A presentation of:blog setup, design and management | creative social media solutions | community management and content generationfor B CITY COLLECTIVE

KarenKiely.com@kazkiely

SUMMARYHere is a presentation of the establishment and maintenance of an effective online presence for a collective of Birmingham-based musicians ahead of the release of a charity single in September 2011.

The social media solutions provided for the client include initial setup of a blog, Facebook page and Twitter presence, and the subsequent community management and content generation. The services provided aimed to reflect the “real” side of the group, using a combination of behind-the-scenes content and live updates from rehearsals, video shoots and concert appearances.

The development, implementation and results of a Facebook competition focusing on fan engagement are also presented.

B City Collective is a group of solo artists who banded together aiming to give Birmingham’s urban music scene national prominence by releasing a single independently. The Collective consists of singers and rappers and is backed by a team of volunteers including filmmakers, label owners, camera crew, make-up artists, PR professionals and photographers.

The group’s charity single ‘Out The Box’ - a song with a message urging youths to break away from society’s negative expectations of them - was released on 4th September as a download across digital channels e.g. iTunes, Play, HMVDigital.com, with all proceeds going to three youth charities in Birmingham - Reflex, Creating Higher Heights and the Letisha and Charlene Education Awards.

I got involved with the Collective through a mutual contact that I made at a networking event in early May. I was assigned the role of online communications coordinator, initially tasked with establishing a blog and associated web presence to accompany the Collective’s marketing and public relations efforts and at a later stage, using my initiative to implement a creative Facebook campaign to satisfy the coordinators’ objective of developing further interest in the Collective online.

A GROUP OFINDEPENDENT URBAN ARTISTS TRYING TO PUT BIRMINGHAM ON THE MUSICAL MAP

CONTEXT

B City Collective’s ultimate goal was to get into the UK singles chart by selling at least 1000 downloads. In May, when I first met with Chris Hytch and Damien Morgan, the project coordinators, B City Collective had no online presence, besides a Facebook event where coordinators themselves invited friends and family to be a part of a video shoot in July at The Drum Arts Centre. Additionally, the project coordinators had already attempted to create a Facebook page by setting up an additional personal profile to administrate the page from.

Coordinators each had their own talents that they contributed to the project with, but no one had the skills or experience to manage social media, as evidenced by the inappropriate approach to having a Facebook page before I joined the team. There was also a clear need for a website/blog and a Twitter presence. There are many Birmingham arts organisations active on Twitter, so there was a possibility for lots of interest and interaction.

“IT WAS REALISED EARLY ON THAT THE MAIN COORDINATORS LACKED THE ONLINE NETWORKING SKILLS NEEDED TO PROMOTE THE PROJECT SUCCESSFULLY. THANKFULLY, WE WERE INTRODUCED TO KAREN, WHOSE TALENTS AND SKILLS IMMEDIATELY BECAME APPARENT.” - Chris Hytch,

PROBLEM

In addition, following the initial setup of the online presence and management of its activity, the coordinators saw a need for increased Facebook fans ahead of the single release date. As well as communicating to the coordinators the importance of amount of engagement over numbers of fans, and the fact that fans need a concrete benefit made clear to them before they click ‘like’, I resolved to provide a creative approach to increasing fans, providing value for them and increasing interaction as well as numbers.

Facebook was to be the key hub of social media activity for the Collective as the target audience for the Collective’s single - teenagers - were understood to be heavy users. As well as that, many musicians and bands have, in the past, run successful online campaigns through Facebook, so taking inspiration from those, I aimed to use the platform to generate some excitement around the group.

Being part of a team that also had professional photographers and videographers, I had access to vast amounts of media resources to present the Collective authentically online.

B City Collective’s main message was to urge young people to break away from negative lifestyle choices. The fact that it was made up o f “ r e a l ” p e o p l e f r o m Birmingham who are using their talents to carve a productive and positive path was something that informed the social media presence I cult ivated for them. By sharing behind-the-scenes photos and videos, l ive updates from events and, ultimately, a side to the group would be showcased, that wasn’t unlike the youth a u d i e n c e t h e y w e r e targeting.

REAL PEOPLEFROM URBANAREAS DOINGSOMETHINGINSPIRING

APPROACH

OUTPUT

LIVE-TWEETING

To appropriately accompany the Collective’s blog and Facebook presence, I used Twitter to send live updates from rehearsals and video shoots with a focus on b e h i n d - t h e - s c e n e s information. With my past experience liveblogging from events, I knew that there were benefits to providing a live commentary online. I aimed to provide a steady, valuable stream of content so potential followers would s e e a n a d v a n t a g e t o following. I made a point of tagging users e.g. rock band @underscored_101, rapper @damien_morgan and venue @the_drum, posting photos and keeping track of

any mentions as soon as t h e y c a m e i n , u s i n g Tweetdeck on my phone. Us ing Tw i t t e r f o r t he Collective on a continuous basis, I helped garner new followers as well as some i n t e r a c t i o n f r o m k e y B i r m i n g h a m f i g u r e s , including @IAmBirmingham - a Birmingham-based video hub, @jonwalker121, po l i t i ca l ed i to r o f the Birmingham Post and Mail a n d @ t h e _ d r u m A r t s Centre. Overall, the Twitter strategy - to present what g o e s o n b e h i n d t h e Collective - was a success and complemented the whole online presence very well.

BCITYCOLLECTIVE.CO.UK As online communications coordinator, one of the largest tasks a s s i g n e d t o m e w a s t h e m a n a g e m e n t o f t h e BCityCollective.co.uk. This involved initially setting up a blog-based website on Wordpress and subsequently posting updates to the blog and updating page content.

Project coordinators often sent updates via email, which I would take, edit and craft into suitable blog posts. I researched and installed various plugins to enhance the blog, including Network Publisher to push new blog posts to Twitter and Facebook, Google Calendar Events to give readers an interactive calendar of upcoming and past appearances and Automatic Youtube Video Posts to pull video uploads from Youtube into new blog posts.

As well as that, as the project was constantly evolving, with additional support coming from different parties, new people joining the creative team and further testimonials and endorsements coming from key Birmingham figures and music professionals, the website needed to be updated accordingly.

Resulting from my work on BCityCollective.co.uk is a website with all important information about the Collective as well as regular, insightful updates and behind-the-scenes photographs and video content.

As well as setting up and managing the Facebook page for t h e C o l l e c t i v e , i n c l u d i n g populating photo albums and custom tabs, I implemented a photo competition to generate more buzz around the page.

The project coordinators were keen on improving the number of Facebook likes. I wanted to provide an intervention that meant not only would likes be increased, but those likes would be valuable in that they would come from fans that felt a connection to the Collective. I devised a strategy with this goal in mind. It consisted of using an upcoming concert appearance -

the Flyover Show on 20th August - to generate interest in the Collective and give people an i n c e n t i v e t o g o o n t o t h e Facebook page, like it and share with their friends.

I proposed the idea to the coordinators and advised on the best approach to logistical aspects. I designed promotional materials to have on Facebook in the run-up to the competition. On the day, I spent time meeting w i t h a u d i e n c e m e m b e r s , informing them of the Collective's work, the competition and the opportunity to win a gift card, and inviting them to enter by having their photo taken by one of the photographers.

Although I met some resistance to the idea, mainly from those not keen on having their photo taken, we got more than 20 p h o t o g r a p h s w h i c h w e r e uploaded to Facebook that evening.

FLYOVER SHOW FACEBOOK PHOTOCOMPETITION

Using a third party application - Easypromos - to execute the campaign within Facebook's guidelines, I used the week following the show to invite fans to tag and enter their photographs. During that time, likes increased and many fans tagged and commented on their photos from the day. I also took responsibility to wrap up the competition and announce the winners across Facebook, Twitter and the blog.

OUTCOMEINCREASE IN FANS AND INTERACTIONS

Figure 1 shows an inflation in page content feedback, most notably between Saturday the 20th - the day of the show - and Tuesday 23rd. One of the contributory posts was the new album of photos for the competition.

Figure 2 conveys a peak in page views in the days after the show.

Figure 3 illustrates the peak in new Likes. Bearing in mind the previous graph, it’s clear to see that the peak in views correlates with an increase in Likes.

Although not as impressive as anticipated, it’s clear that there is a correlation between the Flyover Show Photo Competition and a climb in a variety of valuable interactions on Facebook. This clearly shows the benefits of a Facebook campaign consisting of fan interactions and a real-world intervention. Additional initiatives of this nature would help the Collective further build likes and interactions.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

BEHIND-THE-SCENES CONTENT & A “REAL” AND AUTHENTIC PRESENCE

Wanting to showcase the Collective not just as musicians, but as real people coming together to do something positive, I picked some of the best behind-the-scenes footage to share through social media.

This strategy helped show the Collective as a group of people with personality as well as talent and with a drive and passion for what they do.

Additionally, having an album of photos of fans contributes to this “real” image, as fans and musicians share the same space online.

My execution of this tactical presentation of the Collective online helped put across the overall selling point of the Collective, as well as creating an archive of content for future fans to browse.

“Karen has been an invaluable member of the B City Collective team! It was realised early on that the main co-ordinators lacked the online networking skills needed to promote the project successfully. Thankfully we were introduced to Karen, whose talents and skills immediately became apparent.

She built a website which she continues update almost daily. Karen then took over our Facebook page, giving us invaluable advice as to how to best use this platform to promote ourselves, including a recent competition devised solely by Karen...thus driving traffic to our page! Karen has also proved invaluable with her knowledge of Twitter and has tweeted all our exploits regularly.

On top of this Karen needs to be commended for her speed in responding to our requests and to the use of her own initiative. Very often Karen has not needed to be asked to do things-her enthusiasm has been such that she has regularly posted blogs before the co-ordinators even thought to request her to do so.

CHRIS HYTCH (PROJECT COORDINATOR)

“TO PUT IT SIMPLY, WE REALLY COULD NOT HAVE CARRIED OUT THIS PROJECT WITHOUT KAREN.”

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Photo credits: Page 3, 4 & 6 Outroslide Events Photography

Page 1, 5, 8, 10 & 11 elle.tien photographyPage 10 & 11 Sasha Russeama Hurd

ABOUT KAREN

Karen is an online media consultant and designer, specialising in creative approaches to social media for businesses, arts organisations, individuals and groups, with a focus on authenticity and independence.

Portfolio and BlogKarenKiely.com

Emailkaz@karenkiely.com

Twitter@kazkiely