(Part 2) Commentary on “Orchestras and New Media” by Marc van Bree

Another section I found interesting, and something I hadn’t heard of yet, was called “Adapting Press Materials” and its talk of the social media press release.

After going over some general facts about what journalists look for in press releases, and providing his own wish list of information every organization’s press site should make available, van Bree delves into the new idea of a press release specifically designed to address an organization’s social media audience, and not just the standard journalist.  Van Bree sites a study showing that “…marketing professionals were consistently more interested than PR practitioners in reaching new media or consumers directly.” Offering his own analysis of the situation, van Bree writes:

Traditional press releases are specifically designed to communicate with traditional media.  However, the study suggests that online distribution is changing the nature of a press release, “repurposing them into news releases used equally by PR and marketing professionals alike as a communications tool to reach a multiplicity of audiences and achieve a number of goals.”

Van Bree also points out that the type of information a Blogger needs is different from the traditional journalist; more multimedia, key facts and quotes, and an ability to tag and use trackbacks to monitor the activity of the release, and perhaps even a way for readers to make comments.    The idea of all this being of course that strategic information is put out there in ways that are easily digestible and readily adaptable to any person interested enough to take the next step and tell their friends just how great Organization X is.

Recent writings have shown that more people find out about events, products, etc., through their friends and more importantly for this discussion, through social media outlets.  With this kind of growing trend staring us in the face, it would behoove us as arts marketers and administrators to take full advantage and learn ways to adapt our communications towards the use of this medium.

Of course with all new innovations, comes the potential for negative side affects.  For example, what happens when you put out a release about your organization only to have someone take that same seemingly well crafted release and turn it against you?  A seemingly positive release about increased funding for the NEA was misrepresented by Fox News wherein they put out a story line purporting skewed financial numbers and a contorted story about where some of the money was spent. I learned of this gross misrepresentation by Fox News via a great blog called Createquity written by Yale School of Management graduate, Ian David Moss.

This situation is a little different in that it is a “news” outlet distorting the message, but it is also related in that bloggers then take that distortion and run with it.  That’s just what conservative bloggers did here, here and here.  Even blogs, such as this one, who are in support of the funding, and who argue against positions held by Fox News, still have the incorrect number of $80 million.  So in the end, misinformation is spreading on both the supportive and unsupportive fronts.  Not good either way.

Under the “Measuring Results” section, van Bree discusses some ways to track the success of marketing efforts made via social networking mediums.  As with all PR and marketing plans, the correlations between being exposed to Advertisement X and buying Product Y aren’t always clear.

He points out a new measuring phrase to look for is “return on influence”, a spin-off of the commonly used phrase “return on investment”. Essentially, he explains an organization needs to determine what it’s trying to accomplish by using social media.  Next, it needs to determine attributes that could help measure and achieve this goal, and figure out how best to track those attributes accordingly.  The three important words to remember are part of what’s called the “Triad of Interest”: INTEREST; ATTITUDE; ACTION. Naturally, van Bree offers a much more fleshed out explanation coupled with colorful charts and data.  It would be redundent for me to reproduce all of that…. so I won’t.

Over the course of writing these two blog entries, I have probably read and re-read “Orchestras” five or six times.  Every time I go through, I notice something new and interesting that I didn’t notice the time before.  Marc van Bree has done a tremendous job of grasping the current marketing and media issues facing orchestras and artistic organizations alike.  Additionally, he offers up some solid analysis and commentary about the situation.  This semester in my master’s program I am taking a course on marketing for the arts.  I will be sure to keep this E-book as a handy resource and potential class discussion topic.

Thanks Marc for the great work, and the great resource!