I wasn’t able to attend the National Arts Marketing Project Conference this year, yet I did “attend” via Twitter (with a cat in my lap).  Twitter hashtags are an easy way to keep in the loop as much as possible.  Of course, it would have been more constructive if I could have attended the conference, but this was the next best thing.

Here is a collection of my favorite tweets from the conference. 

I still haven’t fully collected my thoughts, but I do have a list of common themes that would be good to look into:

• Content – Creating and sharing is everyone’s responsibility.  Marketers should have basic skills to create content and to plan their editorial calendars.  You don’t have an editorial calendar? Say what?  A photo is worth a 1,000+ words (a .gif is worth millions more).  A website with good content can be the difference between people staying and clicking or moving off of your site at lightening speeds.  More visual and less text is key these days, as I have mentioned many times before.
• Action Before Motivation – There were a few sessions, and especially during the keynotes, where a version of this concept was mentioned or implied.  Forget all the red tape and just do something!  Then, get motivated to plan and do more.
• Customer Service makes cents – it costs less to have good customer service to retain our audiences than it is to constantly throw money for hopes of single ticket buyers to purchase and/or come back. 70% of people are not coming back, and maybe it is because of poor customer service? Boom!
• Audience engagement can help increase awareness, loyalty, and ticket sales. It can also help you to become part of your community.  Use the 4 C’s in your audience engagement plans, and you will do just fine!
• Listening to your audiences – another concept I constantly put out there too.  If you have any questions as to what will work and what will not work, your audiences know.  Have conversations again with your audiences members and really listen to what they have to say.  Getting to know your audience members as people is golden!
• Data – Use it!  This goes for small, mid-size, and large organizations.  All of us need to track better so we know the full picture.  We keep planning without the knowledge behind the plans.  This is hurting our industry.  Anybody and everybody can learn how to track and evaluate using data.  Even if you are still in spreadsheet land, you can track.  And, today with technology becoming more affordable, it is wise to see what is available now for you.  However, we must be careful how we use the data.  If we overuse, our audiences will lose trust in us since we will be treating them as numbers and not as people.
• Google Adwords Grant – Do it! 
• Intrinsic values of the arts are just as important to think about as the external values.  Now, how can we track these intrinsic values?
• Audience development is the responsibility of everyone in your arts business.  It is an issue for programming AND marketing AND development AND…
• The future of digital behavior is always happening upon us.  It is good to remain as aware as possible to what is happening around us.  You might just miss the next bus to amazing if you don’t, and believe me, other arts people and arts organizations will have hopped on board leaving you behind.
• Shortsightedness – Short gains for long losses was mentioned.  The majority of us are looking to stay in business today instead of figuring out how to be relevant today and tomorrow.  This is another issue that is hurting our industry.
• Our audiences have audiences – Social Media means that everyone in your audience that is part of a social network has their own following. Now, how can we use this convenience more? :O)
• Bring the art to them – This is a continuing conversation from last year’s conferences.

There might have been a few more themes floating around. Loyalty was mentioned many times, and if we do a little bit of what is listed above, loyalty will naturally happen.  If you have anything to add, please comment below to share with everyone.

Thank you to The Americans for the Arts for having part of their conference online.  I hope to see you all in Utah 2015.

Cheers to happy an loyal audiences,
Shoshana

Shoshana Fanizza
Chief Audience Builder for ADS

New! Get to know your audiences kit for performing arts.