Emily Goligoski works with Federated Media’s strategic programs group and hosts a video interview series with female entrepreneurs for the Bay Area organization Women 2.0. She blogs about arts and culture in San Francisco, and you can follow her on Twitter.
As more diverse organizations dive into web marketing, for-profit organizations can learn well from their indie counterparts about experimentation and innovation online. A few notable community and arts groups have been inventive in their use of social media and truly collaborative in their outreach in ways that even the most seasoned corporate marketer can appreciate.
Among the arts and community organizations using social media thoughtfully and in big ways (which aren’t necessarily representative of their limited budgets) are independent artists and companies in photography, film, modern art, radio and craft. They’ve capitalized on the audiovisual nature of the Web to showcase the storytelling and community-building aspects of their work, and the results are worth a pass-along.
Photography
In part because of the costs associated with publishing glossy books and magazines, photography communities seem to have taken to online content sharing and promotion in greater volume than many performing arts and regionally-focused organizations. Not being limited by physical page size and printing timelines allows the creators of documentary photo sites to highlight contributor work in more timely and artistic ways, as both Vewd and Blueeyes Magazine demonstrate.
Compared to print collateral, gallery owners and crowdsourced photography publishers say they find that creating a cohesive public presence is simple when the images they present are complimentary across Flickr, their homepages, and the thumbnail versions of logos they use to identify themselves across communities. For users, being able to spend as much time as they like poring over work on sites like the still photography and multimedia showcase MediaStorm is a better professional and amateur photography viewing experience than having museum crowds push them along.
When it comes to fresh content being shared in myriad ways, contemporary online photo publisher Flak Photo has made a model of itself. Sure, it has a six day a week photo newsletter down pat, in addition to Twitter (@flakphoto) and Facebook integration, but the distinguishing factor of Andy Adams’ site is the number of opportunities it offers photographers to promote their work. Photography book reviews, sponsorships and ads, features that are co-promotional for the site and the photographers, and email submissions create a truly community-oriented site for curators, editors and photo fans.
Adams, who schedules, promotes, and publishes Flak Photo from his Wisconsin apartment, said the major benefit of forums and Facebook has been the international dialogue they inspire about the work he features. But they also make creating and distributing photography-related content more cost effective than ever before. “In trying to create something that is entirely in the form of the web, not tied to an event or a physical space, I’ve found that success has been influenced by larger monitor resolutions and high speed Internet connections as much an anything else,” Adams said.
Another photography-driven initiative, the non-profit Slideluck Potshow, has cast a similarly wide social net in their Ning network and offline event-based endeavors. In setting up community photography nights to encourage visual appreciation and arts education, they use blog content from organizers around the world, extensive photosharing, and myriad posts on local events sites to get the word out. The result is a global programming series that’s become the most well known group gathering since the Hungry for Obama dinners.
Film
One of the independent film initiatives that’s helped put crowdsourced content on the map, IndieGoGo has used myriad approaches to introduce their resources, including event-based word of mouth and a filmmaker-oriented Facebook app. In convincing producers and project coordinators to use the site as a catalyst for fundraising, the bi-coastal team of three founders created graphical navigation elements and an easily searchable film project index. The result is a set of customized tools that can be passed along across social networks to free directors and production teams up for filmmaking.
As for fine film lovers, those who expect their online hubs to be as carefully constructed as their favorite Kubrick do well by joining The Auteurs. The Palo Alto-based initiative encourages filmmakers and fans to wax poetic about their favorite techniques and themes, and the rotating web-based film festivals in the Cinematheque section serve as a great introduction to experimental work. The pay-per-view model has a broader selection base than many sites (including the internationally recognized Criterion Collection), but the portions that are most threatening from a time-suck perspective are the forums and critiques.
Beyond the startup set, The Museum of Modern Art’s film series’ diverse selections are accessible through trailers and interactive programming notes from curators on the MoMAMultimedia site. The Flash projects demonstrating printmaking and other artistic mediums are great, but the well-catalogued shorts and special exhibition videos are the most exemplary: their presentation in a clear, easy-to-use format has take-home value for e-retailers in particular.
Modern art
When Gray Area Foundation for the Arts opens its new gallery space for contemporary work in San Francisco’s Tenderloin (where it will be the first permanent space for art in the otherwise less-than-desirable neighborhood), it will already have gained awareness from hundreds of art lovers worldwide through its pre-launch messaging via Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, and partnerships with participating artists.
As part of what GAFFTA executive director Josette Melchor calls these “standard issue tactics” and virtual “cost of entry” for organizations looking to expand their visibility and networks, she will be using Vimeo and iTunes to syndicate video content that highlights exhibitions and participating artists. “As a new media arts organization, we’re excited about building collaborative and data-driven artworks that are directly informed and shaped by human data and activity,” she said. “By incorporating social media into our actual art projects, we will not only be telling a compelling real-time story, but we’re also working to make these projects pre-disposed to spread using the same platforms.”
Other upstart spaces can learn well from Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center, where the exhibits aren’t the only well-curated and organized offering available to the public. Visitors’ initial options upon visiting WalkerArt.org include “Connect,” “Join,” and “Blogs” (with content on design, education, new media initiatives, and visual and performing arts). They also publish art history and analysis podcasts on the museum’s iTunes U channel, and curators’ comments are available through the mobile system Art on Call.
While old and large organizations can be accused of not being the most innovative (you may be able to name a few), the Brooklyn Museum’s use of community-oriented tools is a great example for similarly large companies looking to provide a variety of multimedia options. Beyond engaging with photo and video content, users are encouraged to join the Brooklyn Museum Posse and explore the museum’s online collections. Comments read like college art theory class discussions, and aggregated blog posts about visits to the museum compliment podcasts and network options for friending and following the institution. The $20 annual “socially networked museum membership” 1stfans offers exclusive event invitations and access to artist-created content on the protected Twitter art feed (@1stfans). And the “Tag! You’re It!” introduction to applying keywords to images is a fun and useful introduction for first-time uploaders.
Radio
The culture show The Sound of Young America has gained traction and donations by finding low cost ways to promote “a radio show about things that are awesome” and secured a national syndication deal with Public Radio International in the process. What began with an interview show that Jesse Thorn produced in his college dorm room has grown into a set of MaximumFun.org forums, podcasts recorded at comedy festivals around the country, and a lighthearted blog. The burgeoning content network still maintains Thorn’s personality and authenticity (as evidenced by Tweets (@youngamerican) that were among the most introspective upon Michael Jackson’s death) in ways that many online self-promoters lose in building their brands.
Given the financial bind that public broadcasting currently finds itself in with corporate sponsorships drying up, Chicago Public Radio hosted a social networking challenge where 20 people completed five web-based tasks, including uploading photos of themselves in WBEZ gear and tagging them “Fivetofive” on Flickr and creating station-themed haikus for Twitter, ending in a $5,000 donation from an anonymous donor. One of the participatory challenges included having podcast and radio listeners download the same dance song and show up en masse for a dance-off in the Chicago loop. Not your traditional pledge drive, no doubt.
Craft
In addition to hosting the annual craft conference “Summit of Awesome,” the DIY network Hello Craft makes educational and promotional resources available to independent makers. It invites handmade aficionados to contribute stories about inspiration and first sewing machine purchases to its weekly podcast. When it isn’t broadcasting, Hello Craft tweets about notable work in the crafting community along with the likes of embroidery guru @SublimeStitchn and handmade hub @Etsy.
The current economic situation has brought little in the way of positive news for non-profit and arts organizations, but the resourcefulness that several groups and sites have shown in spite of increasingly smaller marketing budgets provides a great example of creative resiliency. Some artists and executive directors say using social tools to promote their efforts is “second nature,” but their willingness to sample and invest time in such a variety of tools is promising for application developers and companies who can learn from them alike.
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Vimeo Tags: Arts, community, nonprofit, social media
Sorry, but couldn’t resist a new headline take on my previous post on What Real Journalists Really Want from Public Relations, but “this just in” … 
Bookmark this:http://mediamindshare.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/what-real-pr-hr-managers-really-want-from-new-pr-hires;title=What+Real+PR+HR+Managers+Really+Want+from+New+PR+Hires">
Given the rapidly changing landscape of media and media relations these days, if there were one piece of accumulated knowledge I could pass on to young PR practitioners — or young journalists, for that matter — it would be something along the lines of what my father told me decades ago, likely on one of those Saturday mornings out in the work shed at the back of our home: “Use the right tool for the job.”
Over this past weekend, dozens of people forwarded the 