In a recent OpEd the Chicago Times told the performing arts community to "Get Social!" to improve ticket sales and fundraising results. The days of paper handouts pinned to a cork-board are over but sifting through all the latest social media tools can be time consuming. To help busy theater owners, we've compiled 5 ways The Arts can sell more tickets by getting social.
Social media is touted for business use all too frequently without concrete, reproducible ways of getting value. Shrill reports on the nightly news claim “old media” is dead and it seems that every advertisement has a hashtag in the lower corner. But for the hard working theater owner all the excitement surrounding social media means little if it doesn't yield an increase in ticket sales or additional donations.
To address the lack of specifics, Kyle Macmillan wrote an editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times that speaks directly to arts organizations, saying “Participating in social media is no longer an option for arts organizations...you have to be there and you have to participate.”
Macmillan’s position is firmly on the side of arts and culture but pulls no punches when it comes to the urgent need to act. Notable are the arts executives quoted including Thomas Weitz from Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Phil Koester, vice president of marketing for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Both Weitz and Koester say they treat social media as a first class citizen to achieve their respective goals and discount the notion platforms like Twitter and Facebook are just for fun.
Weitz emphasizes that social media is of the same importance as all other established practices:
To achieve successful impact with social media requires ongoing organizational commitment and quality control. There’s a perception that it’s magical or somehow fundamentally different than anything else we do, and it’s not.
Also mentioned is a mistake that many who are new to social media make:
One of the biggest mistakes arts groups make is treating social media as just another way to blast information on their activities - essentially a vehicle for free advertising. Instead, they need to think of social media as a “connector of people,” a catalyst for building an online community with similar interests and engaging in an ongoing, back-and-forth conversation with them.
As of today, if an arts organization does not have social media as part of its advertising and marketing efforts it is under-serving the best interests of the community in which it resides.
After taking the "Get Social!" directive to heart, decision makers can start with the following 5 ways the arts can sell more tickets through social media.
1. Participate with social signals
Mentioned earlier, treating Facebook or Twitter like a soap box upon which one shouts at a crowd is to be avoided. Participating in a meaningful way requires that one "listen" (read) to fans of the arts and send the correct social signals in kind. If a performing arts theater has set aside time to search for what their current and would be patrons find important, a quick click of the "Like" button may be all that is needed. All of the major social media platforms have a social signaling mechanism ("favorite", "like" "plus" etc. ). The various social media platforms send email notifications to their users when what they share is "liked" or marked as a favorite.
Quick, but sincere, the use of social signaling takes only a few moments but brings the arts organization to the attention of a patron. Initiating this lightweight social interaction makes the announcement of performances a welcomed bit of information and less like an advertisement.
2. Create more value than you capture
A common ratio for sharing with social media is 10:1. That is, for every ten instances of interaction on a given platform, only one points directly back to oneself. If a theater does nothing but tweet "Buy tickets now!" over and over, it will be off-putting and counter productive. Be supportive of the community in which your arts origination resides by bringing positive advancements to the attention of others. There need not be any direct connection to your next theatrical performance, but it should be relatable.
Has a new restaurant opened near your venue? Make mention of the restaurant by their Twitter or Facebook username and include the city name as a hashtag. Doing so will widen your reach and amplify your "voice." When the time comes for you to announce your next fundraising event, that will be your "one" in the 10:1 ratio. In turn, you should expect others to observe the same share in the same way. The restaurant you mentioned earlier will help spread the word about your event to those you may not be directly connected. Their dinners become your ticket buyers.
3. Special offers and meet-ups
If your theater has performance dates that are not selling as well as expected, rather than pour resources into traditional paid advertising, you can share a discount code through social media. The offer could also be for special seating just for your Facebook fans to come and meet in-person with your venue serving as the host. You can even tie the "meet and greet" in with a special offer already being made to the general public.
For example, if ticket prices are discounted for everyone on Sunday afternoons, share that information using social media, then include a small extra just for your followers and fans. The likelihood of your special offer being re-shared will be higher when people feel they are getting an exclusive reward for themselves ("Re-tweet and you'll get to bring a friend for free!").
4. Claim your venue on Foursquare
During the tech conference SXSW, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley revealed that his social media platform carefully tracks the activity of its 30,000,000 users. The data shows a pattern of behavior connecting one activity type (dining out) directly to another (seeing a show). One of the features Foursquare offers to venue owners is the opportunity to push the venue to the attention of its users. This feature is only available to venue owners who have setup a Foursquare account and "claimed" their venue.
After claiming your venue on Foursquare, when people are checking into a restaurant, they will be presented with suggestions for other activities nearby. Those five hundred people that just checked into local restaurants will see your venue listed prominently as "entertainment" with the classic comedy and tragedy mask icon. An increase in impulsive ticket purchase at the walk-up window may be a direct result.
5. Enable shared experiences
One of the easiest of 5 ways the arts can sell more tickets through social media is to enable shared experiences. Be it through so-called "tweet seats" or encouraging the use of your event's official hashtag, helping your patrons shared their experience is time well spent. It is human nature to want to share with others and your theatrical performance can become the topic of a conversation far beyond the scope and scale of what traditional advertising can bring. The one patron motivated to share how much they enjoyed a performance with 15,000 of the friends on twitter needs to do so using your theater's name - preferably your theater's @username.
When mentioned by @username, others can click through to see your social media home page, which in turn displays your theater's website address and leading, ultimately to a ticket sale. But this act of following the breadcrumb trail assumes you have a presence on the major social platforms - you have already done that, haven't you?
Because custom email confirmations can include the all important “Like” and “Tweet” buttons, your buyers have become your newest salespeople. What was a sale to two people now has the opportunity to perpetuate itself to be thousands. The email confirmation has transcended mere accounting to become powerful marketing tool for your business. ThunderTix offers several social sharing features that help our clients reach maximum sales.
