The end is in sight for my internship with the Perth International Arts Festival, and it seems to have crept up ever so quickly! Knowing that I’ve only got a few weeks left I’m starting to feel a sense of stress and excitement, as I want to make sure I leave with nothing left unfinished and all work polished off to an excellent standard.
I thought I would use this blog post as an opportunity to reflect on one of the major tasks of my internship, which has been to compile a research document for the festival’s forthcoming online media strategy. This involved scoping out the website strategies of the major Australian arts festivals, including the Sydney and Melbourne festival, as well as international arts festivals and organisations, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
For each festival, I broke the research down into website and media centre strategies, as well as an overview of the way social media outlets had been used to identify and communicate the organisation’s stakeholders. Personally I found this task fascinating, because I’m very interested in the way outlets such as Twitter and Facebook can be used to add personality to communication channels, while still reflecting the organisation’s values and culture.
Some key trends of successful social media strategy are:
- Before creating a Twitter page, for example, be sure to write up a written strategy document which includes your goals and objectives, key messages and how you will deal with any negativity from stakeholders.
- These pages need to updated regularly to keep your audience’s interest. Keep it interesting by including by including some personal anecdotes and jokes. Use the 70/30 (70% are related to the organisation, 30% are personal/funny).
- Ensure consistent use of branding, taglines and logos across all social media. Use organisational branding/colours to customise pages where possible.
- Encourage interactivity by posting links and discussion topics.
For an example of a great Twitter page, see the Sydney International Arts Festval’s at
http://twitter.com/sydney_festival
And watch this space for the Perth Festival’s Twitter page!
Thanks, Ros. x
2 comments:
Hi Ros, that's interesting! Our Singapore Tourism Board also has a Twitter page so guess social media is right up there with communicating with stakeholders...
but how do you ensure you get followers, simply through word of mouth?
Yve
Hi Yvette,
Ensuring you get a large following on Twitter depends on a number of key factors.
You must first build your Twitter following from your main client and stakeholder base, those who would be most interested in your business.
You must also ensure to utilise cross promotion of your social media sites, by putting 'find us on Twitter' links and logos on the website and all marketing collateral (e.g. flyers, newsletters, business cards). This will spark the curiosity of new visitors, and perhaps people who aren't avid Twitter users, to check out the site.
In terms of 'word of mouth', it may be an idea to plan some kind of media stunt or use a creative idea to get a wider cross section of society interested in your site. For example, create a great promotion or competition that you can only participate in as a Twitter follower. You could try and gain some media coverage about the competition and post news about it on your webpage.
If you use strategies such as these comprehensively, you are more likely to maximise your following.
Hope this helps!
Thanks, Ros.
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