Gig/International Arts Manager looks at social media in classical music

December 2, 2010 By

A little while ago, I got a message from Clare Wiley, a reporter at Gig/International Arts Manager magazine. She was writing a story on social media and classical music organizations and wanted to ask some questions. The article was published this week, but you will have to get a subscription to have a read.

Where the Symphony Magazine article in April looked at many creative examples, the article in Gig/International Arts Manager took a somewhat more critical look at social media in the strategic sense. I know people like to read both.

I was quoted quite extensively in the article, but this has to be my favorite:

And Van Bree argues that rather than a particularly innovative application or flashmob, a meticulous and comprehensive social media strategy is how companies should optimise their use of the technology. ‘What I found in a lot of orchestras is that they’re dipping their toes into the social media pool, but they’re not really doing it strategically,’ he observes. ‘One opera actually pasted entire press releases as Facebook status updates – that was it! It has to come with a change in mindset. Social media alone might not be the most successful tool but social media should be a tactic within your integrated marketing and communications strategy.’

And this is reflected in the conclusion of the article, where Wiley writes: “while clever innovative projects are likely to grab attention in the short term, it’s an all encompassing strategic approach that will pay out in the long term.”

Amen.

p.s. the article also gave a nice shout out to the #askaconductor event. Save the date!

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A response to Symphony Magazine’s article on social media

April 1, 2010 By

The March/April issue of Symphony Magazine takes a look at social media and how orchestras around the country are using it. I was flattered to be contacted due to the Orchestras and Social Media Survey that was published around the article deadline.

The main point I was trying to get across was that orchestras are in a unique position to be adept at social media, but currently they are not quite using the tools strategically. I hope that it came across that way.

The article had a myriad of interesting examples and creative ideas. The New York Philharmonic’s photo contest; Baltimore Symphony’s weather updates via Twitter; blogger nights; and iPhone apps.

These are all great. And it shows that orchestras are dipping their feet in the social media pool with creativity and enthusiasm. But, and perhaps I’m reading too much between the lines, there were a couple of instances that demonstrated why orchestras don’t seem to be quite as ready yet.

The New York Philharmonic’s head of communications told the reporter that social media “is not just an advertising outlet. It’s also something we can use to talk about our educational activities or even fund-raising activities.”

It does seem to me that “something we can use to talk about…” demonstrates that many still see social media as a tool for broadcasting their messages. A case in point comes from the Baltimore Symphony, whose “public relations and marketing releases are now routinely sent to bloggers.”

I won’t argue against telling the stories that don’t get told in the mainstream media or against pitching bloggers, of course, but the language in which these examples were written displays an old world frame of mind. It’s not just the tools that have changed in a static world; it’s the environment that has changed as well, and the mindset and strategy must change accordingly.

Additionally, whenever there is a mention of any metrics in the article, it’s only metrics such as number of followers or fans, unique visitors or downloads. There is no mention of engagement from those fans, actual sales figures or, more importantly, conversion rates.

But there are also some good examples of strategic use in the article. The Indianapolis Symphony, for example, takes an integrated approach to its different social media efforts where “users have multiple venues to discuss certain topics or to embed comments and links in different places, forming a network of street-level promoters.” Now whether they really are creating these promoters and what the impact of such promoters is remains elusive.

In short, I’m happy to see this dipping in the social media pool occurring, but it seems orchestras are a bit behind the curve. Other organizations were dipping away two years ago and are now implementing social media more strategically and are measuring their results. Let’s make sure orchestras catch up.

Filed Under: Culture, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

Staffing social media at the Vancouver Opera

February 24, 2010 By

The whole world is watching Vancouver right now. Let’s hope the world also takes some time to check out the Vancouver Opera, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

When I published the findings from my Orchestras and Social Media Survey, no orchestra had indicated they had dedicated personnel for social media. Just a short while later, I came across Ling Chan, social media manager at the Vancouver Opera. Naturally, I was intrigued to find someone in a dedicated social media position at a classical music organization.

Ling was gracious enough to answer a couple of questions during these hectic Olympic and Nixon in China Canadian premiere times. I wanted to learn more about what her job exactly entails.

You are social media manager for the Vancouver Opera. Could you briefly describe what your typical day looks like?

The first thing I do when I get in is check our Twitter, Facebook and Blogs to answer any questions or comments we may have received. This also gives me a chance to chat with our opera company peers, find out what’s happening in the industry, and pass along opera news and gossip to our online friends.

I meet with members of the marketing team throughout the day to strategize and communicate news and upcoming promotions and events. For example, we’re currently working on a guerilla marketing blitz around our Canadian premiere of Nixon in China. We’re also planning for the world premiere of our newly commissioned opera, Lillian Alling in October, 2010.

During the rest of the time, I brainstorm ideas for upcoming blog posts; gather information and images, do research and hopefully create fun, interesting and compelling stories.

Could you share some details of your job description? What was the organization looking for when they hired you?

As Social Media Manager, I manage and moderate all our social media tools including our blogs and our Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Youtube accounts. I write content to increase brand awareness and site traffic, drive client engagement and ticket sales, while tracking and reporting data to measure the penetration and impact of our social media efforts. I also identify and develop new and innovative methods of engaging our community by staying current with social media tools and industry trends.

The position of Social Media Manager grew out of my previous position as the Assistant to Managing Director. During that time, VO realized and embraced the importance of engaging our audience online. As I was already active with social media personally and had a strong understanding of its tools, I happily volunteered to manage and build our presence online.

I juggled my Assistant responsibilities while working on social media, but with all the success and support we were having online, it soon became clear that a dedicated Social Media Manager was needed. Luckily, the management at VO is forward-thinking and innovative, and they realized what it took to become leaders in social media in the Vancouver arts scene and the opera world.

From the Vancouver Opera Web site, I gather that you report to the Director of Marketing. Does your function have a mostly marketing function and to what degree do you interact with other departments? And how does the decision-making process work in your position?

I play a key role in the marketing department by communicating and promoting the company’s brand. I report and work closely with the Director of Marketing and Community Programs to develop and implement long term social media strategies.

I interact with the Artistic, Development, Education and Lottery departments constantly, as it’s my job to communicate their current and upcoming activities to our online audience. We’re more than happy to “lift the curtain” and give them a peek at what makes Vancouver Opera tick.

Do you have a dedicated social media budget to work with?

We will have a dedicated social media budget after this fiscal year. Our social media expenses for the past year have included prizes and promotional materials (postcards, posters and signage) for our special events: Operabot screening, Facebook & Twitter Fan Night.

How do you monitor the social media presence of the Vancouver Opera?

I use Google Alerts. Twitter is another great way to find out who’s interested about us.

What kind of outcome does the organization expect (or, perhaps, what are the goals and objectives)?

Our goals for social media are to increase awareness and engagement, drive ticket sales, and earn wider media coverage.

How do you measure your success?

We measure blog traffic: pageviews, unique visitors, comments and links each month. On Twitter, increases in our number of followers are wonderful indicators of interest, but what’s more important are the re-tweets and @ responses. I also look out for other bloggers and media writing about us.

I measure all this against increases in ticket sales and subscription purchases, click-throughs to our main website, donations and attendance.

After reading this interview, check out Vancouver Opera’s blog, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook pages. And read this interesting blog post from John Biehler on his participation in Blogger Night @ The Opera. Connect with Ling Chan on Twitter.

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An interview with Miss Mussel of #operaplot fame

May 13, 2009 By

Classical music can go viral too. And you can thank Miss Mussel for that. Who, you ask? Just follow her @missmussel on Twitter and read her blog The Omniscient Mussel. Alternatively, she is known as Marcia Adair, a Canadian freelance classical music journalist.

Marcia started the #operaplot craze, where tweeting opera fans summarize an entire opera in just 140 characters or less, using the hashtag #operaplot. (Search the tag in Twitter)

In its first incarnation, Marcia purchased a $30 gift certificate to give out as a prize. She barely had 50 followers on Twitter, but the word spread around the tweeting classical music world and soon there were about 80 entries.

The buzz continued after the contest and before long a second contest was set up. This time, it went truly viral and even mainstream. Opera star Danielle De Niese signed up as a guest judge, famous opera houses offered tickets for prizes and mainstream media including The Guardian and The Washington Post covered the initiative. After a week of tweeting opera plots, De Niese had more than 500 entries to judge!

I was curious about this phenomenon and Marcia graciously answered a couple of questions:

The big question is, how did you come up with the idea?

#Operaplot started on a whim.  I was writing program notes and tweeted that I was having trouble with word creep….one of those mundane details Twitter disparagers claim not to be interested in.  @pattyoboe, an oboist blogger from California suggested I should tweet the notes.  That seemed impractical but then I thought, what about opera? The irony of compressing the most extravagant of art forms into the smallest possible unit was appealing plus I’m relatively new to opera, so I thought the results might be an easy way to get a handle on what the operas are actually about.

Did most of the “promotion” of the contest come from Twitter? If so, do you have any idea how fast it spread and in what proportion?

It’s difficult to separate out because all the press outlets played off each other.  The original announcement was on Twitter and my website. The story was picked up by the Washington Post and The Guardian, which helped a lot. When the partners were finalized, I sent releases to papers in cities that had participating houses, which caused more people to check it out on Twitter.  Then people started blogging about it, which led to more traditional press and more Twitter and even Facebook.

Did you do any other promotions for the contest? How did the media learn about it?

If I remember correctly, Anne Midgette of the Washington Post was the first on the story, which was then picked up by Charlotte Higgins at The Guardian. Where other people found the story after that, I can’t really say. Everything is so connected, it’s likely they saw it on several sources before writing about it. Once Danielle De Niese got involved, her publicist sent out info to her list as well.

[If you're interested, a full list of press clipping is here]

Did you have any idea it would take off like this?

I hoped it would but I didn’t really think I had the influence to organize the press or the houses.  After talking to arts admin people at various houses, I think the reason for the contest’s success is that it was the right idea at the right time with someone who was willing to put the time in to organize everything.  I think the press was all over it because the story involved Twitter, which is a hot topic, there were a lot of houses involved and the contest is just plain fun.

For the second round, what was the reaction from opera houses when you approached them for the prizes?

The first house I contacted was a disaster.  I called for an email address and ended up having to give my spiel to three different people only I was completely unprepared for it so I didn’t inspire much confidence. Needless to say, I didn’t get the desired result there. I regrouped, wrote a good email and things improved markedly.  Houses were very receptive and took far less convincing than I expected considering no one had heard of me before.  I think the chance to explore the possibilities of Twitter in a no-risk way was appealing. The Washington National Opera was first on board with their monster prize pack, so that helped with my credibility and by the end, when I was calling to follow up, most people had already heard about the competition and were excited to join in.

What kind of audience do you think you reached with this contest?

The contest naturally excludes people who don’t know much about opera because you need at least some knowledge to summarize and a lot more to make jokes. I didn’t look at everyone’s profile but I’m guessing the age range is 25-50.  If I had to make further generalizations, I’d say they are the type of people that are looking for a new kind of relationship with performing arts institutions….one that is more transparent and honest rather than the traditional cursive script, lush images and WE ARE AWESOME AT EVERYTHING attitude.

Are there any lessons for classical music organizations to be drawn from this contest?

The big one is right idea, right time, right audience.  Difficult to predict but if you take the time to know your audience, or at least the one you’d like to attract, you’ll have a better chance.  Lesson two is that people will get excited about something they’re passionate about — harness that and have fun along with them.

Also, when using social media, particularly Twitter, be real.  Take the time to build relationships and put selling to the back of your mind.  Social media is all about saying, “Thought you might like to know that….” relationships rather than “SUPER WORLDCLASS CONCERT TONIGHT WITH FAMOUS PEOPLE – V PRESTIGIOUS (and also we are awesome by association for booking these people)”

I follow a couple of hundred arts organizations and get messages all the time about sales, promotions, the next superfantastic show etc.  The organizations that stand out are those that don’t try so hard and actually post things that might be off message but still interesting. They comment on what other people are doing, encourage their colleagues and contribute to the community.

I could go on at length here but the overall point is relax and enjoy connecting with people.  Your ROI, as it were (ugh), will come in a thousand small and unexpected ways.

Have you seen traffic to your own Web site increase?

Of course, although it remains to be seen how many will stick around after #operaplot fever dies down.

You’re a freelance music writer. What does this contest mean for your own personal “branding”?

In many ways, the contest is an extension of the brand I’ve created with my website, so it hasn’t changed anything as such.  As a PR exercise however, it means a lot for me because I don’t have the advantage of co-opting the brand of the newspaper or magazine at which I might have a staff job. There are loads of excellent freelancers out there but hopefully next time I pitch a publication, my name will resonate a little bit more than it otherwise would have. I live in a small market inside a small market (Canada) and being “that girl that did that competition” can’t hurt.

And lastly, of course, will it continue? Or do you have any other things in mind?

I always have something in mind!  Whether the ideas are viable or not is another story. I hope #operaplot will continue. At the moment, it’s just a matter of sitting down, looking at everything and finding a way to make it work even better.  People are welcome to leave comments about what they would like to see in future contests at http://theomniscientmussel.com/2009/05/operaplot-feedback-form/

Filed Under: Culture, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,