Some Useful Apps for Arts Orgs

Here's a list of some Facebook apps that might be helpful for arts organizations. (Special thanks to my intern Ching Jen Lum for compiling this list!)

Music Player: Created by Facebook, this application lets fans listen to your most recent tracks directly from your Page. Add as many tracks as you want, and update Music Player as you create new music. (San Francisco Symphony)

Discography: Created by Facebook, the application lists your albums as well as the tracks each one. Fans track the history of your records. (New York Philharmonic)

Reviews: Created by Facebook. Reviews written by users for everything from shows, plays, exhibitions, page, etc.

Favorite Pages (automatically included when you set up a Page): Created by Facebook. Link to favorite FB pages, ideal for cross-promotions.

YouTube Box: Used to publish videos to FB pages and personal profiles (The Frick Collection, BAM)

YouTube Video Box: Similar to YouTube Box -- check them both out and see which you prefer. (New York Botanical Garden)

My Flickr: Integrate your Flickr account into your Facebook Page

ArtShare Gallery: Created by Brooklyn Museum of Art, the application shares works of art from museums around the world (Met Museum, MoMA)

Social RSS: Promotes blogs, podcasts, delicious bookmarks, photos, calendar listings (The Frick Collection, American Museum of Natural History, BAM)

My del.icio.us: Lists all pages bookmarked in delicious (Guggenheim Museum, MoMA)

Subway Status: A box to let users know which subway to get to your organization (Guggenheim Museum, Queens Museum of Art).

Promotions: Created by Wildfire, Inc., this application runs branded interactive promotions on Facebook Fan Pages. Promotion formats include: sweepstakes, contests, coupon giveaways, instant wins, gifting, quizzes, etc. (Not free!)

Polls: Created by Context Optional, Inc., this application takes the pulse of fans with custom polls for Facebook Pages! Polls are easy to create and analyze, with graphs showing user responses across demographics.

Privacy Settings, and other tips by other people

Time for a link roundup (or, "other people doing my job for me")!


The Inside Facebook Guide to Protecting Your Privacy on Facebook

If you came to the "Fans are Better Than Friends" webinar last week, you'll remember I promised to post a link to this article about Facebook privacy settings. It's a post I've been meaning to write, but now I don't have to because Inside Facebook does a great job explaining everything you need to know.

Facebook's privacy options are pretty extensive and understanding them will make it easier for you to control your own Facebook experience. If you need to "friend" your coworkers because you want to make them additional admins of your Page, but you don't want to let your boss see the embarrassing pictures of your five-year college reunion (...for example), it's easy to set groups and filters to keep your work life separate from your personal life.


Face-to-Facebook

This is just an interesting article that I came across a few weeks ago, about local bands and musicians using Facebook to connect with fans.

"...I only knew Javier's page was "successful" because I am a fan of a lot of pages and see how different people interact with their fans... Javier is really genuine and connects with his fans in a way others do not. People tend to gain a larger fan base when they interact with their page more."

Sound familiar? Being genuine, starting conversations, being an active participant -- all these principles of Facebook success absolutely apply to arts organizations.


Is Blogging Yesterday's News? No Way!: The How and Why of Arts Blogging

My coworker Chelsea's article about blogging! In my June 30th webinar (watch the promo), I'll be talking about how to integrate your blog with your Facebook Page, but if your organization's site doesn't have a blog at all yet, Chelsea will help you get started and give you some advice.

Facebook webinar series: Watch the video promos

I apologize for the silence around here lately! I've been hard at work on creating the presentations for the four-part Facebook course we've created for this summer.

We created a bunch of silly promo videos for the webinar series, and they came out really well (if I do say so myself) -- I highly recommend you check them out on the main page of the Patron Technology Web site to get all the info about the series.

Here's the short, non-video version of what's going on:

Facebook for Arts Organizations, a four-webinar series

Session 1: Fans Are Better Than Friends: Your Organization's Presence on Facebook (Encore Presentation)
Thursday, June 4th, 2:00-2:45pm EDT

Session 2: Are You Content With Your Content?
Tuesday, June 16th, 2:00-2:45pm EDT

Session 3: Apply Yourself!
Tuesday, June 30th, 2:00-2:45pm EDT

Session 4: Fan-ning the Flames
Tuesday, July 14th, 2:00-2:45pm EDT

All sessions are free for Patron Technology clients. (clients register here)

For non-clients, they're $45 each or $99 for the whole series. (non-clients register here)

Blog readers, you've got insider access! If you have any questions that fit into any of those sessions, let me know and I'll try to cover them in the webinar. (And as always, if you have any questions that DON'T fit into those sessions, ask anyway! I'll answer here.)

Of course. there will always be plenty of Facebook info that doesn't fit into a 45-minute webinar, so there will be many blog posts forthcoming this summer.

Hope to "see" you on Thursday!