What happens when print and social work together?

Over 1200 Nashvillian’s show up for a rehearsal performance. No advertising. Just word of mouth.

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Live feeds from the INS blog, Instagram and Twitter are all fed to the RoadToCarnegie blog for easy viewing until the end of May 2012

The story continues:

Nashville Symphony staff members Jonathan Marx, Laurie Davis, Mark Blakeman, Maribeth Hill-Stahl, Rhonda Helton, Hayden Pruett and musicians James Zimmermann, Stephen Drake, Robert Marler are making regular posts.  I am enjoying managing the social media and will be sending posts as well.  In fact, look for my tweets live from Carnegie Hall Saturday May 12th on both @nvanreece and @nashvillesymph

My dog Scout is 12 years old and she has inspired me in a host of ways. She has been gingerly nursing a sore arthritic tailbone for a couple of  months. However, one early morning last week, she saw a bunny staring at her through the window.

She wanted outside and she wanted outside now. Her instincts took over. She had her time of rest, had taken her medicine, and now, now it was time to run.

I opened the door, told her to be careful down the steps and off she went, down the steps a sharp right and zoom the chase was on.

I watched her as she trotted back having lost the bunny in the woods, once again. That part didn’t matter. It was the instinct to chase that was back, and the discipline to return that gave us both a smile.

Who tells you to rest? Who opens the door, and who is there when you come back smiling. Trust your instincts.  Know when it is time to run!

photo credit

Smart companies use social to turn customers into fans, and fans into volunteer marketers.  They worry less about squeezing every nickel and click out of each tweet and status update.

The more you sell, the less you sell. 

No wonder our Favorite Tweet of the Week and our Facebook Fan of the Week do so well. It’s not about the prize, it is about the exchange of conversation and the beauty of telling friends about a true and relevant experience. (well maybe a little about the prize)

Lesson learned.

New Research: Americans Hate Social Media Promotions (via http://www.convinceandconvert.com)

Among other disruptive characteristics that have altered the nature of business forever (real-time interaction, every customer is a reporter, customer service is a spectator sport, etc.) a major way that social media changes the game is the Democratization of Voices. Your Company Needs to Be Human…

 

This morning Joan and I took out our books.  It was 1997,  we were closing in on our 10th anniversary (98) and we realized something.  Instead of leaving post-it notes that said I love you have a nice day .. we would start a journal that we could leave notes in and then have them forever.

So today, we got them all out and flipped through and read each other notes from the past.  We discovered that we are very romantic and super cool, and still crazy in love with each other.

We are going to go shopping for a special new book this weekend to write our notes in for the year leading up to our 25th anniversary next April 5.  When you see those beautiful handmade books at artisian booths, stop and think, maybe this could be full of love letters, and maybe I will write them.

the VanReece notes

The Lunar Impact Uncovered More Than Just Moon Water

You may have realized by now that I am a big fan of  Brian Solis. If you are not watching his videos, reading his books and following his tweets, I encourage you to.

Recently in a post he said:

The reality is that no matter how creative the idea or however brilliant the strategy, it is the responsibility of decision makers to evaluate proposals based on merit, thoughtfulness and impact to the organization. People, time, capital, technology, are finite resources. It really comes down to opportunity costs. If the organization invests in new media initially, it either must “create” new resources and funds or it must borrow from elsewhere. For you to realize your vision and to bring your plan to life, you must tie everything to Business objectives and priorities or demonstrate how your strategy will push the organization forward. – Brian Solis

I am realizing a few things at my five-month mark as the first Social Media Strategist at the Nashville Symphony. The mere fact that this performance-based, music-education passionate institution created such a position is interesting enough,  the possibilities for Social Media for the Arts is not yet fully realized. When they are, we intend to be on the front line.  What I have seen since coming here is the power of vision in leadership.  Establishing social media strategy for every performance at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center as well as for every department requires some agility.  I started with a social media mission statement:

There has been rapid growth in conversation on all of  the Nashville Symphony platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, WordPress, Foursquare, Instagram, and now Pinterest. People will respond and share about experiences that make life better, we create those opportunities every day and then shape the conversation the best we can.  Indeed, turning content into conversation is the opportunity.  Engaging what Brian calls ‘the audience of audiences” is tangible.

How are you turning content into conversation?  How is the vision of your leadership impacting your potential?

Read More Posts by Nancy on Social Media