
• Share slideshows publicly or privately. There are several ways to share privately;
• Synch audio to your slides;
• Market your own event on SlideShare;
• Join groups to connect with SlideShare members who share your interests;
• Download the original PowerPoint / PDF file

Twitter

Launched only two years ago, Twitter is one of the most instantaneous, direct new media services around. Similar to Facebook’s and Myspace’s “status update” functions, Twitter allows the user to post short (up to 140 characters) messages for the public to see in a process called micro-blogging. Over two million users are registered at Twitter, including companies such as Whole Foods and presidential candidates such as Barack Obama.

Twitter’s uses are multiple: networking, sharing information but mostly conversation monitoring (even if you’re not ready to jump in the conversation yourself, you can monitor what is being said about your organization). Colin Carmichael, blogging at the Social Media Group, wrote:

“Track your name, your brands, your competitors, anything you need to know about before it hits the ‘rest of the web.’ Twitter is a breeding ground for blog posts and bloggers have gotten into the habit of using Twitter to collaborate and research their upcoming posts out in the open. If you or your brand get a lot of blogosphere play, it’s the online equivalent of having inside access to the editorial boards of every major newspaper.”

The Point

Online fundraising is a completely different sector of the Internet and new media. A whole new series could be written about the opportunities, case studies and tools; Barack Obama alone can tell you how important it can be for an organization. Obama not only raises funds but engages and activates his online community. Now, most organizations do not have the manpower or the funds to set up a complete social media network like Obama’s, but there are ample opportunities to raise funds and activism. One such service is The Point.

Inspired by Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference,” The Point lets its users start campaigns—asking for donations or make something happen—but the operation only succeeds if the campaign hits a predetermined tipping point. For example, if we raise $5,000 we will start an education program in a community center, or, in one wacky case, if we raise $10 billion, we’ll build a glass dome over Chicago to keep the winter out.

In its own words: “Every problem has a tipping point of public frustration that will force a solution. If enough people want a problem to be solved and they have a way to find one another and coordinate action, they will solve it” and “The Point offers a new approach to leveraging the influence of groups and making things happen.”

Yelp

Online city guides have been around since the early beginnings of the Internet, but now they combine yellow pages, city guides and social networks with user-generated content. Yelp is perhaps the best-known example.

Users can find, review and talk about places, restaurants, doctors and anything local. Businesses can claim their page. According to the Web site “Once you have claimed your business page you’ll be able to access numerous features (track how many people view your business on Yelp, private customer messaging, immediately update your business’ facts).” Advertising and sponsorships are also possible.

Yelp has come up with a list of dos and don’ts for businesses and organizations:

1. DON’T review your own business or solicit reviews from your employees or friends.
2. DON’T spam yelpers with promotional messages about your business.
3. DON’T overestimate the impact of a single negative review. It happens to even the best businesses. That said, if you see a trend of negative reviews, you may want to take this feedback and determine if there is a way to improve your business.
4. DON’T lash out at the people who have written negative reviews about you. Tempting as that may be, we see that backfiring in some cases as the Yelp community may up the ante and even engage in “vigilante justice” by spreading more negativity. Try to remember, “the customer is always right”.
5. DON’T offer incentives or payment for your customers to write positive reviews about your business on Yelp. This sort of “shilling” often causes ill will with both current and potential customers. In addition, these paid reviews violate Yelp’s Review Guidelines and will be removed.

1. DO claim your business page and afterwards, login to Yelp for Business Owners to keep track of your business’ page on Yelp and to engage with the Yelp community.
2. DO add photos to your business page and make sure your business information is correct. You’ll be able to immediately update your business’ information via the Yelp for Business Owners website.
3. DO thank those customers who have reviewed your business using Yelp for Business Owners. In general your best bet is to keep it simple and positive, keeping in mind that these are your most vocal customers.
4. DO take the feedback to heart but remember that each review is just one single opinion.
5. DO start thinking about every customer as a potential yelper and supporter… and providing the excellent customer service that will encourage them to spread the word.

Remember the MTV/Nickelodeon study? According to the study, “a clear majority of young people asked said the majority of website links (88%) they viewed and the viral video content they downloaded (55%) came from friends’ recommendations.”

Not too long ago, I got an email from Marc van Bree, the PR coordinator from the CSO, who telling me about his new blog.  He also mentions that he saw my powerpoint and thanked me for using the CSO screenshot.  One thing lead to another and I directed him to the WeAreMedia project because the idea is that the conversation  can become more than a brainstorming session or list of resources.

Read the entire interview on Beth’s blog.

In the meantime, keep reading my special “Orchestras and New Media” series. If you have any suggestions or feedback, leave a comment. If that doesn’t work, e-mail me at dutchperspective (at) mcmvanbree.com

More on the series soon. If you have a thirst for more reading, right now, then I would suggest We Are Media or some other suggestions from my updated del.icio.us account (great add-on for Firefox 3 available here)

Organizations can create special tags to keep track of conversations and give an opportunity to content creators to effectively pull the organization’s sleeve and bring attention to their content. Some previously mentioned services that use tagging are Technorati, where you can search blog posts or even entire blogs carrying specific tags, and Last.fm, where you can tag artists, albums and tracks.

Beth Kanter created a special “wearemedia” tag for bloggers who write about the We Are Media project. When bloggers write an article about the project, they add the tag to their post, alerting search engines such as Technorati. This is an easy way for Beth to keep track of who is joining the conversation on her project, by simply searching by “wearemedia”; and it’s an easy way for the bloggers to call attention to their post and stimulate responses and conversation.

The Web site Chicagoist uses a special “chicagoist” tag in Flickr, an image hosting service, so that their readers can mark photos that might be interesting for Chicagoist’s blog posts. Photos tagged range from Lincoln’s deathbed to a photo of a bachelorette party on the streets of Chicago. Chicagoist editors frequently pick out a photo to feature on their Web site (with the appropriate credit to the photographer, of course) to go along an article or even be featured by itself.

Del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site, is a service where users store, organize, search and manage bookmarks of Web pages. Each bookmark is accompanied by a tag or several tags, allowing other users to find links to similar articles or pages. The San Francisco Symphony hosted its first “Bloggers Night” in 2007. The orchestra invited area bloggers to cover a concert and bookmarked all the resulting blog posts on a special del.icio.us page with a special tag “sanfranciscosymphonybloggernight.”

A slightly different take on social bookmarking are services such as Digg and StumbleUpon. These Web sites work slightly differently, focusing on a social recommendation system rather than purely bookmarking. Users can submit links and those links are voted upon (”digging” or “burying,” e.g. up or down vote). The links and stories with the most up votes are featured on the home page of the service.

YouTube, perhaps the most famous content community, gives the following advice to non-profits: “Tag and Title Well. Tag and title your videos with relevant keywords—that’s how users will find your content as they navigate YouTube.”

But tagging is not the only Web 2.0 characteristic of these content communities. Flickr, for example, invites comments and discussions about its images and organizations and users can annotate their images. In addition, users can subscribe to an RSS feed so they can keep track of new images being added.

Digital Storytelling

What’s perhaps most intriguing about content communities is the opportunity to tell a digital story. Why not tell the story of your orchestra’s education outreach campaign, Schoenberg or any other composer festival, or touring adventures in Europe?

Many orchestras already keep a photo journal of their touring activities on their Web site. Let’s take this to the next level and post it on Flick; annotate the images, invite comments and tag locations, people and anything else you can imagine.

Again, YouTube offers good advice:

• Reach Out. Post videos that get YouTube viewers talking, and then stay in the conversation with comments and video responses;
• Partner Up. Find other organizations on YouTube who complement your mission, and work together to promote each other;
• Keep It Fresh. Put up new videos regularly and keep them short—ideally under 5 minutes;
• Spread Your Message. Share links and the embed code for your videos with supporters so they can help get the word out;
• Be Genuine. We have a wide demographic, so high view counts come from content that’s compelling, rather than what’s “hip.”

And lastly, give others the opportunity to tell your organization’s story. Create those tags so that people can let you know when they talk about you. Add those “add to del.icio.us; add to dig; add to Facebook” buttons to your Web site’s content. But most of all, give people the media to tell it. As said before in this series: if you provide content, make utilization and attribution easy. Provide sound samples, interviews, videos and images under a Creative Commons license, which covers the spectrum between full copyright and the public domain.

Real-world companies and organizations have set up offices in Second Life. Residents can drive around in a Nissan on the company’s own island; or they can buy Adidas sneakers and other gear from the official store.

There are numerous examples of non-profit and cause marketing: in 2007, a flood covered virtual replicas of cities like London, Tokyo and Amsterdam “as part of a campaign to illustrate the potential environmental and financial impacts of climate change.”

One of the most impressive cultural examples is the Old Masters Picture Gallery of the Dresden State Art Collections. A detailed and complete replica occupies a large stretch of virtual land. Residents can browse high resolution images of some of the most famous Old Master paintings in a museum environment.

Classical music has not stayed behind. In September 2007, the Liverpool Philharmonic organized one of the first Second Life orchestral concerts. Widely reported in newspapers such as The Telegraph, The Guardian and the New York Times, the concert was, if anything, mostly a public relations success:

“From a PR standpoint, the virtual concert idea was an unprecedented triumph - can you remember another time when an otherwise routine concert announcement made the news pages of the all the main UK dailies?”

According to an article in the New York Times, covering the event, this wasn’t the only classical music endeavor into Second Life: Universal Classics had built an online island with an exhibition about mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran, promoting Cecilia Bartoli’s Malibran-themed album; pianist Lang Lang had given a concert in avatar-form; and the Sinfonia Leeds and Red {an orchestra} had given concerts.

Guy Dammann of The Guardian continued in his article:

“It was the much-vaunted community feel of Second Life, whereby an event is marked more by its fostering of a kind of virtual being-together than by the actual quality of what is currently on offer, that was in many respects the main victor on the night.”

There usually isn’t much discussion among total strangers after a real-life concert, unless it is maybe gently forced upon patrons by a post concert activity. In Second Life, however, spontaneous discussion erupted immediately after the concert.

Opportunities galore, but there are some serious obstacles and limitations. Concert halls can only serve a limited, albeit world-wide, audience of 50 to 100 Residents due to technical limitations. One solution is to broadcast on multiple screens throughout the Second Life world, spreading the coverage. But the more apparent obstacles are budgeting and musician contracts: Liverpool paid $6,000 for its real estate in Second Life and another $10,000 on production costs. Musicians’ media contracts would likely need to be updated to accommodate live broadcasts through Second Life.

Pandora and Last.fm let users create a profile, similar to the social networks at Myspace and Facebook, and enable users to find friends and join groups of people that share their musical taste. Users create custom radio stations and playlists that play their preferences, which are indicated by rating, disapproving or approving songs and artists. The service recommends other songs and artists based on their preferences as well, making musical discovery a big part of the experience.

iLike, another online music service, has grown mainly through integration with social network services such as Facebook, hi5 and Bebo and programs such as iTunes and Windows Media Player. iLike helps people share music recommendations, playlists, and personalized concert alerts. Last.fm and Pandora also seek integration with social networks; both services have created Facebook applications, which show the radio players in Facebook users’ profiles.

Last.fm, Pandora and iLike list tour and concert information, including links to Ticketmaster or other sales points, for the artist currently playing in your browser-based player. All three services also offer users the ability to purchase the song they are listening to through Amazon.com and iTunes.

In March 2008, R.E.M. became the first band to launch a new album in iLike. The band’s album streamed (note: not downloadable) for a few days in its entirety exclusively, and most importantly free, on iLike, nearly a week before the album’s North American release.

Orchestras can benefit most by providing these social music services with the most up-to-date information: concert and tour information, cover art, latest releases etc. But why not set up a similar promotion to R.E.M.’s foray into social music for your orchestra’s next release? R.E.M., being the first and being a major band with highly anticipated recordings, received much coverage, in both print and online media. I’d be willing to bet classical music critics around the country would pay attention to the first orchestra to do a similar promotion.

On a last, brief note, music on the Internet and its impact on copyright is a very current topic of discussion among webcast radio services, artists and labels. Currently in the United States, many webcast radio services are fighting a May 2007 rate increase in the royalties payable to performers of recorded works broadcast on the Internet, as approved by the Copyright Royalty Board. Whatever happens with this discussion in the future might duly impact the abovementioned services.

Although wiki pages can make no guarantee of validity due to its open process (and vandalism frequently occurs), a large community polices, edits and cleans the pages at a remarkable rate. Employees of orchestras should tread carefully in the world of wikis and Wikipedia. After several scandals involving corporations and politicians favorably editing their own encyclopedic entry and even Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales messing with his entry, community members and users are very weary of edits by employees or affiliates.

Most orchestras will have a dedicated page on Wikipedia. (I started the NHK Symphony page after I was looking for information and discovered they did not have a page). But what to do if you see an apparent error on your orchestra’s page? Spelling and grammar mistakes, vandalism and spam or incorrect dates, titles or names can be fixed by employees or affiliates, but never anonymously! Transparency is key. Keep in mind that your IP number will be logged and it is easy to trace it back to your company (one such tool is WikiScanner). Simply create an account, work in full transparency and provide sources where needed.

But be careful. Do not try to insert favorable messaging; a neutral point of view is highly treasured in the community. If you see something you would like to portray in a different light, use the discussion page to put forth your argument and provide independent sources (for example a link to a newspaper article) that support your point. Read Wikipedia’s Conflict of Interest page for more information.

As one member points out, you can help even more by offering your promotional materials, including publicity photos and press releases, with a free license, without copyright. I’ve mentioned Creative Commons before; consider providing sound samples, interviews, videos and images under a Creative Commons license, which covers the spectrum between full copyright and the public domain.

Wikipedia is the best known example, but there are hundreds, if not thousands of other wikis. There might be a niche market for classical music. Sequenza21, a contemporary music Web site, has its own wiki with performer and composer bios and multimedia sources. This wiki has new entries, but also complements existing Wikipedia entries. Another, somewhat different, example of a wiki is the We Are Media wiki by Beth Kanter. This wiki provides a collaborative look at social media and non-profits.

Just like blogs, one option orchestras can consider is using a wiki internally. Wikis are great for collaborative projects and can be as private as needed. Think of an archives project on the organization’s intranet with the orchestra’s history, complete with photos and audio, as an informational reference. Similar to internal blogs, internal wikis might encourage employee participation, free discussion of issues, collective intelligence and direct communication between various layers of an organization.

The services, including MySpace and Facebook, let users build a profile with photos and personal data such as education, employment and favorite movies, music and books. This profile serves as a base from which the users build a network of friends and contacts.

In an April 22, 2008 key note address to the Chicago arts community, Mary Madden of the Pew Internet research project said that while MySpace and Facebook are popular services now, the behavior of its users is permanent. She added that online relationships work best when they complement an offline relationship. A study at Michigan State University about social capital and social network sites confirms:

“Online social network sites may play a role different from that described in early literature on virtual communities. Online interactions do not necessarily remove people from their offline world but may indeed be used to support relationships and keep people in contact, even when life changes move them away from each other. In addition to helping student populations, this use of technology could support a variety of populations, including professional researchers, neighborhood and community members, employees of companies, or others who benefit from maintained ties.”

An MTV/Nickelodeon study found that “despite the remarkable advances in communication technology, kid and youth culture looks surprisingly familiar, with almost all young people using technology to enhance rather than replace face-to-face interaction.”

Colleen Fahey Rush, Executive Vice President of Research for MTV Networks, states that “traditionally, marketing has considered opinion formers and influencers to be a small number of people. Nowadays it has become a much larger group.”

The study also reports that audiences want more control of what they watch and when they watch it, across all platforms; mobile, computer and television. Fahey Rush continues: “A brand needs to be interesting enough to get people talking about it. A brand needs to be special. If not, it won’t be heard, and that’s what some brands get wrong.”

What does this mean for orchestras? Social networks enhance a user’s life by being accommodating through constant connectivity, on-demand content and an expanding social capital. Orchestras will benefit only if they add value to a user’s life. Caroline Vogt, Head of International Research, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, agrees: “Brands need to provide teens with content that they want to share. Their reward will be the loyalty of brand-savvy groups.”

Adding value can result in a strong word of mouth campaign; according to the study, “a clear majority of young people asked said the majority of website links (88%) they viewed and the viral video content they downloaded (55%) came from friends’ recommendations.”

Most orchestras have an offline relationship with its patrons already; why not enhance this relationship and expand into the online world of social networks.

In the United States, MySpace and Facebook are the key players in the social network world. The two sites are ranked sixth and eighth, respectively, in terms of world-wide traffic, and third and fifth, respectively, in terms of traffic within the United States, according to Alexa.

MySpace

MySpace is arguably the best known social network and has been extensively covered in the media. In 2005, Rupert Murdoch bought Myspace for $580 million and it reached 100 million users a year thereafter. Currently, MySpace has over 200 million users.

Orchestras can benefit most from Myspace Music. Establishing an official presence on Myspace only takes a few minutes. You create a profile for the orchestra with the most basic information such as history, Web site, label name and more. You can also add photos and streaming mp3 files, highlighting your (recent) recordings.

Users can request to be added as friends, allowing for more interaction. Once you have established a “friendship,” users will be kept updated whenever you post a new mp3, new photos or a bulletin.

Many orchestras have an established presence on MySpace (although, notably, not many add much or any value). Here are Boston, New York and Chicago.

Facebook

Facebook started out as a closed network, only available to Harvard students. Later, other Ivy League schools were added and all other universities soon followed. When Facebook opened its door to any users over the age of 13, it really took flight. Currently, it has over 70 million active users.

Facebook didn’t start out very business friendly, but there had always been ways for fans of different organizations to express their fandom. The most commonly used way was Facebook Groups; users could become a member of a specially created group to share comments, photos and discussion.

In November 2007, Facebook launched Facebook Pages. Its feel is very similar to the Groups, but orchestras can benefit most from signing up as a “musician.” This creates the opportunity to stream video and audio; and upload photos and events. Users can become fans of the orchestra, review your recordings, comment on audio and video and participate in discussion, or simply leave a comment.

One of my favorite examples is the London Symphony Orchestra’s page.

Ning.com

In late 2005, a new company entered the scene. Called Ning, the company is an online platform for users to create their own social Web sites and social networks. Currently, there are already more than 185,000 networks on its server, ranging from poker players to arts educators. Ning offers the opportunity to cater to a niche market and target specific audiences. One such example in the classical music is WFMT’s Introductions, which capitalizes on its young, Internet savvy participants.

Keep in mind, other services might eventually replace the abovementioned trio. Orkut, Friendster, Hi5 and Bebo are other examples, although they are mainly popular outside of the United States. Dutch Internet users, for example, mainly flock to Hyves. Orchestras might consider setting up shop on a social network service site that is popular in Asia, considering that the continent has a vast market for classical music.

But the key points to remember are: add value; and online relationships complement offline relationships.