More and more festivals are making practical use of social networks to market their events, provide audiences with last minute programme updates, sell tickets, and much more. Initially, it would be fair to say that on old-fashioned marketing - newspaper advertisement, posters, and similar - is becoming irrelevant, and certainly does not generate the "buzz" that it did just a few years ago. But that is indeed a youthful judgement.
To set appropriate marketing strategies nowadays, festival organisers must realize that their are many opportunities to reach target audiences, and that target audiences are as diverse as ever. Some will be pleased to receive messages on the mobile phone, while others will hate it. Some are reading the newspaper ads, some are not. Some are on Facebook and gladly join groups or become fans of artists, festivals, or causes - while others l may not even use e-mail. Thus, the marketing recipe is easy: To keep existing audiences and to gain new ones, organisers must be on as many platforms as possible, while old print media etc. still should not be neglected.
A recent debate on LinkedIn predicted that Twitter would soon die. I don't think it will. But as with all new platforms, it will become a selective media .... perfect for marketing and updates, but loosing its relevance as a tool for personal "I-am-in-the-airport-drinking-coffee"-types of updates that no-one really cares for.
A piece of advice: Regardless what media you use, use it wisely. Set a strategy: What information should go to whom, on what platform, with what frequency, and in what format? Too many cultural organisations seem to have no strategy at all. They are on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or other media, have "organisation" pages, "become a fan" pages, and their own web site, of course, with various e-mail services. But many forget to use the platforms, or use them improperly, forgetting about the costumers that signed up in the first place.
In IFEA, we'll be doing what we can to keep our LinkedIn, Facebook and other platforms updated and relevant in the future, knowing that there is much work ahead. We'll be setting a strategy.
Do you have a strategy for your organisation?
