Social Media - Noise v Content

This month Audiences North East held its annual subscribers’ event Social Media – Noise v Content at Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle, attended by 50 participants from across the cultural sector in North East England. We invited Mike Ellis, one of the UK’s leading digital media experts, to provide guidance on how to develop arts and cultural audiences online by creating great content, not just making noise. Mike started his career at Waterstone’s online then went on to conceive the SXSW-winning game Launchball, re-launch the core Science Museum website, as well as having key management roles in many major web initiatives, including www.ingenious.org.uk, www.danacentre.org.uk, and www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk. Following seven years as Head of Web at the National Museum of Science and Industry, and a stint with Eduserv, Mike is now freelance and has just published his first book Managing and Growing a Cultural Heritage Web Presence.

And wow was he good - geeky AND a great communicator!  By the end of the event he had shown us how to engage users without spending forever doing it; be better informed about what social media approaches to use and when; and understand return on investment a bit better. He outlined his five-step approach to developing a social media approach:

1.            Listen and learn

2.            Define your audience 

3.            Plan

4.            Engage and refine

5.            Measure

(Rinse and repeat 1 – 5.)

Two of his slides stood out for me – the first being a picture of a galaxy with the huge planets in which the public (ie potential audiences!) interact eg Facebook, Google, eBay, YouTube,  msn, Wikipedia and Twitter and way off in the distance a tiny, tiny planet marked ‘your site – here’. This emphasised the need for organisations to move from ‘site’ to ‘presence’ - where we encourage, support, enable our communities and, from this, build advocacy. Don’t market but become part of people’s lives.

Secondly, there was an almost collective sigh of relief amongst the participants when he showed how to synthesise a long list of desired outcomes for potential digital engagements into three broad areas of activity to underpin a web strategy. It was the sort of thing that organisations struggle with and this showed how to be strategic, holistic and do stuff for a reason.

Mike also provided case studies of good and not so good examples from within and outside the cultural sector and useful links for social media policies, social media monitoring and inspirational blogging ideas.

I suppose the proof of the pudding is in the eating and feedback from participants shows that Mike’s guidance has propelled them forward with examples of them claiming their Google place, setting up Google alerts, drafting a web strategy and even investing in a Smart Phone.

I couldn’t blog about this event without mentioning our host Tyneside Cinema, currently celebrating its 75^th year. Having this year won the worldwide Shorty Award for Best Cultural Institution on Twitter, Tyneside Cinema is continuing its trailblazing path through media communications, which began in the 1930s with daily screenings of the latest newsreels. At our event the Cinema excelled itself with provision of superb customer service. Michael Chaplin’s recent illustrated book on the Cinema’s story Come and See, a lovely artefact and really engaging read, is available direct from Tyneside Cinema priced £9.99 and all good retailers for £15.99.

Alison O’Hara, Chief Executive

Audiences North East