huffingtonpost.com: Facebook is so over. At least, that's what a college-age coworker told me this summer while discussing arts marketing. The mega social network may be waning with a younger demographic, but a recent Facebook acquisition is growing exponentially. More than 80 million people are sharing photos on their iPhones and Android devices with Instagram.
14 comments:
Social media is never going to be a very effective model for businesses and here's why...
Social media is for two purposes:
1. Making yourself look as cool as possible, which can be achieved by
-posting inside jokes that other people aren't involved in, making them feel excluded from your awesome life
-posting attractive photos of yourself
-posting funny pictures of yourself so people know that even though you're super sexy, you're still down to earth and you know how to have a good time
-posting about al the cool stuff you've done (wow, look at this awesome party I went to! look at this fun time I had downtown at night! look at my awesome cat!)
-referencing cool stuff so other people know you have good taste (quoting lyrics, tv, theatre, movies, the internet, etc.)
2. Stalking other people
Advertising really has no place in that. Every attempt made by a company to get involved in social media hasn't been particularly effective because a company can't really make itself look cool (or if it does it's too obvious about it), and a company has no need to stalk other people.
Social media only works for companies if they fall into it unintentionally. Now companies are even trying to mimic that by "accidentally" leaking songs early.
I strongly agree with Pia! Social Media is not the best way to market a show, but, it does get people noticing shows that they may not have noticed before. Instagram is a really interesting social media outlet. It helps to promote almost anything you want it to. Its like a scrapbook of a persons life or day. However, posting pictures of inside a theatre and of designs is very questionable. It is copyrighted material and it should not posted without permission. I guess we will never have true control of this, but the best idea is to probably not advise photos on instagram for shows...
Ok, so this whole social media thing is getting way out of hand. I completely agree with Pia, social media pretty ridiculous. Sharing that much personal information on the web (which vertically the entire world has access to) is unsafe and frankly pretty childish. Even if you have privacy settings on your still sharing so much personal information with 500 of your closet friends who might not necessarily use that knowledge for the best purposes. As far as the theatre being photographed and "instagramed' that is completely unfair to the artist who put so much work in to something. Taking a photo of something on Broadway and sharing it with the world so everyone will see how cool you are is not a justified reason to use copyrighted work. There is not much we can do to fix this but I have a very vain hope that this social media craze dies down in the next 10 years or so, sadly it will most likely only get worse.
OKAY - I'm going to have to disagree. Social media is a very effective tool for marketing......Instagram, specifically, is not. Instagram embodies all of the traits Pia has listed. Also, it doesn't have that massive of a fan base, so Instagraming pics of theatres will probably go next to nowhere. Not to mention it's a little bit distasteful. So, I suppose I'm not disagreeing, really. More just saying that calling Instagram a representation of the usefulness of all social media platforms is a bit of a generalization.
However, there are effective ways to market using social media and the web. Most people don't pay attention to anything unless it is accessible via the internet. One can grab their market via Facebook and other platforms of a similar nature, bringing them to a series of websites which are simple and easy to navigate.
They seem to have misunderstood what instagram is and how it works, but in general they seem to have the right idea. Social media at this point is the best way to spread marketing, but I agree with Kassondra, instagram is the wrong platform. Instagram does not build a wide fan base like twitter and facebook. Instagram is just a way that friends can see what other people are eating for dessert in the form of a grainy, low quality photographs made to look old. Beyond that, it's not the best way to spread information. If they applied the same ideas to other social media apps, it would probably work great. They were just a bit off.
In agreement with the above statements, social media is the fastest and probably the most affective way to advertise in today's world, but instagram is not the way to go. The app is great to share with friends that you are going to see a show, maybe by snapping a picture outside, but it is not great for taking copyrighted information. If free wi-fi is installed for intermissions, illegal pictures will just increase, which isn't fair to the artists. Sure people could check their email more efficiently, but isn't the theatre there so that people can escape this world for just a bit? While some social media advertising is great, putting ads on instagram is just repetitive and unnecessary.
It's amazing how well six comments can exemplify the debate over the use of social media. It is absolutely brainwashing, and I find it despicable the way people flaunt themselves online in an attempt to get attention from people they hardly even know. And yes, it is also used for stalking. But can you even call it that when people are asking for it by putting all their most personal information up for anyone to stumble across? Social networking is, unfortunately, widely used, and thus is a wonderful way for companies to get attention and put their products out there. Advertising agencies would be remiss if they didn't utilize the resources they have available to them to reach as wide of an audience as possible, no matter how superfluous and reprehensible these resources may be.
Hey if there were never any bootleg recorded videos of Spring Awakening online I never would have gone to see it. I don't know if you could really hone this as a business strategy but I think without word of mouth or promotional videos or buzz there is very little reason for me to go and see a show. I also agree with this author is saying that Instagram is the wave of the future. It is better than twitter because it is just images and that can speak volumes more than words. Also I think that sometimes Facebook can be fake, right, I mean think about it, Facebook is how you project yourself to be. Instagram on the other hand are the things you see everyday. There is only so much you can hide, or make different with a filter. And because of this realness I think that most people will eventually turn to it. With Facebook you are creating how the world should see you, with Instagram it is how things are. You are giving the real story, and this could be used in the end as a marketing tool.
I agree with Zoe... I think that as much as we may disagree with people Instagramming sets on Broadway and think it's a copyright infringement (which it is), it will always happen. With smartphones and 4G, there's no way to prevent it, beyond confiscating people's cell phones, which would be a terrible marketing strategy since no one would want to go to the theatre. Social media is such a huge part of American culture right now, and you may think it's silly or creepy or stupid, but as of right now, it's here to stay. That means that as a marketing strategy, accepting Instagram as inevitable and capitalizing on that fact is a great idea. Like Zoe said, we use things like YouTube and Twitter all the time to see what other people think about something or to preview something ourselves, so why is Instagram any different?
Instagram and Facebook go hand in hand. Why do you think Facebook bought Instagram? I don't think that Facebook is on its way out for marketing because of Instagram, it could be used even more with its own photo sharing capabilities. Instagram ALLOWS for that photoshop look from an iPhone. People could just use the camera, but why not add a special filter to it. I dont think Instagram alone could be the next best marketing strategy, but I have to disagree with many on here and say that Facebook is an absolute wonderful way to advertise shows. How many $50 dollar tickets do you think Cirque is selling cause of Facebook. Probably more than not being on Facebook. The whole IP/Copyright issue has always been an issue and will be an issue - we need to embrace it. I dont need a picture to steal a scenic design, people have memories, its not like they will forget the design the moment they walk out of the theatre. It is a combination of media today that allows for good business marketing. Whatever it may be, we need to embrace media and social networking, and embrace phone photos.
While I understand that a scenic design is somebody else's intellectual property and you don't have the right to post pictures of it without their permission blah blah blah, I don't understand an Instagram-ed picture of the Newsies set could be considered a bad thing. It's not like people are going to see the picture, and subsequently not buy a ticket and have Newsies lose money. If anything, it'll garner more exposure and excitement for the production. Plus, Boritt's concern that designs can be stolen because of Instagram seems foolish. The original scenic design for musicals have ALWAYS been stolen without credit--not because of greater access to pictures of the set, but because people have a difficult time separating the staging from the show itself, especially when their first exposure to it was seeing the production. The design for Newsies will probably be copied or "heavily borrowed from" regardless of whether pictures show up on Instagram. The set is nice, and does a great job to help tell the story. It's a complement. Take it.
Personally I think posting pictures is a great way to advertise for the show! Here are other people offering to take pictures and distribute them to their friends, at no expense to any Broadway producer. While yes, it becomes troublesome when pictures are taken inside the theater, overall I don't think social media is a bad thing. As others have said, while it isn't the best marketing tool, it does broadcast new shows to less-informed citizens.
i personally use facebook more than i use instagram so facebook isnt dead. however it is currently my goal to be "instafamous" how ever i do not think its a great way for advertiseing when ever i see someones picture with an advertisement in it i never remember what the ad was for. Instagram isnt the way to choose to try and advertise your product especially for broadway Instagram is about taking pictures and you can hardly ever take pictures inside a broadway show.
im going to have to disagree with pia. my 55 year old mother uses facebook to find her high school friends and meet up with them for coffee. my grandma uses facebook to talk to me because i cant call her at 3 am when i have a spare minute. enter: instagram. my mom uses instagram because she cant fly up here, and she wants to see where i live now - and occasionally i want to see my dog. now yes.... i use social media to look cool and stalk people.. but not everyone. but you know what everyone is doing? using social media for one reason or another. and that is why its a brilliant advertising avenue. everyone is linked through the www and its the absolute quickest way to spread information.
now there are do's and do not's for advertising on social media, and im sure david will post one soon (they're easy for us to comment on) - but the fact is that there is absolutely an effective way to use social media to market a business.
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