Social Media and the Arts: Less Advertising, More Talking

Today on Beth Kanter's oft-fascinating blog, there's a discussion on social media and arts organizations. This is a topic that's near to my heart. Many galleries, theatres, opera companies, and orchestras are sporting slick new ad campaigns in an attempt to attract younger audiences. The results are sometimes a little embarrassing, as they seem to assume that twenty-somethings don't know anything about the arts or even particularly like them. The problem isn't that young people don't like ballet; it's that we can't afford it.

Of course, social media is a huge part of attracting a new audience, but Beth suggests that it's best thought of as a long-term investment. Beth asked the San Francisco symphony via Twitter if they see social media campaigns directly impacting ticket sales. Not really, they said, but it does foster long-term relationships and education. They use Twitter to reach people who appreciate the symphony but might not attend regularly. I think this is a much more mature and intelligent approach to garnering new audiences than "Look kids! We're cool!"–style ad campaigns.

One wonderfully effective social media campaign is Anaheim Ballet's YouTube channel, which combines performance footage with clips from classes, rehearsals, and goofing off. You just need to look at the comments to see that these videos are reaching the young and uninitiated en masse. It's the third most popular nonprofit channel on YouTube (well ahead of many heavy hitters), and I think that's largely because of the amateurism of the videos. It doesn't look like a big-money ad campaign posing as a YouTube channel; it just looks like a really good YouTube channel.

In the past few months, I've developed a habit of searching for a performance on Twitter when I get home from it. There are usually a handful of interesting or funny tweets about the show, but I'm most interested in seeing if the performers themselves had anything to say about it. As a result, I've started following a few dozen musicians and actors on Twitter. Most of their tweets don't have anything to do with their performances, but enough do that I'm continually reminded of what their companies are doing; as a result, I might go to the opera twice a year instead of once.

I think that's the type of online engagement that all community organizations should strive for, in the arts and elsewhere. It's not about a single ad campaign or community manager. It's about actual employees and volunteers interacting with the community on a daily basis, just as they have for centuries.

Photo: rayparnova, CC license

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