Theatre Bay Area, the nation’s largest regional theatre services organization, today released “The Tangled Web: Social Media in the Arts,” a monograph by Devon V. Smith examining the social media practices of 207 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations across the country. This research, one of the most comprehensive surveys of social media use in arts organizations ever conducted, provides a valuable snapshot of how the arts and cultural center is using social media to engage artsgoing audiences across the country. The full research report is available at http://www.theatrebayarea.org/tangledweb. Top-level findings from the research include: • All told, the 207 arts organizations in the study utilize over twenty other social networking platforms. • The average arts organization is active on three social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) and uploads 66 new pieces of content each month. • Facebook Pages that are updated multiple times per day, use a customized URL and feature a custom Welcome tab have more fans, who interact with the page more often, than those who do not. • Arts and cultural organizations that tweet more than four times per day and do not replicate Facebook content on their Twitter feed have more followers and a higher rate of engagement than others. • Venue pages on Yelp and Foursquare that have been claimed by an organization have more user engagement than those that have not. • Arts organizations who use a custom URL and a custom template for their blog have more engagement than those who do not, but overall blogs offer a very low rate of engagement regardless of format, structure or frequency.
Theatre Bay Area, the nation’s largest regional theatre services organization, today released “The Tangled Web: Social Media in the Arts,” a monograph by Devon V. Smith examining the social media practices of 207 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations across the country. This research, one of the most comprehensive surveys of social media use in arts organizations ever conducted, provides a valuable snapshot of how the arts and cultural center is using social media to engage artsgoing audiences across the country. The full research report is available at http://www.theatrebayarea.org/tangledweb. Top-level findings from the research include: • All told, the 207 arts organizations in the study utilize over twenty other social networking platforms. • The average arts organization is active on three social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) and uploads 66 new pieces of content each month. • Facebook Pages that are updated multiple times per day, use a customized URL and feature a custom Welcome tab have more fans, who interact with the page more often, than those who do not. • Arts and cultural organizations that tweet more than four times per day and do not replicate Facebook content on their Twitter feed have more followers and a higher rate of engagement than others. • Venue pages on Yelp and Foursquare that have been claimed by an organization have more user engagement than those that have not. • Arts organizations who use a custom URL and a custom template for their blog have more engagement than those who do not, but overall blogs offer a very low rate of engagement regardless of format, structure or frequency.