My name is Edith Logue. I am an archaeologist and am currently studying for an MA in Cultural Management at the University of Ulster. For my thesis I have chosen to study the use of social media for marketing purposes. This is where my blog and you come in!
I would like to generate a discussion on this topic and would really appreciate if you would give me your views by answering the following questions:
1. Are you a friend/ fan of any organisation that uses social media such as facebook or twitter?
2. What do you think about arts and heritage organisations using social media for marketing purposes (announcing up-coming events, posting promotions, etc)?
3. Would this encourage you to attend any events?
Thank you for your time and I look forward to your thoughts on this topic.
Hi Edith, I have Opinions for you!
ReplyDelete1. yes, but... some of them never update, and some update so often I end up hiding them from my newsfeed on fb - there's definitely a balance to be struck. Again, some have great content (Orkney Library & Archive are terribly amusing) but some seem to feel sticking up some pictures with no captions from time to time = "content". In short - can be useful, but it needs more thought than "we made a page! like us!".
2. I go back & forth on this - it can be helpful, but organisations should bear in mind that if they want to reach, say, professional audiences in their sector, that they may not be able to access some social media sites at work. (Case in point, QUB have a conference in May, Interpreting Identity, and initially there was no info on the QUB pages, just an fb group - which meant I couldn't link it to colleagues who might have then passed it on to more people, as the site was blocked.)
3. it wouldn't make me more likely to go than if I heard about an event through other means, but if it was well-used it might make me more likely to hear about it...
1. Yes and I agree with Alice, there is definitely a balance which some people / organisations have not found.
ReplyDelete2. I think it is a great idea and one they should already have been exploiting. If you consider how young people engage today - it is with mulitmeida - often with more than one media at a time. Think how many times you have been reading FB comments and someone has posted about a programme they are still watching or something else they are doing at that time?
3. Yes, it would definitely encourage me to attend more events if it was posted on my wall, for example. It is a case of 'Let the Mountain come to Mohammad'.
Cx
This post was sent to me via facebook from R. Chappel. Thought I should add it for folks to discuss.
ReplyDelete1. Are you a friend/ fan of any organisation that uses social media such as facebook or twitter?
Yes
2. What do you think about arts and heritage organisations using social media for marketing purposes (announcing up-coming events, posting promotions, etc)?
It's excellent - you get to choose what news you get and it gets sent to you ... you don't need to keep checking a group's website
3. Would this encourage you to attend any events?
Actually, yes!
Hope this helps!
Re 2: I was thinking that it also depends what audiences the organisation wants to target - are they trying to reach out to new audiences, find new ways of connecting with currenty audiences, a bit of both? The platforms they use will all have different demographics - be interesting to see if any arts projects/organisations/venues are using tumblr, since it's so much better for sharing pretty pictures than fb or twitter.
ReplyDeleteHi Edith. I'm a big facebooker! We also use twitter.
ReplyDelete1/ Yes I guess I keep in the feed the ones that I find the most relevant and hide the ones that aren't. I also run a number of facebook sites for the theatre, it's good to target specific audiences/ interests. I also run a page called Donegal Arts.
2. It's a no brainer, marketing is about disseminating information- this is another way of doing it and it's very low cost. I look for information on facebook now before I look for a web page. Facebook is much more up to date due to how easy it is for anyone to instantly post, many websites are fairly static. I think we have to get away from the idea that it's just the 'young' who are using social media. 50% of Irish adults are now on facebook, more than buy a local newspaper, and yet so many organisations see local papers as the be all and end all. And it's interactive, if someone wants to ask a question, ask and it can be instantly answered!
3. Frequently. It gives a great way of reminding people things are coming up and you have so many ways to give them information about what is coming up, youtube videos etc.
One of the best things about facebook is the viral nature of it. People tick like so their friends see it, they comment, so their friends see it, and then they comment and it spirals out from the original 600 (for example) to thousands and thousands ... Even a negative comment will bring it to the attention of their friends, some of whom will probably have a positive interest!
For the sort of person who needs to control exactly what goes out, what is said about it and who sees it then it's probably not for you, but then if you are that sort of person what are you doing in Marketing? ;-) Our job is to get the information out there to people who might respond positively to it.
I think I am now sorely at fault of one of the points that Alice made in her first comment - not updating enough! Thats not very good and I apologise. Thank you all so far for all your helpful points. Hopefully we'll get a few more people on here and progress further.
ReplyDelete1: Fan of NIEA or the like , no, but get on well with some people who work there.
ReplyDelete2:Think they could save a fortune in crappy leaflets that don't get the circulation required to generate the numbers required. Where do they all go? I'm sure there are NIEA events coming up but do I know where they are, no, because I work in an office in front of a computer. Old fashioned advertising- load of cobblers-social media that lets you find out about things without having to get off your ass, that's the way to go.
3: Yes, have 4 year old, need things to do over Easter, need ideas.
1. Yes. I have a child with special needs and I find that this way I can receive pertinent information from the organisation without having to view their page which contains lots of too personal/negative posts from parents which I personally find hard to read. 2. Its the obvious way to advertise as far as I am concerned. I am on facebook more than any other site so am more likely to find out about things that way than any other. 3. It wouldn't make me any more likely to attend an event but it would make me aware of events that I wouldn't know about any other way as I rarely buy newspapers and don't watch adverts.
ReplyDelete1. I only use Facebook, I think there is just too much out there. Its bad enough with fb, takes up so much of your time, you feel as though you are missing something if you don't check on a regular basis. At times I feel that I should be doing more important things with my time.
ReplyDelete2. This is one good thing, its great to receive info about up and coming events, otherwise I would miss out on a lot. Plus you find new things to do, something you would never of considered.
3. Yes, as I am now more aware of what events are out there.
(1) at PAST we use facebook/twitter as we do a lot of work with high schools and this is their (teenagers) main form of communication. When we are doing exciting projects, like a deep wrecks cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, it is a great way of 'bringing along' people into the field with us. However it is hard to maintain and is really only updated when we are doing projects. Another problem is getting someone who can think of 140 interesting characters to grab peoples attention, this is harder than it seems! we are aware that all this could lose followers.
ReplyDeleteWe use a lot of interns during the summer and one of the things that we always look out for are those that are social media savvy and can take over this avenue for us
(2) This leads into question 2 about organizations using social media for advertising events. If they can make it appealing then it is a great idea, especially as it is viral you become aware of events through what others have 'liked'. However, as someone has pointed out, if it is just a 'look at us we created a page" and nothing else, then it can have a negative impact.
(3) I believe that if a company is proactive in their advertising then I am more willing to make the time in my day to attend their event
Hope this helps, looking forward to reading your thesis!
This is really great getting lots of feedback from a number of different angles. its good to see that most people so far agree with the idea of social media advertising and I take the point that bringing the information to people does seem to be the way forward.
ReplyDeleteI think given todays financial cliimate it is a good way of circulating information for very little other than man hours. I also think that using other media like youtube, as mentioned above, also adds another element to this especially for visual or musical events.
Thanks agin for all the input.
1. Yes
ReplyDelete2. Even the smallest shop in the arse hole of Co Kerry has a facebook fan page , so any heritage organisation without one is missing a cheap useful trick.
3. Yes, if you apply the 'throw enough crap and some will stick' principle.
Hi, Alice pointed me here - I have a friend who works in Social Media marketing and her blog/the discussions there may be relevant to what you're researching: www.margieclayman.com
ReplyDeleteThank you Kate. I will look that up. As another point of discussion is there any advice any if you would give to an organisation setting up a social networking page?
ReplyDeleteHi Edith!
ReplyDeleteAs you know I recently used facebook in combination with justgiving to raise money for a local charity and it worked out really well. So I'm not a fan of an organisation as such, but I do think that updates etc from selected organisations are a great way of keeping up to date... just make sure privacy settings are just as you want them.
Arts & heritage-wise... why not? Good way for the arts to gain exposure and if people are interested in hearing from these organisations then they'll subscribe I guess. Live near the new lyric theatre, so I guess that would be a good example that I'd be interested in... say to promote a seat sale on the day of the performance if the auditorium not full. Easyjet style theatre seating!!
Take care, Michael M
Hi Edith (sorry I meant to post on this sooner).
ReplyDeleteMy comments are as follows:
1. Yes I am a friend / fan of some organisations that uses facebook (set up a twitter account but don't use it. The 'facebook' and 'twitter' logos are now advertised on lots of organisations webpages so it definitely is very easy and accessible if you want to become a friend.
2. I think it would be good. Information is so quickly available now that people don't want to be bothered finding out about stuff - so through the likes of FB / Twitter communication or marketing can be sent quickly and directly to the people who want to know about it. There is a challenge, I think, in ensuring it is not a case of information overload. I certainly skim through a lot of updates on my FB page and just look at what is of interest to me. It is important to get the balance of information right. I like the way you can post something on an organisations FB page and get a reply from someone either from the organisation or a fellow FB fan. Plus as a marketing tool I would imagine that social networking is very cost effective as opposed to other forms of marketing (ie radio; flyers etc).
3. Again I would say that it may encourage me to attend events as through the FB updates, I have found it a good reminder of stuff happening or coming up.
Hope this helps.
Karen x
Hey Edith, it's me Yoko your old friend from London times. Sushi is my dog:)
ReplyDeleteI don't have complex answers and I might not help much with them but here we go:
1. I am a friend of a few organizations but they fill up my newsfeed so much that sometimes I miss important requests and updates like yours because things move so fast I cannot keep up. I'm glad I saw your post in time to help a little. You see? I wonder if my friends who are friends or fans will catch up with me or their other friends due to these
organizations posting and updating constantly.
2. I think they are smart to use such a wonderful platform for marketing such as FBook but, as I imagine some people get overwhelmed by the amount of updates, sometimes irrelevant and then exclude them from their list of friends.
3. It would make me aware of them but I don't think it would encourage me to attend.
I hope what I wrote made sense :) I haven't expressed my opinions in a while :):)
Good luck with your thesis!
Hi Edith, here are my answers.... good luck with your thesis
ReplyDelete1. Yes I am a friend of several (although my work has recently created a facebook page and I don't want to be their friend lol)
2. I think this is a good idea as it spreads the word to people who would not normally be involved or maybe even interested in what certain organisations do. An example would be the Tirnony excavation blog- several of my non-archaeologist fb friends registered as friends of this and I don't think they would normally have done so.
To answer your question properly I also think it is a good idea for such organisations to use social media for marketing purposes as it spreads the word around really fast and also saves on printing out lots of leaflets etc
3. It would definately encourage me to attend any events which I would be interested in. I'm not sure if it would encourage me to attend events I would not normally have considered if I'd seen them advertised elsewhere.
Hope this helps!
1. Yes. I like what archaeopress is doing on facebook,
ReplyDelete2, Its a good idea - I use several different social media sites which potebtially have their individula roles in the cyperspace ecosystem, although if they dont talk to tweet deck they dont get many updates from me! I find the updating of the calender of my smart phone very useful so
3 yes as i'm more likly to remember when an event is on and can check for clashes more easily
Thanks for the comments so far. Plenty of food for thought! I'm currently working on writing this dissertation up but am leaving analysis of blog til last as I want as many results as possible.
ReplyDeleteHey Edith,
ReplyDelete1, I'm a fan of a couple of theses types of social networking sites but unfortunately, as has probably been said already, they aren't updated nearly as often as they could be.
2, Heritage and the arts do use social networking effectively in other parts of the world the likes of the large museums in London, New York etc. I think they work well when an organisation has a page as opposed to an event having a page for itself, having the page related to the organisation it makes it easier to provide a larger variety of content and keeps people coming back. I also think that having someone maintain the social networking sites full time would be beneficial as replying to fan posts as well as placing posts on the sites helps people connect with the pages and come back.
3, As long as there was a good programme of events and the site was updated on a regular basis, I think it would.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this blog and who have also sent me their thoughts through facebook. I really appreciate all your help.
ReplyDeleteI now deem this discussion closed.
Edith