Interact and react

Today I was interested in learning more about ning.com. Ning is a social network site. It can be compared with sites like Myspace and Facebook, but it works in a very different way. Instead of building a profile and create a social network around yourself, you create your network around a specific interest or passion. Each interest network has its own characteristics, rules and site design. I find the idea of ning rally appealing. Instead of getting meaningless information about people that you barely know, you get to exchange meaningful ideas and thoughts with people that you don't necessarily know but who have the same passion as yourself. I created a profile and dived in.

In a social media group I found an interesting video from a seminar with Eric Qualman the author of the blog and the book, Socialnomics. In his seminar he is talking about how companies can use social media to succeed in their business, or rather, simply how to use social media in a wise way. After having seen the video I was inspired. The four steps that Eric is talking about must be described as a basic approach to social media, for any business or organisation.

The first is to listen. (The importance for companies to listen to the present and potential customers is once again underlined!)

Secondly, the company has to decide how they want to interact in the dialog with the community. They have to create a social media strategy

The third step is to react, or at least decide how to react or not react. This must be one of the most important steps for a company! Any company with a social media strategy, or the wish to have one, has to ask itself how they will act, what they will do with the information and feedback they will receive. If you're in the game you have to play. I will come back to this because it is especially important for the performing arts sector.

The fourth step will come naturally, Eric Qualman means. If a company acts according to the prior steps, the costumer will either sell or not sell for the company. 

How to react on peoples' feedback is an important question in the performing art sector. I have a gained my work experience in Sweden and France and have been working with big theaters from many Europe countries; I am well familiar with a performing art sector which is subsidized by public funding and where the theaters have been "privileged" to work without worrying about fundraising and private sponsors. These theaters do not necessarily have to maintain an active dialogue with the audience to survive. In simple words: the only dialogue that you really have to reinforce after a bad season is the dialogue with the politicians. However, in the countries where I have been working, audience development and outreach programs have advanced enormously the last ten years, and many theaters are excellent (German theaters...wow!). But there is still an ambiguity in the idea of letting the "market" in to the "artistic sphere", so the question is if the theaters (not just the marketing department, but the theater as a whole) are willing to really listen to their audience and react to what they are saying. Maybe it could be the way of creating theater for future audiences... Before entering social media marketing they have to be really clear on how they want to interact and react. If social media are used as one way communication, the networks risk to fade. I will be excited to see how theaters that are really using social media to interact with their audience are working! Is the whole theater engaged or just the marketing department? 

Today's thought is definitely interact and react.