Are You Building Friendships or Clientele with your Twitter Account?

By -

Too often Arts Organizations use Twitter to Market themselves and miss the opportunity to build lasting Friendships of their fans

There are some great orchestra twitter accounts online right now:

What makes these twitter accounts so wonderful?  They are engaging, personal and friendly.  They don't just talk about what's happening in the next week or month, or post links to press releases.  Pretty much every day they engage with their audience, fellow Twitterers creating an online personality that invites. There are numerous other symphonies and orchestras on Twitter.  I follow nearly 100 different organizations, but the five listed above really stand out.

The point of social media is to be "social." The organizations that succeed at this have tweets with personality.  They achieve this by:

  1. Listening (and responding) to tweets about their organization (even the bad ones)
  2. Joking and providing humorous tidbits (and not just about their organization)
  3. Have interests beyond just their organization (talk on multiple topics)
These may sound like obvious qualities which can be applied to anyone on Twitter.  But, if your organization is not listed in my top 5, go back over your tweets. How many are responses to what other's have said not about your organization?  How many of your tweets were re-tweeted by other's with some additional comment that makes you laugh, or it is obvious your tweet made them laugh?  What topics are you discussing not directly related to your organization?  If less than 5% of your tweets are not directly related to your organization and/or humorous then you're not building friendships via Twitter.

Now, you may ask why is building friendships important?  If a friend drives through your city, they'll feel a sense of obligation to say 'hi' (i.e., come see a concert).  But a client feels no obligation whatsoever. A friend is someone who will come to lend a helping hand, or donate money to your cause.  A client feels they have already given you their money for services rendered.  A friend is someone who will fight for you when the going gets tough.  A client will just find another vendor.  

Unless you really want to be replaceable, start building friendship.  Start tweeting with more emphasis on getting to know the people who are talking about you and allow them to get to know you.  

---------------------

If you want to know more about tweeting with attitude, drop me a tweet... or better yet, chat up one of the orchestras I've listed above.  Their twitter accounts are linked to make it easy.

Comments

Rita_f_h said…
The Regina Symphony Orchestra "Twitterer" can easily be described as someone who tweets with personality. He/she engages, can be quite witty, and is a wonderful supporter of community.
January 13, 2012 at 7:09 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more