Devon Smith, Director of Research and Analysis at Yale Rep, gave a presentation on social media strategy for theaters. He discussed benchmarking peers on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Foursquare. He emphasized the importance of engagement through answering and asking questions, mobile donations, and building relationships online and offline to develop audiences. Smith also stressed the challenges of accurately measuring social media return on investment and engagement.

1. Devon Smith, Director of Research and Analysis at Yale Rep
Commissioned by the marke<ng department to benchmark peers
Grew into LORT then TCG, will finish publishing end of summer
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2. Strategy
TCG & Facebook, TwiHer, YouTube
Foursquare, Flickr, MySpace, Blogs
Leave you with a few resources
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3. 20 minutes for Q&A
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4. I hate to break it to you
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5. Art sells. How you convert interest to a <cket sale is via your website, box office, and
direct mail
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6. Several studies show that fans…
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7. Important to recognize social media’s use outside
Answering ques<ons
Asking ques<ons
mobile dona<ons
Brand Fic<on
Instant access to every other theatre
Impact on your brand a[er being viewed as “social media savvy”
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8. If you get nothing else out of this, know these 9 things
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10. ROI doesn’t make sense
Investment‐social media is cheap (though can feel <me consuming in the beginning)
Return‐you’re a nonprofit, beHer to think of audience (cons<tuent) development.
On‐compared to what other marke<ng?
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11. There’s a lot of people to build rela<onships with
Be promiscuous
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12. Measurement. This is the hardest to cover in a 1 minute ppt slide. You have to learn
what works for you.
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13. Ok. Then let’s talk about facebook
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15. 25% nonwhite (US internet users: 15%)
Facebook users are more demographically diverse than the US internet popula<on
45% of users are over 35 (10% over 55)
Average user logs in daily, spends 55 minutes, uploads x pieces of content, fans 7
pages per month, likes #, comments #
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16. Younger‐don’t care. Older‐don’t know.
No more facebook connect.
Community Pages are like wikipedia—public <meline
$1 billion virtual currency market. FB will do $1B total this year. Big player in growing
market. Could make buying <ckets in app easier.
Q&A‐next hot app in FB. Formspring later.
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17. News Feed is your goal. EdgeRank is how you get there.
Affinity‐checking page, previous comments, how many other friends, etc.
Weight‐more <me intensive shows up more o[en
Time decay‐why you want to update frequently
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18. Abandoned = more than 2 months since you last checked in
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19. Most theatres update around 3 <mes/week
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20. Each of those friends has 130 friends. So mul<ple your reach.
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21. When you get more than 4, figure out why. Keep doing that (but know that it may not
work every <me)
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22. 2 variables‐size of fans & how frequently I post.
Could go in either direc<on.
Could be a third factor‐size of theatre
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23. Clear rela<onship
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24. Weekly & monthly see very liHle engagement
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25. Turns out might be more <me effec<ve to only post daily. That said, <me decay.
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26. This is just silly. Fix it.
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27. Anyone with >25 fans can get the custom URL
Profiles are probably older accounts
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28. Custom URL Page admins are probably more savvy
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29. December of 2009. Deep dive into 1 month of their data. Took me less than 1 day to
complete the research.
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30. Build a community of people on facebook. Help your fans meet each other online &
offline.
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31. FB surpassed google in Jan 2010. Top 3 referrers to most websites.
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33. If you’re skep<cal, check out who/how many in your area are interested in theatre. Or
in your age demographic.
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34. FB fans spend more <me on our website than any other referrer.
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35. Very impressed.
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36. Export applica<ons of names.
Compare to your subscriber/<cket buyer list.
Chroma Tix coming out with integra<on w/ FB/TwiHer for small theatres. Very cool.
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37. Access to people who aren’t your fans.
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38. The Public 3rd highest arts & culture. $15 average similar to obama campaign. Micro‐
dona<ons increase engagement.
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40. Less than ½ the size of facebook. S<ll huge.
Female
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41. Promoted tweets‐ads in side bar
@anywhere somewhat similar to facebook connect.
t.Co is a URL shortener. TwiHer bought it & twee<e to integrate analy<cs
Unstable plazorm
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42. Median theatre joined in April, 2009
Oldest: @calshakes (March 16, 2007)
Youngest: @PCPATheaterfest (April 29, 2010)
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43. 57% are ‘ac<ve’
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44. 73% of real tweeters had someone say something about them
40% of AutoSync accounts
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45. 198 “real” tweeters
Power users TweetDeck and HootSuite.
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46. I’ll link to this online
Theatre, twiHer name, follower count
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47. 1/3 the size of the facebook fanbase.
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49. December LORT study.
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50. Did several of these for my marke<ng staff. VERY HELPFUL.
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51. There’s a lot of op<ons on twiHer, but don’t be scared. It’s flee<ng. If you make a
mistake, it’ll be gone in a week.
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52. Really high level op<ons.
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53. Above the line: pre‐digested. Be ware.
Below the line: simple #s. but you have to check them all. We’re s<ll in the very early
days.
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55. Double the prime <me audience of all 3 networks combined
Music videos drive viewership.
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56. Youtube.com/nonprofits
Stars: all 1s or 5s
Rentals don’t work now. Maybe future?
Impact of Vevo & Vimeo
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57. 17% of TCG members link to YouTube from their homepage
December LORT study. Much more in depth online.
Will do TCG study next.
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58. Random fans?
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59. Very rough metrics. Views don’t usually add up. Hopefully this will get beHer.
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60. 1st is most important. The remaining 4 I’m covering bc most linked to.
Also, development (network for good)?
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61. Theatres w/ highest number of check‐ins had foursquare in their city first. Takes <me.
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62. 5% of theatres linked. But I’m not sure about this one. Never occurred to me.
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63. 10% of tcg links
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64. TwitPic + TwiHer
7% of TCG
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66. *note: 25 theatres (22 lort + 3)
Spending very liHle <me measuring. This is bad.
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68. It’s up to you.
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69. Cut this slide?
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70. Social Search
Open Graph
Push
Q&A
QR
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72. Images?
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