ARTSblog

Laura Kakolewski

Arrive early. Be Prepared. Wear something memorable. Have a firm handshake.

Recognize these phrases?

These are just some of the common practices that we all know and memorize when trying to get the most out of any in-person networking event.

Each year at the National Arts Marketing Project Conference, I am reminded that networking is both a powerful tool and advantageous activity; some of the most exciting activities the conference offers are the stellar networking events. And the activities in Louisville this year are sure to follow suit.

The conference’s networking events provide attendees with a platform to constantly engage and share fresh ideas while getting to know their colleagues from different sides of the country. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11%

John Cloys

In only one month, Google+ has become the fastest growing social network site in history. With twenty-five million users, Google+ is comprised of a diverse demographic user base, ranging from celebrities, political figures, and the average social media junkie.

As an active user, I see a great deal of potential for the personal branding, network mapping and collaboration that Google+ offers to its users. Google+ has presented itself as a one-stop hub, combining functions used in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Recognizing Google+ as a unique way of connecting and sharing information, and appropriately utilizing its numerous functions will help you advance your overall marketing and social media strategy.

How is Google+ different, you ask? It is a one-stop shop.  Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9%

Brian Reich

We last discussed the key to an effective social media campaign. Here are some additional thoughts and resources from me to help you going forward.

When I wrote my book, Media Rules!, I set out to address this challenge faced by organizations and help shape the ways organizations can communicate with their audience, in the face of rapid innovation in technology and the massive social change we are currently (and it seems constantly) experiencing. The book offers a roadmap for helping organizations, including newspapers, to understand what the audience expects and how to use technology to meet those expectations. More than that, however, it highlights the other things that you need to take into account—how you staff and manage your team, how you support your partners, and how customer service has changed. These things are important to consider because executing on an effective new media strategy, whether it is online community based or something else, requires buy-in from all levels and close coordination among all the different elements of your organization.

Second, there are literally hundreds of books, articles and blog posts that offer interesting insights into the opportunities that exist for using web 2.0 technologies to support your work, and your communications. I try to look for articles that are not specific to one subject, so that you can take lessons and ideas from other sectors and apply them to your work. So that is what I have tried to do here—below is a list of recent articles that I have found particularly interesting and useful: Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9%

Brian Reich

Brian Reich, managing director of little m media, is leading a Social Media 101 webinar this coming Wednesday, March 3 and he’d love to address any burning questions you may have on the topic. You can submit a question by adding a comment to this blog post.

• The webinar is free for Americans for the Arts members and Half-Century Summit registrants
• It takes place from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. EST on March 3
• Click here to register

Brian’s webinar will address how organizations can better understand ways people get and share information and how this can impact marketing and communications work. The webinar is meant as an introductory primer to deeper conversations about social media that will take place this June at the Half-Century Summit in Baltimore.

Popularity: 29%

Just like I set a ridiculous goal for myself, it is possible to set individual goals inside a Cause on Facebook.

So, my initial gift of $500 to the Cause I joined – Keep the Arts In Public Schools – did not achieve nearly as much as it could. Had I looked closely at the structure of giving in Causes I would have created far more impact.

In Causes you can set up a Personal Pledge, a Fundraising Goal, and a Donor Match.

The first, a Personal Pledge is a declaration to the community that by a certain date you’ll achieve a level of contribution. It opens a space for people to encourage you, and it creates an aim for you to shoot for. I’ve found that by pledging a certain amount by a certain time, the circumstances of life organize themselves in surprising ways to support the word we give.

Somehow, the circumstances in our life respond to what is important to us. And Pledging is important on many levels. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8%

In the next few months we’ll be working to improve the functionality and design of our blog. We want to make it easier for you to scan page, find information you need, and comment on blog posts. Another aim is to help you quickly find blog posts in specific categories such as arts education, public art, marketing, community building, and other topics.

If you have any ideas of blog functions you think we should investigate, or for that matter any other suggestions or comments, please email them to us or comment below. We’re hoping ArtsBlog can be a place to discuss important topics with colleagues and friends; be inspired about the arts; and discover new ideas and best practices.

Popularity: 1%

We all know that joint-venture partnerships can yield many benefits. In hopes to spark more creative partnerships, here are some interesting partnership examples formed with arts organizations around the country. Some are likely partnerships between arts organizations; others are “unlikely” partnerships, which sometime can often bring in new audiences.

Success, of course, depends on each partner’s willingness and ability to live up to its part of the bargain.

Public Art In Detroit Benefits Community and High School Students
A dozen or so west side high school students created a mural on a three-story-high exterior wall of a vacant building in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood. The project, Detroit Neighborhood Arts Corps, provides high school-aged artists with the opportunity to give back to their communities through the creation of public art. The College of Creative Studies (CCS) project was funded by the Skillman Foundation. This project probably solves two problems, it brings arts education to public schools which may have cut art programs and it brings public art to an under-served community. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 2%

Hello KAIPS Members,

KAIPS is a Cause on Facebook – Keep the Arts In Public Schools (click to join)

I want to thank those of you who’ve been stepping up and offering to make our success a little simpler. Many have offered to participate as leaders in the community which is great, because its working.

I believe that Causes is the best reason to be on Facebook and lately, in the press and blogosphere there’s been a bit of controversy stirring over the value of this as a platform.

Here’s a link ( http://bit.ly/WP-response ) in response to the Washington Post who recycled some outdated information essentially bagging on social networks and their inability to effect change for non-profits and public policy. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 2%

In this moment of substantial change, most companies are looking inward to determine what adjustments need to be made to their business models to flourish in today’s new economic climate. Significant shifts need to be made to address the new reality, and that new reality includes taking a hard look at how consumers get information about the arts.

Since the mid-1980s, newspaper circulation has been declining in the United States, but the current economic crisis has thrown gasoline on the fire, causing huge losses for newspapers nationally. Just recently we have seen four major newspapers cease print publication: the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Rocky Mountain News, the Tucson Citizen and the Christian Science Monitor. Additionally, four newspaper companies including the owners of the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Philadelphia Inquirer, have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Even before the rapid failure of many printed newspapers, arts coverage in many daily newspapers was shrinking, going from 912 column inches on average in 1998 to 702 column inches in 2003 according to Reporting the Arts II, a study conducted by the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University.

A huge shift in communications is about to occur away from organizations pitching stories to mainstream media for coverage and toward setting up institutional distribution channels to cover stories themselves. We have seen this in the past decade as the ways we communicate with our customers have become cheaper, quicker and more segmented. We now have e-mail lists, websites, direct mail, telemarketing, social networking, online video distribution, podcasts, photo streams, and blogs. Some large organizations can currently reach more than one million people using these distribution channels. Considering the New York Times has a circulation of 1.6 million, these distribution channels which used to be considered on the fringes of communications have become almost as powerful for some companies as their local newspaper. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%

Myths and pointers about social media that kept me on track in 2008.

This year was the year I finally tackled many social media sites to connect with arts audiences. When speaking with other professionals in the business, the question always arises: “What’s the best web 2.0/social media site?”  The answer is all of them and none of them. What many arts marketing practitioners seem to misunderstand is that there’s not going to be one application that be the solution to filling a social media void. In fact, the best approach may change each month. In 2008 we saw the rise of Facebook and Twitter over Myspace and other such applications. But now that everyone’s grandma is on Facebook, what’s the next hot web 2.0 tool for you to use to connect with audiences? That remains to be seen, but here are some social media myths and pointers that kept me on track in 2008, and which seem relevant in 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%

Cross posted to the Mission Paradox Blog: missionparadox.typepad.com

More and more people are talking about the use of social media (blogs, email, video) etc. as “the next wave” of marketing.

It isn’t.

It’s just a tool.

It’s just a really nice hammer. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%