Still in Houston at the NAMP conference. Facilitated two roundtable sessions yesterday on the topic of Releasing Your Organizations Inner Blogger. Excellent turnout at both roundtables which tells me this is a hot topic. The first session were mostly folks thinking about setting up a blog for their arts organization.
The biggest challenge was getting started and then who will keep it going. There was lots of concern about letting people post bad reviews of arts performances. We're so enabling in the arts.
Getting staff, board, artists and volunteers to blog was like climbing a mountain. Came up with some great solutions.
- give people a tape recorder, have them speak their post and then transcribe. Even better post it as an audio podcast. Better yet, get them on video and post it.
- give people a digital camera and have them take photos and post those. How about backstage shots during the performance and posting them in real time. Imagine the buzz you'd build.
- have people complete questionnaires about there arts/involvement and post the responses.
- ask everyone to post a minimum of three words or a maximum of three sentences about how their work/involvement in the organization relates to the current production/exhibition.
The second session had many folks who post personal blogs. They had good advice about how a blog communicates your values and the same could be true for your arts organization's blog. This is done through the various topics, links and which blogs you recommend reading. One woman said that when they post bad reviews about a member theater company they actually get the most comments and sell more tickets because people want to see the show and witness just how bad it is...or is not.
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