The GRAMMY Awards, Social Media, and Arts Marketing

Something funny has happened to the way I experience television in the last six months. I don't really "watch TV" anymore -- I keep up with shows I like online. Between Hulu, streaming Netflix, and iTunes, I have everything I need to stay up to date.

So I stay caught up with Glee and How I Met Your Mother and Mad Men via the Internet -- but I still have my old television sitting around. Most of the time it just takes up space in my apartment, but it does in fact get broadcast channels.

See, these days, the only time I actually turn it on is for "event TV". Things like the World Series, the Golden Globes, the Olympics -- those big nights that only happen once, and that could be "spoiled" for me if I didn't watch while they aired. (Not everyone has learned this lesson: my boss keeps complaining that this season's football games have been ruined for him by logging in to answer Facebook messages and accidentally reading people's excited or disappointed newsfeed stories.)

So for these time-sensitive occasions, I dig out the remote and settle in to watch. But there's something new, now. I'm not just watching by myself, even if I'm alone in my bed. I watch TV with my computer in my lap, with Twitter and Facebook and Tumblr loaded up in my browser. When it's an Event TV night, there's always more going on -- I think of it as a backchannel. **

My TV-watching experience isn't just happening on one screen -- I'm also watching the commentary of millions of other viewers (and adding my own). Whenever there's something really big happening, it becomes a trending topic. I can refresh my own Twitter followers over and over again and see what 150 other people think about what's happening; I can search for "yankees" and find another 500 tweets every 15 seconds. I can tell which of my Facebook friends are excited about speed skating.

Lots of people are watching this way -- which means that there's the story on the television, and the story ABOUT the story on social media.


I bring this up now because last night I watched the GRAMMY awards, and this multi-channel experience was taken one step further. This year, the Recording Academy seriously stepped up its social media presence. They're on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, they rebuilt the official Web site… and more than that, they got it right.

Now, just for the record: I don't actually care much about awards shows, in general. I'm not the kind of person who fills out ballots with friends and tries to predict winners. There have been plenty of years when I haven't watched the GRAMMYs at all.

So when I say they got it right, I mean that I was so drawn in by their social media coverage leading up to and during the show that I spent literally EIGHT HOURS yesterday paying at least partial attention to the GRAMMY awards.

For many people, the GRAMMYs is Event TV for sure -- plenty of my friends and follow-ees were watching -- but in this case the backchannel I was watching went far beyond a small assortment of the people I happen to be friends with on Facebook, or a random snapshot of the Twitterverse. This time, there was a whole content-rich backchannel coming from the producers themselves, plus dozens of other resources they pulled together.



So not only could I read frequent updates from @TheGRAMMYs themselves, providing a recap of winners and letting people know what was coming next, but they also created a Twitter-list of GRAMMY nominees, most of whom were live-tweeting from the awards. Another list collected all of the bloggers they hired and scattered around the red carpet, who posted about celebrity sightings and about what goes on at the show during commercial breaks. On Facebook, there were longer posts with photos and video clips. The GRAMMYs social media team worked really hard to put the backchannel right up front, and in doing so greatly enhanced this viewer's experience. **


I see two big lessons that arts organizations should take from this:

1) Get to know your backchannel -- and get involved.

Are people talking about you online? Are you listening? Are you talking back? You might not dominate a list of trending topics like the GRAMMYs did, but you can still encourage a conversation. What if you created a hashtag for your next show and threw a note in the program asking your patrons to review it on Twitter?

This is what I've been saying at conferences for months: the first step of embracing social media is to turn yourself into the audience, and listen to what your patrons have to say.

2) Access is everything (or, Show Don't Tell).

My favorite part of the GRAMMYs coverage was the liveblog on Tumblr.

"Can you spot Lady Gaga’s giant silver hat blocking the front row?"

" I saw Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli run through their performance a couple times on Friday..."

"Have a tip, question, or comment for me as I Tumble from inside the GRAMMYs production office?

Posts like these require being up-close-and-personal with the event in question. They go beyond reporting ("So and So just won for Best New Artist!") and let the audience see things they would never have access to otherwise. The most dynamic and engaging social media content doesn't get written between 9 and 5 at a desk in your office -- it's happening on stage. You can't leave your social media efforts solely in the hands of your marketing department, unless you make sure the marketing department has direct access to the art, and can post things patrons haven't seen or heard before.

Chad Bauman talked about this at his NAMP Conference session back in November. He came right out and said that if your organization has a blog, you should let the artists themselves be in charge of it, or at the very least put your marketing people in same the room with the artists -- and he also told a great anecdote about chasing down Edward Albee in the hall with a Flip video camera to get a quick interview with him to post on Facebook. That's what social media is for! Step away from the desk, step away from meticulously-written marketing copy and press releases, step away from scripted Twitter updates that tell, tell, tell -- and make sure the person or people doing the updates can be in a position to SHOW your fans why they should care about your org.




**A new book just came out called The Backchannel: How Audiences are Using Twitter and Social Media and Changing Presentations Forever -- in it, author Cliff Atkinson writes about the phenomenon of live-tweeting during live presentations at conferences. Same idea; but his is a business book aimed at conference presenters, instead of at arts organizations. back

**For more on what the Recording Academy did with social media this year, read the excellent article on mashable.com. back

Link, link, link to your social media accounts

If you attended my webinar series this fall (or the first round, in the summer), you'll remember that the easiest and most important way to get new fans and followers is to link to your Facebook and Twitter accounts from your Web site! If you don't tell your patrons you're there, how will they ever find you?

Well, here's one organization that's getting it right (with maybe the best/most straightforward Twitter link I've ever seen): Monticello's Online Communities

Facebook Feed Changes Explained (and Judged)

As I'm sure everyone has noticed by now, Facebook recently made yet another change to the design of the home page / news feed. As always, this has caused a fit of "CHANGE IT BACK" petitions and confused a lot of users. In this post, I'll give you a rundown of what's actually changed, and why I think it's (mostly) a good thing.

Here's what happened:

In an effort to make it easier for users to keep up with their friends/contacts, there are now two options for reading the feed on your home page.


One is called "News Feed." This is a collection of "highlights" as determined by some behind-the-scenes algorithm. Rather than a complete, unedited look at what every one of your friends is posting, the News Feed will show you the posts it thinks you'll be most interested in -- things from your "closest friends" (i.e. those you interact with the most), or posts that many other friends have commented on.

The other reading option is the "Live Feed." The Live Feed shows you EVERYTHING that happens, in real-time. This is similar to the old behavior of the feed, but with two main differences: first, it actually updates in real time -- you don't need to click refresh. And secondly, the Live Feed isn't just about status messages and posted items anymore. Now they've re-incorporated a bunch of other activities that used to appear in the feed, but haven't for quite some time. This means that now you'll see when your friends add new friends, when they've been tagged in a photo album, and when they become a Fan of a new Page. **

So, with me so far? Now, here's why it's good news:

1) Regarding the "News Feed" -- as far as I can tell, whatever that algorithm they're using is, it's pretty spot on. When I look at my News Feed view, I see my closest/least boring friends, my coworkers, and the Fan Pages that have the most interesting-to-me posts. Facebook is analyzing what feed items I interact with (via posting comments or "liking" them) and it's showing me the things it thinks I'll want to pay attention to -- and so far, it's been RIGHT about that. (What about you? Does your News Feed understand you?) It's great for when I log in to Facebook but don't have time to obsessively backread everything that's happened since my last visit.

2) Let me reiterate what I said above: the Live Feed now shows you when one of your friends becomes a Fan of a Page. This is a big deal for anyone running a Fan Page -- this brings back an element of "viral" promotion that's been missing for a while. I've got 344 friends -- now I'll find out every time one of them finds a new arts org Page. People often ask me how to get more Fans on Facebook-- here's a way that requires no effort on your part. Each new Fan you get now comes with the potential to attract more.

All that said, here's my big complaint about the change: why oh why doesn't Facebook learn how to announce these things in an organized, helpful, reassuring way??? When we released our new redesigned version of PatronMail last week, we didn't spring it on our clients out of nowhere -- we sent out an e-mail, and posted alerts well in advance, so as not to take people by surprise. I don't understand why Facebook hasn't figured out it might be helpful, when they make big changes, to put a big link at the top of the home page saying "CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT HOW THIS REDESIGN WILL HELP YOU USE FACEBOOK" or something like that. (Instead, they post sporadically on the official Facebook blog -- I guarantee that only a tiny percentage of their 300 million-plus users ever look at it.)

One last thing to keep in mind here: the change described above just reinforces the fact that in order to stay prominent on Facebook, you need to make sure you're posting interesting, relevant, engaging content. Some users are going to embrace the News Feed as their main Facebook browsing tool, which means that right off the bat, you're almost certainly going to lose some eyeballs. The way to keep as many as you can (and gain some back) is to find ways to encourage interaction -- the more a user comments / likes things you post, the more you're likely to be included in his or her News Feed algorithm. Ask question, post photos, be a highlight!


** footnote! you may have seen a message circulating around your feed that says something like this:

FACEBOOK is blocking all your friends news feeds EXCEPT for 250 THEY choose. TO UNDO BLOCK: Here is how you can change it back to the old way. 1. Click "Home" 2. Look to the top left menu and click on MORE. Then drag STATUS UPDATE........to the top. After dragging to top........., click on it. That becomes your default... and it is like before. Cut and paste this & pass it on!!

[credit to my dad for asking me about it]

This is half-true at best. Here's the real story:

By default, the Facebook "Live Feed" only shows stories from 250 friends. If you want to allow it to show stories from all friends, do this:

1. On the FB Home Page, click on "Live Feed" at the top.
2. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click "Edit Options".
3. You'll get a pop-up window with "News Feed Settings." It should say 250 by default, but a higher number means you will see new posts more frequently. You can change it to anything up to 5,000.
4. Click Save. CRISIS AVERTED.

Un-linking Your Facebook & Twitter Posts

Just a quick followup to my last post -- if you had been auto-posting from Facebook to Twitter or vice-versa, and I convinced you to unlink the accounts, here's how to do it.

If you're using the built-in "Facebook Pages to Twitter" app, just sign in to your Twitter account and go here to disconnect them. You should also visit facebook.com/twitter and make sure the change appears there.

If you're using a different app to send updates from Twitter to Facebook, you should be able to de-authorize the application on this page (again, just make sure you're logged in). All set!

Coming soon: a look at what's great about the recent Facebook news feed changes, and a recap of my day-and-a-half at the National Arts Marketing Project Conference in Providence.

Using Twitter to Update Your Facebook Page

I was out in LA last week, attending meetings and, more importantly, speaking about social media. Thanks to everyone who attended my sessions at the ArtsReach conference or at the NAMP workshop!

So of course I've been talking a lot about both Twitter and Facebook, lately, and there's a question that keeps coming up:

How can I find the time to keep up with both my organization's Twitter account and Facebook Page? Can I just post the same content to each? ...And isn't there an app for that?

As I've said many times, for a lot of small arts organizations, social media doesn't have to be a financial expense at all -- but it sure is a time expense! There are a number of different ways to link your organization's Facebook and Twitter accounts, but you should think carefully about how you do it.

There are several apps built for either Facebook or Twitter that let you automatically "export" your updates from one as updates into another. (So for example, if I'm using one of those apps, I can type in the Facebook status box, "Michelle is writing a blog post!" and have that message automatically post as my Twitter status as well.)

That certainly saves time! But is it a good idea?

I'll come right out and say that it drives me crazy when organizations -- or people, for that matter! -- use one of these apps to automatically post 100% identical content to Facebook and Twitter. As you might expect, I follow many arts organizations on both platforms, and it's not only redundant to read the same post in both places, but frankly quite annoying. It's one thing to occasionally have to scroll past content that doesn't engage me; it's another to sit there and scroll past content I just read five minutes ago in a different browser tab!

Besides the annoyance factor, it's also simply true that Facebook and Twitter are different platforms with different cultures. You can have different kinds of conversations with your fans and followers in each place. Facebook's character limit is way higher than the 140 you get on Twitter, for one thing. For another, it's much easier to post photos or links with context to your Facebook Page. (Twitter can be great for direct and personal interactions with your patrons... but more on that another time.)

That said, if you're interested in linking your accounts, your best option is to choose an app that lets you post selectively -- that is, one where you can choose whether or not that "Michelle is writing a blog post!" update gets sent out to Twitter or not.

There's a new-ish app that Facebook launched last month, which allows Pages to automatically send their status updates to Twitter. (If you've logged in and looked at your Facebook Page recently, you've probably seen a message announcing it at the top of the page.) The app claims that DOES let you be selective, but as far as I can tell, that claim is exaggerated. While you can choose what kinds of updates to export (status updates vs. links vs. photos...), you can't actually turn it on and off for each individual message.

Instead, I recommend checking out the Facebook app called Selective Twitter Status. It works exactly the way it sounds: When you post a new tweet on Twitter (want a Twitter lingo refresher?), you can CHOOSE whether or not it should become your new Facebook status by appending the tag "#fb" at the end. So:

"Michelle is writing a blog post! #fb" would get posted to Facebook.

"Michelle is writing a blog post!" would not.

Pretty simple, very effective. (Note that I am not at all affiliated with the folks who created the Selective Twitter app! Just a fan.) I just think it makes more sense to choose an app that gives you more control over your social media experience -- and more importantly, the experience of your fans and followers.

The Point of Facebook Usernames

Like many people, I was somewhat unimpressed when Facebook first announced the Usernames feature (also referred to as "vanity URLS"). People already know how to search and find people/Pages on Facebook, and it's not hard to just post a direct link to your Page or Profile -- I was skeptical of the need to bring "usernames" into the picture. What's the big deal? Do we really need to turn Facebook into a place like the rest of the Internet, where people can go by something like "moonbeam1982"? Hmmm.

But I dutifully created mine on the night the feature went live (www.facebook.com/michelle.renee.paul), and not long after, I had my "duh" moment.

I ran into an acquaintance on the street in Brooklyn a few weeks ago. She used to be my upstairs neighbor, but I recently moved into a new apartment and I hadn't seen her in a while. We decided to make dinner plans and catch up, but since we used to be neighbors, we'd never exchanged contact info before.

She was about to whip out her phone to do the usual get-my-number-and-call-me-to-give-me-hers thing, but I realized there was an easier and faster way. "Hey, you're on Facebook, right? Just look me up there and send me a message -- my username is 'michelle dot renee dot paul.'"

Aha! So there IS a point to usernames, beyond the "vanity" aspect of the vanity URL. Suddenly it's really easy to integrate my online life and my offline life, and let people know how to find me.

Obviously, this applies to arts organizations too. Web site URLs are ubiquitous in offline marketing materials now -- they appear on posters, in direct mail, in TV commercials, etc. Your Facebook username means that your Page can now have the same prominence. If you've been working on your Page, and you're serious about wanting to gather more Fans, why not set up a username and include it everywhere that you currently mention your Web site? (And for the record, I haven't heard of or seen very many people opting for the "moonbeam1982" approach to usernames. Most are sticking with their real name, like me.)

Click here to create yours now, if you haven't already. I highly recommend setting your profile username first -- almost every problem I've heard about people having with this feature relates to accidentally getting a personal profile branded with an organization name. That's easy enough to avoid if you set up the personal one first.

One more note: Despite weeks of insistence that usernames were set in stone and uneditable, Facebook recently caved and now allows a one-time change of username. So be careful, but know that you've got one chance to make a mistake now.

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What are you doing to promote your Facebook Page? Leave me a comment and let me know!

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.