Arts Intranet

In a time of decreasing marketing budgets, social media platforms (especially Facebook) have become vitally important marketing resources for organizations like The Writer’s Center. When I began actively pursuing an audience for TWC on Facebook two years ago, I confess to having doubts about just what Facebook could do for us. Traditional advertising vehicles—such as TV, radio, and print media—seemed to be, or so I had been told when I was hired, the best means of reaching “our” core audience.  Facebook was, so it was believed, not something “they” would be interested in. Of course, I had no real data supporting or rejecting that belief (until the launch of our new Web site on July 1st of this year, TWC had no real way to track data). During my first year at The Writer’s Center I devoted a large portion of my ad budget to reaching that audience I was told was out there—just waiting to be converted: all we needed to do was put our ad in front of their eyes at just the right moment.

Susannah Greenwood

The impact of our less-than-stellar economy has reared its ugly head this past year in several ways. Most disheartening perhaps are the many examples of arts organizations becoming more and more isolated (and shooting themselves in the foot as a result) as the fear of losing their audiences to other “competing” arts groups takes precedence over “how can we pool our resources for the benefit of all?” Although a tough concept to drive home on any given day, collaboration is at the heart of the “Partnership” part of the Artsopolis Marketing Partnership, and now more than ever we felt we needed to make it our priority to seek out ways to help engage different groups of artists and provide more creative collaborative marketing opportunities in a “safe” environment.

Interestingly enough, in the process of deciding to refocus on collaboration, we discovered this isolation was something Artsopolis was in the midst of dealing with internally as we were in the midst of trying to brand the local website for the first time in a long while. But, once we recommitted to actively encourage others to collaborate, we made a significant shift that allowed us to essentially practice what we preached. What started out as a brainstorm to get some viral video “commercials” made about why Artsopolis.com is so awesome, quickly transformed into an experiment less about us and more about our arts community.

I entered my undergrad as a double major in Broadcast Journalism and Public Relations, if only because I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do. During my sophomore year, I was called to film a number of intro segments for a small niche cable channel's series. Excited, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I headed to the studio, sat down in front of the camera and and got ready to film my first intro.

All I have to do is read the teleprompter. That's it. Shouldn't be too difficult, right? Okay, here we go...ugh, messed up. Can we do this again?

My voice was raspy, I was fumbling my words, I was nervous and in all honesty, I just didn't enjoy it. It didn't energize me the way I thought it would. In the end, they had me film one (ONE!) closing segment for the series where I read their website and phone number. I had, for all intents and purposes, failed, at least at reaching the goals both I and others had created for myself.

Succeeding is awesome. Knowing that you met your goals and that other people are happy with your product is amazing. But what happens when you fail? What do you do with those mistakes?

Deborah Obalil

As a consultant and trainer on the topic of arts marketing, so often when I'm contacted by potential clients there is an assumption that all I'm concerned with is promotional planning. And even when reading about the topic of arts marketing or having discussions with otherwise enlightened arts leaders, we seem to often forget a basic tenet of marketing – Product is the first of the Marketing Ps. (For more information on the Marketing Ps visit www.artsmarketing.org).

Having worked in the arts management field for over 15 years, I know all too well why this happens. Product is the realm of the artists, marketing is the realm of the managers – or so the conventional thinking goes. The problem with this thinking is that it limits the organization's ability to truly think strategically. The product is the core of the customer experience, which also means it is not limited to what they see on the stage or on the walls of the gallery.

Ron Evans

I miss newspapers.

No, I know we still have some daily, weekly, and other newspapers around the country (and my hat goes off to those still working in this field. I also miss hats). But the decline of arts journalism has been massive over the last few years. There are only a few newspapers left in the country that have dedicated arts reviewers/writers – writers who can be trusted to at least publicly declare that they continue to follow journalistic standards. And that's sad.

It's sad, because nothing good has risen up to replace them.

Sure, we have a million review sites out there that allow citizens to review this service or that theatre company, or this production. But who can trust these reviews? I really don't. But in an absence of any other information, they influence a lot of people.

I see a lot of fake reviews. A LOT. I've caught directors writing fake reviews for their shows under assumed names, people writing in fake reviews when they haven't seen the performance, people using assumed names and then just trashing individual actors by name – it's pretty horrible actually. Fake reviews are everywhere – check out this story of a guy who was totally blatent about hiring people to write fake reviews. And anonymity makes fake reviews much more likely – when people can't be held responsible for what they say, they will throw out all manner of bull.

Chip Heath