Presentation

It Starts With A Story

In May of 2010 Cool People Care traveled the state of Tennessee on behalf of the Tennessee Arts Commission (TAC) giving 5 workshops on social media and branding at the intermediate strategic level. We spoke to nearly 70 nonprofit arts groups and documented the workshops on this blog throughout the month of May and hope to establish longer term relationships with many of them!
The attendees of the workshops now qualify for a special Technical Assistance Grant from TAC that will allow the funding for further strategic planning.  At this posting, 6 organizations are in the process of those requests.

This is a guest blog post from Dennis Adkins, TAC Communications Director, who interviewed Cool People Care team members and workshop attendees for the article.

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Workshops focused on social media and the arts

Effective communication can move people to action, and the state’s nonprofit arts organizations are learning to shape the conversation through social media. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs are platforms that allow for the quick exchange of information. The old model of one sided communication is no longer effective. Communication is moving toward a relationship-driven approach that allows sharing of information and a collaborative conversation. It’s a conversation that arts organizations are embracing in large numbers, and for good reason. Social media is cost effective, reaches many people, and can be used in a number of creative ways.

Recognizing the relevance of social media, the Tennessee Arts Commission contracted with CoolPeopleCare, Inc. in presenting Social Media 202 – a series of social media workshops presented in five locations across the state. The workshops made advanced training available to arts organizations already utilizing social media as part of their marketing strategy. Follow-up technical assistance grants were made available to those who attended, providing individual social media training after the workshop.

According to Nancy VanReece, senior director of social media and development at CoolPeopleCare, arts organizations are in a unique position to use social media. VanReece served as the presenter during the workshop series. “Arts organizations not only have wonderful stories to tell, they have the creative power to tell those stories well,” she says. “The staff and support system at creative organizations can give great advantage when creating a strategy for success.”

In the four-hour interactive workshops, participants learned about the latest trends in the use of social media, specifically focusing on the use of tools to find new donors, patrons, visitors, supporters, and volunteers. “Attendees were able to leave the sessions with ideas and a strategy to begin to recruit people for their cause, with particular suggestions about how to engage new and exciting audiences so that they can sustain themselves well into the future,” says VanReece. “In the presentation we were able to highlight the success of the ArtsMemphis video campaigns and their smart phone “ap” as well. We also examined how the Frist Center for Visual Art’s successful use of engaging patrons with mobile technology such as Foursquare. Just about all the arts groups we talked to had engaged Facebook and were beginning to review appropriate strategy regarding Twitter.”

Participants gained a new perspective on how to analyze what platforms they should use, when they should be online, as well as what they should be talking about and how often. “Overall, the general message was ‘put down the megaphone’ and build conversations online,” adds VanReece. “In other words, try not to talk about yourself all the time. Keep the conversation external and work toward building relationships. It’s important to listen before speaking. With social media, it’s about the audience. However, organizations can shape the conversation to some extent.”

In using social media, VanReece recommends “removing the agenda” and making it a communications platform, and she stresses the importance of “being authentic and real.” According to VanReece, the average person using social media has an influence over 150 people.

“The workshop was extremely helpful to me, because I could see how others integrated all the different ways we can reach out to people,” says Laurie Davis, manager of public relations and promotions for Nashville Ballet. “I felt energized about using these communication tools, and came back ready to implement all that we learned.”

Kelly Fenton, content associate of NowPlayingNashville.com, attended the Nashville workshop. “The workshop was extremely beneficial in making sure social media is being used effectively. I gained insight into what can seem an ever-changing platform to reach fan base, followers, and friends.”

Video Emerging As Important Part of Social Media

Many organizations like to use video in telling their story, and the use of video on social media platforms has rapidly increased. “Not every video needs to be fully or expensively produced to be effective,” says VanReece. “The Flip camera is an important part of your social media toolkit. It’s not a matter of getting one, it’s a matter of how many.”

Caroline Harrison, company and box office manager for the Tennessee Shakespeare Company in Germantown, says her organization uses Facebook to share company information and to post photos and video. “It’s an easy way to share visually what we have been doing, and lets artists see and comment, then share it with friends.” Harrison was surprised by the low cost of video. “We hope to expand the use of video to tell our story, not only on stage, but also through volunteers, interns, audience members, and donors,” she says.

Social Media Policy Is An Important Issue

Although there is little financial cost involved in the use of social media, a considerable amount of time is involved. Posts need to be monitored frequently and responded to quickly. It’s important that organizations establish a social media policy to guide the organization’s day-to-day use.  Ten elements of a social media policy {suggested by Sharlyn Lauby of Internal Talent Management/ITM } were discussed in the workshop. Those included:

• Introducing the purpose of social media;
• being responsible for what you write;
• be authentic;
• consider your audience;
• exercise good judgment;
• understand the concept of community;
• respect copyrights and fair use;
• protect confidential information,
• bring value;
• and remember that productivity matters.

The person implementing a social media strategy should be honest, relevant, committed, and transparent. “During early adaption, there was an unfortunate trend to put temporary employees or interns in place as the voice of the organization,” says VanReece. “You shouldn’t have anyone speaking for an organization on Facebook and Twitter that you wouldn’t trust to speak to the New York Times or go live on CNN on behalf of your organization. The best communication will always come from directly inside the organization”

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