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Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues
Social MediaBest Practices
for
Performing ArtsVenues
Learn how to attract and engage your patrons to sell more tickets
Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues
There’s no denying it: social media has become one of the most powerful marketing tools in the live event space. Social is the #1 source for referral traffic to websites, even beating out search.
Live event experiences are born, live and die on social
From the initial discovery of plays, to reading reviews on new musicals, to sharing events you’re attending, to posting cast pictures — social media has every aspect of the live event life cycle covered.
The large number of social channels available has made it even easier to connect with your audience. Sure, you can present your patrons with new opportunities to learn about new and upcoming events, but more importantly, you can actually connect, engage and interact with them to build a relationship.
Patrons on social media want to interact with you
Many live event venues treat social media like a megaphone — using it to shout their messages from the rooftops. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be more wrong. When you take that old-school approach on social platforms, you run the risk of alienating your audience instead of connecting with them.
Patrons are on social to interact with the people, places and things they are passionate about. They want to be stimulated in a relevant, fun and interactive way. And they certainly don’t want anyone broadcasting at them in a veiled attempt to sell stuff. To avoid this, manage each one of your social
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Table of Contents
Social Media Do’s And Don’ts
Why Mobile Is Especially Important
Channel-Specific Best Practices
Other Social Channels To Consider ----------------------------
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Social Media Best Practicesfor Perfoming Arts Venues
Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues
channels as if they were a real person. A person that has interactions with other people (not users). Give your venue a human voice — and most importantly — a personality.
Why is social media important for my venue?
The answer is simple: social media has become the new word of mouth. Approximately 31% of attendees write reviews of their event experience, so you can be sure that your patrons are creating buzz or serving as detractors on social media.
In addition to being the number one referrer to websites, 31% of ALL overall traffic on the web is referred by social. People are spending a MASSIVE amount of time on social media. The average person spends about 20 hours on Facebook every month (up from 10 hours a month in 2010). And all those millennials you’ve been chasing? Surprise, surprise — they basically live on social media. Millennials spend about 5.4 hours a day on social media and check their smartphones nearly 50 times a day.
Fear not event managers and marketers!
Having been on the tech side of the live event industry for over 14 years, we’ve had a front row seat to the massive explosion in social media. We understand how it’s being used today to drive interest for live events and increase ticket sales. We’ve leveraged those insights to stuff this paper with useful tips and tricks to help you make the most of your social media efforts and sell more tickets.
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Social media shares average $3 in additional ticket sales per share.
- Zenzi
62% of millennials would like to purchase directly from social media.
- Ticketscript
Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues
SOCIAL MEDIA DO’S AND DON’TS FOR THEATRESAs with any type of marketing initiative, there are a few general best practices that can be applied widely across social media. We’ve put these into a simple do’s and don’ts list to help you focus on key areas that apply to most social platforms.
SOCIAL MEDIA DO’S:
• DO start with an aligned STRATEGY. To be successful, you need to know what success looks like. Start with understanding your patrons and what social channels they use most. Learn from what your patrons post and what they share. You must earn the right to participate. So, just like real life, listen before you jump into the conversation.
• DO be willing to spend some MONEY. Unpaid posts only reach as little as two to eight percent of your audience. Facebook includes the option to boost posts, meaning that your posts will reach more of your followers (and potentially friends of followers). Twitter has a similar feature called promoted tweets. Even if you’re only spending $10 to boost your posts, that money ensures that your posts are being seen and not buried in your patrons’ newsfeeds.
• DO analyze and measure social PERFORMANCE. The key to any marketing campaign is good metrics — otherwise, how will you know if your efforts are working? Companies like TweetDeck and Hootsuite can be used to organize, plan and manage your tweets. Facebook and Twitter both offer ways for your organization to track and measure success.
• DO make your posts visually APPEALING. According to Adweek, social media users process 285 pieces of content a day. 37% of that content is media, consisting of music, videos and pictures. To compete with this flood of content, make your posts interesting by including pictures. According to Buffer, posts with pictures get 53% more likes, 84% more click-throughs and 104%
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Millennials are 56% more likely to find brand content on social media.
- Real Time Report
Consumers are 71% more likely to make a purchase of something when referred by social media.
- HubSpot
Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues 4
more comments than posts without them.
• DO get your supporters INVOLVED. Tap your supporters for help, and encourage them to get involved! We’ve seen theaters have their donors, season ticket holders and close friends bring show postcards to book clubs, PTA meetings and even local coffee shops. And this carries to social — these folks have valuable networks you might not otherwise have access to. Maximize the potential of the awesome patrons that are already helping you and make it easy for them to spread the word. Give them prepared text and links along with pictures, videos and other media ready to post. Be sure to make the links trackable so you can assess who your best promoters are.
• DO be REAL and keep the conversation going. Communicate on your social channels as if you were a person. Use personality, participate and keep engagement going by thanking patrons who post pictures and comments. Continue to engage with them on their content to become part of the conversation instead of just a broadcaster. It’s that human touch that will set your venue apart from the pack.
• DO focus on QUALITY over quantity. No one likes a person who constantly talks at them. The only thing worse is when what they say is boring and useless. Don’t be that person. Be the life of the party, not an annoyance. Be the one people flock to because they are fun, knowledgeable and genuine.
• DO be CONSISTENT. While quality trumps quantity, quantity is still important. Frequent and regular interactions are necessary if you want to be seen as dependable, trustworthy and a participant instead of an advertiser.
SOCIAL MEDIA DON’TS:
• DON’T be LAZY. Some venues use apps that aggregate social media updates into one spot. But having the same message on each
“What makes you weird, makes you unique and therefore makes you stand out.”
- @danschawbel
“Social media is here. It’s not going away; not a passing fad. Be where your customers are: in social media.”
- @loriruff
Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues
network can be overkill and robotic. That said, you should absolutely leverage multiple channels to engage patrons. Leverage tools that let you customize your posts depending upon the channel. Schedule and personalize the wording and style of your posts to optimize for each channel.
• DON’T be VERBOSE in your posts. People get bombarded with 54,000 words a day, which is the average length of a novel. Below 250 characters can get you 60% more engagement than you might otherwise see, and you can even get up to 66% more engagement if you cut it down to less than 80 characters. So keep your posts short and sweet!
• DON’T be NEGATIVE or remove negative feedback. Use negative comments as a chance to turn a negative into a positive. Share your plans to enhance patron experience. Show that you’re listening and care. Don’t ever blame the fan or engage with trolls. Instead, show your patrons that you’re receptive and genuinely want to provide the best service possible.
• DON’T be a MEGAPHONE. Your patrons don’t want to be bombarded by your demands or have your messaging crammed down their throat. Add value, along with personality, to each of your profiles. Be useful and show your culture! We work in a wonderful, creative industry so don’t waste the opportunity. Use behind-the-scenes pictures, videos and posts from actual shows to get patrons talking.
• DON’T be a NARCISSIST. It’s not all about you. Follow the 80/20 rule and make 80% of your activity about helping or entertaining others, and only 20% about you. If you can genuinely and personally offer expertise or insight on a topic, jump into the conversation. And when someone engages with you, engage back. Take your cues from them and show your personality. Be a fan of your patrons and don’t be fake.
• DON’T be afraid to FAIL forward. Experiment with different things. What may work on one social channel could epically fail on another. Take your ideas and turn them into hypothesis you can prove or disprove by testing it out. Be scientific about it. And remember: There is no losing — only winning and learning.
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“Be relevant by doing interesting things that people want to share, like and comment on.”
- @jkrohrs
Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues
WHY MOBILE IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR SOCIALSo much of the content we consume is exposed to us via our social feeds. For many, their feeds are like homepages. With 60% of sharing on social happening on mobile and the average 18-30 year old spending more than 5 hours/day on their smartphones, there’s no doubt mobile usage will continue to increase. Make sure everything you do is designed from the start to be mobile friendly.
CHANNEL-SPECIFIC BEST PRACTICES
Create an event for each and every show
Facebook is arguably the most important social media tool for any live event venue. Rather than simply posting an update about the show, make a specific event invite for every show you have. This gives you at least some idea of how many people are considering attending. You can also promote those events on the Facebook ad platform through Power Editor or by boosting the post.
Encourage patrons to post their attendance
Strategize in advance how to incentivize patrons to spread the word about your events to their friends. Give them the option of instantly sharing the event they just bought tickets for at the time of sale. You can even incentivize patrons by making it fun or rewarding in a way that’s unique to your venue.
Ask questions
Get involved with your patrons — ask them about what their favorite musical or play is, or even what their favorite drinks are. Posts containing questions
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“Be relevant by doing interesting things that people want to share, like and comment on.”
- @jkrohrs Millennials spend 5.4 hours a day on social media and check their smartphones nearly 50 times a day.
- Entrepreneur
“Social media will help you build up loyalty
of your current customers to the point that they will willingly, and for free, tell others about you.”
- @bsainsbury
Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues
get 100% more comments than ones without questions. And posts that put a question at the end have a 15% higher interaction rate overall.
Create polls
Polls are an easy way for patrons to make their voices heard, learn more about each other and feel like they are part of the experience. If you ask smart questions, you have the added benefit of learning more about your patrons while they have fun. Really great polls get shared and can increase reach beyond your current patrons.
Run contests
Contests are a natural fit for the performing arts. After all, we have the best prizes to give away — tickets to our shows. Create a hashtag for your contest to make it easily shareable and make it super simple for folks to enter. Create a simple call to action, such as “like our page” or “tell us your answer to this quick question.” For example, “what was the best show you’ve seen at our venue?”
Include a picture
This is true for all social media, but even more so for Facebook. Posts with photos have an 87% interaction rate and make up about 75% of all content on Facebook. And being in the event industry, you have a neverending supply of photo opps. Things like a rehearsal or setting up, behind-the-scenes shots of staff, or even the crowd filing in are all great choices.
Twitter Notify patrons of early bird specials, packages or promotions
Twitter’s 140 character limit is great for quickly getting news out. Seven out of ten of the most followed accounts are singers, but it’s also a place where individual productions like Hamilton can garner more than 20K followers. Such large followings make it an ideal spot to publicize discounts.
Use hashtags wisely
Hashtags might seem like a pain or a small addition, but using one or two hashtags can seriously pay off. With a 21% higher engagement rate, you can’t afford not to use them. Make the hashtag specific to your
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“Sorry I wrote you such a long post, I didn’t
have time to write a shorter one.”- Mark Twain
“Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.”
- @BrianSolis
Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues
event or show, but don’t overdo it — using more than two hashtags can lead to a 17% decrease in engagement. So #besmart about your #hashtags.
Put your URL in the middle of your tweet
It seems almost second nature to add a link at the end of a tweet, but tweets with the URL in the middle of a post are 26% more likely to be retweeted.
Include a picture
It’s no secret that visuals encourage more fan engagement. Companies that include images in their tweets are 34% more likely to get retweeted. Use a picture of a dancer stretching, an actor warming up or the lead getting makeup done to spark some anticipation for the show.
Take advantage of video
We’re physically hardwired to respond to movement. Videos and animated gifs are great ways of bringing movement to a very static online experience. And what better way to showcase the awesome performance you have coming up than through a video of it? Whether it’s a real-time video during a show, or a recap of a previous show, videos can help you create strong emotional connections with your patrons.
Show your culture (and just how cool you and your staff are)
Instagram is one of the most fitting methods for showing your audience just how amazing your production is. Take pictures of the set up, breakdown, backstage… the opportunities to let your creativity shine are endless. Think about clever captions. Remember this is a visual medium so keep them short but give them thought! And for goodness sake, don’t be self-centered; use a 10:1 ratio or higher. For every post about yourself, post ten things about or useful to others.
Hashtag your heart out
Too many hashtags might seem annoying or overdoing it on Instagram, but in fact it’s the opposite, and the numbers don’t lie. The highest Instagram engagement according to Quicksprout was 11 hashtags. Let us say that again... e-l-e-v-e-n! So don’t get frugal with your hashtags on Instagram; make sure they’re relevant, but let ‘em fly!
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“Content-based marketing gets repeated in social media and increases word-of-mouth mentions; it’s the best way to gather buzz…”
- @MarshaCollier
Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues
YouTube
Having a YouTube Channel is an absolute must
YouTube is an essential channel for live events — it reaches more 18-to 49-year-olds than any cable network in the U.S. It is a great way to promote your venue and keep patrons engaged, people love to see themselves at events they’ve attended. Not to mention, videos make for great content to share across other social media sites.
Create event trailers for big events
YouTube is great for hosting trailers for your big upcoming events. Videos create excitement around events, and are crazy consumable – one third of all time spent online is watching video.
Take advantage of YouTube’s great advice
YouTube is great at providing detailed information to help its users. They have a super thorough “YouTube Creator Playbook” that walks you through best practices for planning and creating content, optimizing, promoting and amplifying that content, as well as measuring the results.
Tumblr
Use the Tumblr Tips page
It’s there for a reason, and it’s a great resource. Tumblr is a bit more nuanced and has a steeper learning curve than other forms of social media, so study up!
Make your first five hashtags count
Tumblr only makes the first five hashtags in any of your posts searchable, so make sure you’re really making the most of those first five.
Put someone on picture duty
You’re busy, it’s crowded, it’s loud… remembering to pull out that iPhone and snap a pic can be tough. As the vast majority of Tumblr is pictures, you can assign picture duty to an employee and ask that they take five pictures for each show, making sure to get backstage, the crowd and the staff. That way you don’t have the “well, I thought you were going to do it,” situation that we’re all so familiar with.
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“People don’t share facts, they share emotions.”
- Oxford University Research
Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues
OTHER SOCIAL CHANNELS TO CONSIDER
SnapChat
If you’re targeting teens, don’t forget about SnapChat. Pew Research says more affluent teens visit SnapChat more than other social channels. “Affluent” being defined as teens from families earning more than $75,000.
Are women a big part of your fan base? Want to attract more? Then you need to be on Pinterest. With close to 72.8 million users on Pinterest (85% of which are women), the image/content based platform is perfect for posting those awesome pictures of shows, backstage shenanigans and food/drink pictures. But it’s important to remember that Pinterest is about discovery, not discussion. Put your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) skills to work on Pinterest to reap the rewards.
Looking to target donors? Does your venue need to attract older, more affluent adults? Then LinkedIn should be part of your social media mix. Pew Research says “College graduates continue to dominate use of the site. Fully 50% use LinkedIn…It is the only platform where those ages 30-64 are more likely to be users than those ages 18-29.” AND, if you’re targeting men, it’s important to note that LinkedIn is the only social media channel used MORE by men than women.
Vimeo and Vine
With video viewership rapidly climbing, you should cover your bases. Although YouTube is still the gold standard for online video, more and more people use Vimeo. They have billions of videos streamed every month. Vimeo also has a very engaged audience which isn’t having to sift through “fluff” as they would on YouTube. Vine is another platform that is spreading like wildfire. With over 1.5 billion loops per day, it is the perfect channel for
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“Social Media is one area of business where you don’t need to outspend your competitors in order to beat them.”
- @HalStokes
Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues
quick, eight second videos. And with a bit of effort, Vines can also be shared across a variety of other media.
Google+
At a minimum, leverage Google+ for its benefits to search. Exactly what those are may be difficult to completely understand until you do some experimenting on the platform. Don’t be afraid to try something if only to rule it out. You’ll never know if you don’t get out there and mingle!
LET US HELPSend us an email: [email protected] or call us: (800) 901-7173. Direct Message @Vendini or even message us on Facebook. Simplifying live events so you can get back to what you love is what we do best. Let us help you make the most of your marketing efforts.
Don’t need help yet? Ok, then let’s be friends. Connect with us on these social channels so we can stay in touch.
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on Pinterest
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Vendini Insights: Social Media Best Practices for Performing Arts Venues
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