How Strong is Your Social Net?

How Strong Is Your Social Net? Survey Overview

By Trudel | MacPherson / January 11, 2014
,

This is the question we asked arts groups across the country in Fall 2013, refreshing our national landmark survey of 2011.  With the digital communications landscape evolving at light speed we wanted to track challenges, leadership attitudes, measurement strategies and 2014 investment plans to update our study of practice and perceptions of the effectiveness of digital communications in the arts field.  For arts organizations social media can be a highly effective, not-so-secret weapon to share content with the public, build audiences, fundraise and create community – especially with younger constituents.  Trudel | MacPherson, in partnership with Neuer Media, devised a comprehensive survey to benchmark current social media investment, attitudes and evaluation by arts organizations of all sizes and across all disciplines. Arts practitioners from all across the country completed our survey. Responses show broad adoption and rising confidence and sophisticated use of online and social tools.  Survey respondents demonstrate heightened appreciation of the value of digital communications and dynamic social media interactions with audiences, followers and fans.  Several interesting patterns emerged:

Arts Organizations Have Become Social Media Native Speakers

Digital outreach is more fully integrated into communications outreach at the majority of organizations surveyed.  Only 7% of respondents see resistance to devoting staff time and communications budgets to social media and most groups plan to spend the same or more on digital communications in 2014. Management excitement remains high at 70% and most groups – 84% — believe their efforts are effective.  This is a solid improvement over our 2011 findings.  Online communities are thriving, live events are successfully connecting in-person and online activities and more than 40% of groups report progress with ticket sales via social media. Mobile technology is becoming mainstream with more than 54% of groups reporting use of mobile options for ticket sales and more than 70% using social check-in tools.  And audiences are responding!!!  More than 95% of groups report positive responses to social media outreach – up from 85% in 2011.

Tried and True Platforms

Our research shows a robust embrace of social media’s classic platforms like Facebook (used regularly by more than 92% of respondents,) Twitter (@55%) and YouTube (@40%).  There’s a great deal of buzz around Instagram and Pinterest but only 19% use Instagram regularly and only 12% use Pinterest.  Tumblr and Google+ remain niche networks.  Email is ubiquitous as are social components on organization’s websites.

Management attitudes

Management attitudes remain positive with 70% of respondents excited about using social media but many report outside pressure with more than 50% noting “our audience expects it of us.” More than 25% remain “daunted by the technical aspects” of managing digital communications across various platforms. Efforts to refocus goals and determine which platforms deliver the best return will be crucial to overcome this challenge. Management comfort levels have been rising and fully 75% of organizations now encourage staff to use digital and social media on their own to promote their organizations.  Trust is trumping control with more than 85% of groups agreeing to relax management control over social media content vs 73% in 2011. Responsibility is centered in marketing/communications at more than 80% of groups, up from just 62% in 2011.  However, internal policies are lagging behind effective social media practice, with only 35% of groups agreeing or strongly agreeing about having consistent policies.

Future Investment Plans

Only 2% of arts groups plan to spend less on social media and digital communications in 2014.  More than 57% plan to spend more and 41% plan to keep spending level. We believe this is strong indication that social media will remain a fixture in the marketing toolkit of arts organization nationwide. To build management appetite for increased investment, we recommend arts organizations follow the advice in the Networked Nonprofit with Do-It-Yourself social media experiments to test new ideas.  Making small “bets” and urging funding for those that work is a winning strategy. 

Greatest Challenges

Time remains a challenge for more than 80% of respondents.  It appears to be an even greater hurdle to adoption than expertise (only 50% reported lack of expertise as a problem) or budget (reported at 52%).  On a positive note, fewer than 10% of arts organizations report issues with management buy-in or trust. Only 6% of groups reported management thinks social media is overpromising and under-delivering. Though marketers are reporting growing management trust in staff digital outreach, we continue to see a tug of war between promotion and engagement played out in social media.  As noted in the Networked Nonprofit, social media should be a conversation – not a sales pitch — groups should focus less on growing themselves and more on cultivating their networks.  Successful arts groups will concentrate on building community, developing followers and fans, and turning them into advocates and patrons.

Social Media is Becoming a Two Way Street and Experimentation is Flourishing

Encouragingly, 60% of groups report making changes based on audience feedback up from less than half in 2011. Outreach targets have narrowed.  Local adults continue to dominate as primary targets of more than 80% of groups.  Donors are primary targets at more than two thirds of groups and tourists are being targeted slighted more than in 2011. Digital communications are up overall by more than 10% across all categories. Previews of upcoming programming are making the most noise with 98% of groups.  Other hot social media topics are social in-person opportunities to engage at 79% — up from only 63% in 2011.  Background on programming is the third most popular communique at 77%, followed by giving opportunities at 71%. Emerging topics and experiments abound with sweepstakes, contests and giveaways being tested by more than 48% of organizations responding.

More Nuanced Measures are Evolving

Qualitative measures—web analytics, fan/follower counts and email tracking —  are ubiquitous and virtually unchanged from 2011.  More groups are probing engagement as well as visitations – with tracking of online surveys, coded offers and viral sharing up slightly. However, tracking of brand mentions is only at 17% and conversion tracking scores are also surprisingly low at 19%.  Groups are missing chances to track which channels convert best to optimize outreach, content and platform choices.

The Bottom Line: Overall Results are Up Across the Board

Groups are reporting improved results across all outreach categories: ticket sales, fundraising, developing online communities and building participation in live events success measures are up 5-10% from 2011 numbers.  And many more groups report social media have delivered major results or have become mission critical to their efforts:

  • Ticket sales – 15%
  • Fundraising – 6%
  • Developing online communities – 20%
  • Building participation at live events –16%

Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding which were outliers in 2011 have developed strong followings.  More than 45% of groups report positive results with crowdsourcing.  And almost 30% say crowdfunding experiments are delivering for them.

We Welcome You Into the Discussion

Our 2013/14 study shows that social media has become essential to effective arts marketing. Please give us your thoughts on any of the findings of our research in the comment section below or contact us by email.

Download our summary presentation.

Read More

Tell Us About Your Best/Worst Social Media Experience

By Trudel | MacPherson / February 6, 2013

Trudel | MacPherson Profile Template

As part of our continuing How Strong Is Your Social Net? research project we are gathering mini-case studies about arts and culture social media experiments that “get it right” and analyzing projects that didn’t work but provided opportunities to learn. Please share your thoughts about what’s working and what you’ve learned along the way.

We invite you to contribute to the art field’s knowledge bank by telling us about significant ways your organization has implemented online strategies and how social media is helping you accomplish organizational goals, solve problems and engage with audiences in new and powerful ways. We’d also like to hear about unexpected challenges during implementation – especially when they led to improvements and insights.
Share your story — tell us about your best/worst experiences with Social Media and Digital Communications.

Please Leave a Reply below and include in your “comment” these elements:

  1. a one-line headline encapsulating your program or experience;
  2. a brief description of the issue or challenge that your organization was trying to solve;
  3. highlights of implementing the solution; and
  4. what were the results, learnings and landmines?
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.
Name
Email
Read More

Trudel | MacPherson presents Making Social Media Mission-Critical session at APAP Idea Lounge

By Trudel | MacPherson / January 28, 2013
, ,

Trudel | MacPherson principals, Mary Trudel and Rory MacPherson, kicked off the New Year with a presentation at the prestigious Association of Performing Arts Presenters annual conference in New York City on January 14. Building on our landmark 2011 study, How Strong Is Your Social Net? we focused on effective uses of online communications and social media in the areas of marketing, fundraising and constituency engagement.

Joined by Stephen Litner, Director of Digital Media at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), we reviewed effective practices from presenters across the country and engaged attendees with strategic questions about channel selection, balancing engagement with promotion, translating content to new mediums and building short and long term fan and financial support. Review the full presentation which can be downloaded here.

Read More

Mary Trudel and Rory MacPherson led a workshop at PAE 2012 in Miami

By Trudel | MacPherson / September 24, 2012
, , , ,

Fundraising Strategies: Making Social Media Mission Critical

Professional Development Workshop at the Performing Arts Exchange 2012 Miami, Florida

Trudel | MacPherson principals, Rory MacPherson and Mary Trudel headlined at South Arts’ annual booking conference for East Coast presenters. Drawing on data from our national How Strong Is Your Social Net national survey, and hundreds of practitioner interviews, we explored best practices in using social media to generate contributed income. Skills and tactics highlighted ranged from crowd-funding to donor cultivation to sponsorship trades and eyeball farming.

 The PowerPoint presentation of our workshop is available here. A few highlights:

Nationally only 5% of arts groups report use of social media has delivered mission critical or major results. 70% of survey respondents report achieving either good or some results but a significant percentage – 24% — report no results.

Our workshop highlighted the importance of treating fundraising as part of a continuum of audience engagement. Noting that “You can’t ask someone to marry you on the first date,” Mary described a cultivation approach which rewards and engages prospects at every level of interest. Major donors expect tangible rewards and recognition such as building naming rights and personal attention. We suggested that every level of engagement requires a “What’s in it for me?” response. Prospects, casual donors, subscribers, regular attendees and increasingly loyal donors can be cultivated by creative use of access and prominence, moving audiences to become fans, donors and evangelists for your organization.

We discussed effective use of social media is building engagement on steroids! The best organizations understand that their greatest assets are — to use a Facebook word – their friend relationships with audiences, visitors, fans and patrons. These groups can be mobilized to help but you CANNOT make those friends in a crisis.

Friends are made on the frontlines through individual experiences that bring fans closer or push them away. We’ve reviewed 8 important elements of effective engagement which can solidify engagement and make social media mission critical for your fundraising:

1. It’s Not One Size Fits All

2. Make it Personal + Concrete + Time Sensitive

3. Connect with Values and Value Connections

4. Listen and Respond

5. Cultivate Productive Partnerships

6. Eyeball Farming Only Works with Friends

7. Measure What Matters

8. Involve the Whole Organization

We’d love to hear about your experiences making social media mission critical in fundraising. Do be in touch.

Read More

Mary Trudel and Jai Sen addressed the Communicating The Museum Conference

By Trudel | MacPherson / August 14, 2012
, , , ,

As part of the global Communicating The Museum Conference at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Trudel | MacPherson and Sen Associates presented back to back Strengthening Your Social Net: Adapting to a Connected Future workshops on June 28th

Mary Trudel and Jai Sen addressed delegates at the international Communicating The Museum Conference held at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Noting that, “Adopting digital and social media is no longer optional,” Mary and Jai reviewed the larger, long-term technology issues affecting visual arts organizations and museums.

Based on our landmark How Strong Is Your Social Net? study of digital and social media adoption and usage among arts organizations, we presented an overview of digital media attitudes, successes, and challenges facing visual arts organizations and museums specifically. Looking at the issue from a macro view gave participants an opportunity to compare their experiences with others’ and shape their strategies by making more informed decisions about which technologies to adopt.

Participants completed a brief questionnaire during the session comparing their results and institutional attitudes with the national sample. Respondents indicated minimal resistance to adopting digital and social platforms with only 30% reporting “some resistance” and 35% describing resistance as “only a little.” Most respondents reported solid results from their social media efforts – especially increased website traffic and positive audience feedback — with only 10% noting audience response as “indifferent.”

A majority of respondents reported adding video/audio/mobile content and scannable codes with a smaller percentage mentioning games, contests and interactive exhibits. Most respondents measure results via website analytics with more than half also tracing influence and press/media coverage.

Full results of the live survey follow:

1. To what extent have you encountered resistance within your organization around adopting digital and social platforms?
• Only a little (35%)
• Some (30%)
• None (26%)
• A lot (9%)
________________________________________
2. How have your audiences responded to your technology programs?
• Positively (62%)
• Mixed (29%)
• Indifferently (10%)
• Negatively (0%)
________________________________________
3. Do you consider your organization to be well-suited for enhancements of the museum experience through the implementation or expansion of any or all of the following technologies?
• Video content (41%)
• All of the above (35%)
• Audio tours or content for mobile devices (29%
• Interactive experiences around exhibits (29%)
• None of the above (12%)
• Virtual tours (12%)

________________________________________

4. What types of technology-based programs have you implemented at your institution?
• Video content (56%)
• Enhanced content (38%)
• Scannable codes (for example, QR codes) (38%)
• Games or contests (25%)
• Virtual or interactive exhibits (25%)
• Other (19%)
• Virtual tours (19%)
• Augmented reality (6%)
• None of the above (6%)
• Way-finding and location awareness (0%)
________________________________________
5. In what areas have you seen the best results using social media and digital communications?
• Increased website traffic (75%)
• Positive audience feedback (63%)
• Increased social media influence (63%)
• Partnerships with peer organizations or businesses (31%)
• Increased admissions (25%)
• Press or media exposure (19%)
• Stronger sponsorships or funding (6%)
• Other (6%)
• None of the above (0%)
________________________________________
6. How are you measuring your results?
• Website analytics (94%)
• Social media monitoring and influence measurement tools (56%)
• Press or media coverage (56%)
• Tracking fan activity in online communities (25%)
• Online surveys or feedback via your website (25%)
• Coded offers (19%)
• Staff time spent (6%)
• Revenues (including donations and grants) (6%)
• Other (6%)
• Increased revenues (0%)

Read More

Tell us about your best/worst social media experience...

…and meet digital communications pioneers.
Click on our profile template to get started.

Want to get in touch?

We’d love to hear from you. Contact us.