ArtSpark back from SF — full of enthusiasm & gratitude!

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Imagine a group of artists and arts organizations gathered around a table @ Aspiration Tech hq’s on Mission in SF for 3 hours on a Friday morning…

Imagine them arriving from around the SF Bay Area and also flying in from ABQ, asking questions of themselves and each other, sharing wisdom around what works (and doesn’t work) when getting the word out to their fans, their audiences, their donors…

Imagine a lot of energy in the room, fueled by some revelry the night before with assorted people who are pretty passionate about social media, online communications, marketing, online fundraising, ROI levels, exciting artists…

You’ve got it — it was a great day! Matt Garcia’s facilitation skills around these topics (and more) were quite impressive, Gunner’s thought leadership nuggets were pertinent and oh-so-helpful to all, Mike’s spirit of helpfulness and detail-ness made it all flow smoothly, and Misty and Jess’ enthusiasm for all was infectious. Here’s some of the questions, ideas and practices that surfaced during our time together:

• Who are your top three audiences (in priority order);
• How to engage the 60% of your fans who know you but don’t know HOW to support you;
• Remember internal communications within your organization;
• Define a “finish line” for each of your online communication goals;
• Analytics: most important is to track trends (as actual numbers aren’t reliable);
• Keep and share a “traffic document” with shareholders 1x/month, including stories and give-aways (like tickets to performances);
• Engage VIPs/”super fans” by asking them for quotes and experiences;
• Bay Area Video Coalition has equipment for video production (but need production volunteers);
• TAG flickr.com photos;
• RED hyperlinks out-perform BLUE ones;
• Re-purpose content whenever possible;
• “Conduct small experiments and take small risks” — from Beth Kanter;
• Facilitate and name the tensions between technology and in-person events (even come up with guidelines and common sense/best practices);
• We are “arts ominvores.”

Thanks to the participants for all you shared: Jim Nickerson with SF Gay Men’s Chorus, Jess Young from SOMArts, Lindsay Barrick from ArtSpan, Michelle Otero from ABQ, Julia Mandeville from Creative ABQ, Evangel King from Berkeley, Mike Ritch from mikeritch.com, and (of course) all the amazing people at Aspiration Tech (Matt, Gunner, Mike, Jess, Misty). Thanks also to Britt Bravo and Beth Kanter for your support!

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