Week 6: What We Have Learned That You Can Use: Opera

Looking back on previous research done in earlier blog posts, the opera industry has exemplified both positive and negative examples of social media usage to better their sales and reputations. In the post, “Positive Examples of Social Media in Fine Arts: Operas”, the Vancouver Opera House is mentioned as being a pioneer in social media practices. They have successfully incorporated social media facets such as twitter, Facebook, and blogging to extend their reach to newer audiences and to make opera relevant to them. “Tweet Seats” were also mentioned in this post as a way for audiences to get out the word about shows and to incorporate their third screen. For a traditional entertainment outlet such as Opera, it is necessary to evolve their marketing practices to maintain their audiences.

The Sydney Opera house proves points made in previous blog posts in their Facebook Advertising Case Study. Their main social objective was to grow the opera house’s community and drive audience engagement. They promoted appearances of top performers on Facebook, created contests that users may participate in to win prizes, and provided content such as behind the scenes coverage of performances. This generated audience involvement and opened up conversation with their users. Victoria Doidge, the director of Marketing for the Sydney opera house, discussed the importance of opera houses using social media. She stated that an opera house must make it their goal to go above ticket sale promotion, but open up a dialogue with consumers that will generate the sharing and good reputation of your company. Operas using social media to promote activities done besides performances can further engage audiences.

An example of incorporating other interesting information is exemplified in this article about the Royal Opera House. It discusses their live-streaming and behind the scenes YouTube channels, that offers audiences an exclusive and look into what the opera house is up to in a convenient online way. This not only allows audiences to see further into what the opera house is doing, but allows them to share videos they like with their friends, which spreads the word about the opera house.  Another example of audience involvement can be demonstrated in the Atlanta Opera’s “Opera Sleuth”, where the opera house involves audiences by turning them into “opera detectives”. Audiences uncover clues scattered throughout Atlanta based off of opera riddles and facts and documents them by taking pictures. They upload these pictures on Twitter and Facebook. The person who takes the most pictures or solves the riddles first wins a prize. This is a great example of how operas can remain relevant with users in the social world.

 

Lessons Learned from Other Industries: Consumer Packaged Goods

The consumer packaged goods industry is one that greatly differs from that of fine arts. Their mission is to sell products, while fine art’s mission is to gain audiences and sell tickets to shows/exhibits. However, like the fine arts industry and many others, customers and audiences are referring to online social media sources to make purchasing decisions. So, whether or not you are buying a pair of shoes or a pair of tickets to a play, chances are you will seek advice online, requiring both industries to have a social presence.  Because establishing a social presence online is critical to more industries than one, lessons can be learned from the consumer packaged goods industry.

In this article from IBM’s SocialBusiness Blog, Ralph Jacobson, an employee from CPG and Retail Marketing within IBM discusses how social media is affecting the consumer packaged goods industry. The overarching message of this article is that a social media strategy should go beyond listening and communicating with your customers online. He states that CPG companies must go beyond communication via social networks, and find a way to engage consumers in ways that did not exist a few short years ago.  CPG companies need to understand their customers, and create a marketing strategy that involves their customers in the digital world.

Nike’s goal is to get people to buy their sports gear over competing companies like Adidas and Under Armor. To do this, they cannot simply push and broadcast their products, but they must utilize pull communications and engage their customers with their brand to further instill their loyalty to it.  Nike launched their Nike Plus campaign in attempt to pursue customer engagement and loyalty. This is a campaign that involves customers while working out in Nike gear.  By doing this, Nike managed to create a true community with their brand. Not only are customers buying their products, but they can interact with them socially.  Check out this video for a deeper look into their campaign.

How can these lessons be applied in the fine arts industry? While it is important for fine arts to attain a social presence, they must also go above and beyond to interact with their audiences. Mentioned in previous blog posts, “tweet seats” are an example of how big productions can engage their customer with their art. Communication online is key, but engagement is also vital to the loyalty of audiences. The better experience a consumer has with your production, the more they will spread the word about you in the online arena.

Negative Examples of Social Media in Fine Arts: Opera

Opera is one of the most traditional forms of entertainment. While some audiences think that it is still contemporary enough to entertain today’s society, others differ in opinion. How can the opera industry manage to stay relevant to today’s current audiences? The American Lyric Theater, a company that collaborates with composers to build a new and current operatic repertoire, wrote an article that focuses on opera’s poor communications strategies thus far and what they should change.

The article  “Dear Opera Companies: Advertising And Marketing Aren’t The Same Thing” starts out by saying that opera is only unpopular because it was made unpopular, not because tastes changed. Opera has not changed, but media has; so it needs to cater to the idea that audiences have also changed.  Operas have been known to only cater to audiences that are already engaged in the arts, and not attempting to reach beyond them. They can only truly be successful if they can clearly define their audience and communication strategy as an entertainment form that is more relevant to a more general audience, instead of one that is solely viewed as an incomprehensible art form.

The arts population is already engaged, so operas need to center their focus on the people that they can attract to join them. With the increased amount of media outlets now available, opera companies need to open up their dialogue in an interactive and general way to the current audiences of today. By redefining their target audience and prospective attendees, and finding ways to expose themselves and interact with social media, opera will increase its fan base as well as generate revenue.

Ron Evans, from the blog “Group of Minds”, proves the point that operas need to open more of a dialogue with a general public. He states that opera companies have the hardest time making the marketing switch to have personal voice, and says that they are too attached to the traditional roots. He gives an example of Opera Australia, which is an opera company on Facebook that uncorks media interaction online that has engaged new audiences.

Positive Examples of Social Media in Fine Arts: Operas

Operas are finding that social media can benefit their establishment in many ways. Because Opera is such a traditional and long-established form of entertainment, it is important for it to remain relevant with today’s audiences. The mainstream traditional media arena is shrinking, and people are using “the third screen”, their cell phone, as their primary means of sharing information with the world.  It is one thing to utilize this third screen from your nosebleed seats of a rap concert, but highly frowned upon in the mezzanine of a prestigious opera house. So how does opera remain relevant in the social media atmosphere without debunking the traditions of their art?

The Vancouver Opera House has been a pioneer in incorporating social media practices within their establishment. They have incorporated Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter, as well as a blog that started in 2008. In an article by Gillian Shaw from the Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Opera social media manager Ling Chan states that they have had a rise of younger faces at the opera since their appearance online. They host Twitter and Facebook fan nights along with blogger nights, where fans can arrive early to the show and get excited about it; prompting them to promote the Opera House via their blogs and social media accounts. This opera house’s mission was to reach out and engage their current audience, as well as prospective customers. They were able to increase their reach beyond the traditional opera audiences. This not only bridges the gap between newer and older audiences, but generates interest in their opera house, which brings in revenue and attention for the establishment.

Another example of social media incorporation within opera is the upcoming trend of “tweet seats”. In an article by Deborah Netburn of the Los Angeles Times, she explains this new phenomenon. Tweet seats are areas approved by the opera house where spectators can tweet about the performance. This not only gets audiences involved with the show, but also puts information online for outside audiences to see and inquire about.

These two examples of opera houses using social media proves that even an arts establishment that was most popular in the 1800s can still be relevant with 21^st century society. By implementing a social media plan, and creating an atmosphere where people can interact and share, they can boost revenue and attract potential audiences.

General Principles: Online Catalogs

In a society that is becoming reliant on social media, museums need to be able to reach audiences outside of the buildings they occupy. One way to do this is to establish an interactive online catalog. This is a digital publication that allows a museum to provide richer content that can easily present its merchandise virtually to its viewers.

In an Interim Report from the Getty Foundation, they present the opportunities and challenges of producing an online catalogue for a museum, and provide examples of establishments that implement them. Pages 1-28 indicate the value of creating online catalogues, while pages 29-50 provide examples of museums that implore them. The Getty Foundation launched an online catalogue in 2008, setting a precedent for other museums around the world to do the same. They realized that making the transition to online publishing can significantly increase traffic to their museum and its merchandise and events.

Before making the transition to online catalogues, museums must keep in mind their content plan, and define their audience. Once this is established, museums can present images of their work, offer information about their exhibits, and sell pieces on online auctions. Readers can bookmark and share pages and images, while getting general information about the museum.  Not only are these catalogs cheap and easy for museums to update, but they also reach extended audiences. Print media is costly and does not reach as many people.

The Museum of Modern Art is infamous for interactivity on their website. One facet of their interactive catalogue is their exhibition page on their website.  This page allows viewers to explore each exhibition and view images of the work presented. Other multimedia outlets on their site provide virtual tours of their museum. This tour not only gives their audience a feel for the museum and its art, but it creates an interactive aspect that engages its viewers; prompting them to explore in greater depth.

Best Practices in Social Media: Content Plan

Once your business chooses a social media media platform the big question to answer is: what should be the content of my social media site? Based on what your company stands for, a social media outlet should be implemented to best highlight it.

In this article by Steve Nicholls, he explains why most companies tend to fail at implementing social media. He describes the businesses today that have a weak social presence as having too narrow of a focus.  He introduces the 3 C’s: content, context, and conditions. This narrow focus of businesses today is centered on content.  This means the focal point of most social media strategy focused too strongly on their external content, with little to no focus of their core internal values or their tactics.

In order to widen their focus and solve these problems, your company must determine the context of the environment in which your social media presence will serve. Also, you need a step-by-step social media formula, which will center on your business goals.  In order to display content successfully, they must incorporate the other two C’s. This involves reflecting internally and a well-thought out tactical plan to implement on their internal goals.

In the supplementary article by John Harrison and Olga Khazan, three businesses are asked which types of content performs best on social media platforms. Aaron Schwartz, founder of Modify Watches in Berkeley CA is one of them that explains his social media implementation. Their company’s content, watches, is shown based on their context and conditions; which is their reflection of their internal goals and their execution. Because their company thrives on selling interchangeable watches that are easy to wear, they set up a Facebook page that engages customers to take pictures of their watch combinations to post and vote on. This is one example of a company’s tactic that displays their content based around their company’s mission.