One of the primary objectives of this column is to guide you, the artist, in the use of social media as a means of self-promotion. Many singers are coming to understand how to use—and not use—these Internet tools, but opera companies have generally been slower on the uptake. Not so with Chicago Opera Theater, a company that has set the bar for using the Internet as outreach. I spoke separately with COT’s director of marketing and public relations, Colleen Flanigan, and General Director Brian Dickie (see sidebar) about Dickie’s blog and the thriving COT social media it inspired. Learn from their tactics, their history, and their open and positive attitude.
COT has everything: blogging, Twitter, Facebook, podcasts, the works. What made you embrace social media so much more than other companies have?
Colleen Flanigan: It all started with Brian’s blog. He was one of the first bloggers in the arts community, starting his in 2005. I started in the fall of 2005, and we then started a MySpace page in early 2006. I immediately went to my interns for this—we have one intern each semester. They do this in their social life anyway, so they were the perfect people to get this going. And with such a small staff here, no one else had the time.
Then after that, the rest just came. The reasons we do all of this are: One, we want to be cutting-edge, just as we are on our stages. Two, we have a very small marketing budget and needed to find cheaper ways of reaching out to people. And, finally, three, we are only “in season” six weeks out of the year. This is a way to engage our patrons [and] public outside the season.
Are you specifically targeting a younger audience?
The blog didn’t start out that way, but MySpace and Facebook certainly did. But now everyone does it—so it’s not just about the younger audience anymore.
Which of your many media tools do you feel has been most effective?
In terms of reaching people, the blog—but most of those folks are already the “converted” people who love opera or love Brian or both. But in terms of reaching out to new audiences, I think Facebook is on its way to really generating sales. The newsfeed makes using Facebook easy to reach out to the non-opera or non-theater people. Someone sees that I became a fan of Chicago Opera Theater, so they in turn might check it out, and might join themselves. And then their friends see it, etc., etc.
So is COT’s Facebook activity based on its musician page, or do you have a “personal” page for COT as well?
Musician. They took us off when we tried to do the personal. There is a ton of disagreement on that—some say engage (that’s us!); some say just create the community and let them engage among themselves. But I feel [our followers] want the “backstage” look.
So you find Facebook to be the best way to reach new people, because when one person signs up to be a fan, all their friends can see that, and then they might get curious and go look at your page for themselves.
Even better [is] when we start to send out invites and people say they are going to a show and that pops up on their newsfeed. It’s more active than just being a fan. So, we’ll send out invites to all of our fans before each opera inviting them to come and bring their friends. And they can respond to that (somewhat like [the website] Evite: yes, no, or maybe) and it’ll show up on their newsfeed.
And then their friends say, “Hey, you’re going to this thing, can I come with you?” and sign up too.
Exactly.
I’m interested in your experiences with Twitter. Have you been reaching a lot of people that way?
It’s starting much smaller—we have just under 100 followers now. But I feel [that] like Facebook, it’ll catch on more to a wider audience. And it’s very fun as well. We talk about Obama being president or a famous conductor who stopped by to meet with Brian—anything really. It’s not as “ticket-selling” focused.
Actually, that brings me back to something you just said, about giving fans a “backstage” look. That’s what’s impressed me most about your social media use—that you are really engaging users and not just using the Internet as one big season brochure.
Brian’s blog, again, started that trend. Although he will sometimes say, “It’s our gala” or “Tickets are on sale,” he mostly just talks about what’s going on. We try to do the same with the rest of the social media. Let’s just engage our fans and try to make them a part of the family. Especially our new fans. What a great (and cheap) way of getting them to stay with us when we perform just once a year.
Where do you draw the line between being honest and open with your audience and trying to not say something that reflects poorly on the company or any of your colleagues?
In terms of Facebook and Twitter, it’s easy to stay positive. There are many fun things to talk about. In terms of Brian’s blog, he’ll sometimes touch on a controversial issue, but he talks more in generalities, as all theater companies go through the same things. And, well, if a user on a message board makes fun of us—or, for that matter, another company—that’s OK, as long as it’s not vulgar. We’ve asked for reviews on Yelp, and not all of them are positive. And that’s OK. It’s the price you pay for a free society.
Do you have company guidelines about people within the company, or artists you work with, speaking out on social media about their experiences with you, including negative ones?
Not yet.
It has never come up?
Knock on wood. But now that you brought it up, it’s something to think about. But, then again, if someone says something bad about us, I bet there will be 50 people there to defend us.
That’s a really great attitude. I guess that’s why your company “gets it” where others don’t.
We try.
What about YouTube and podcasts? You can go a lot of directions with those.
Yes, we use both. It’s very low-rent right now. A board member just donated a camera to us when we said we wanted to start doing videocasts. But it’s really fun and, again, gives everyone a backstage look.
We just spent the last two days interviewing our directors and designers as well as taping the design presentation. While we won’t give as much away as what we saw, we’ll definitely get people excited about the show, whether they are going already or are thinking about it. We are doing La tragédie de Carmen—a Peter Brook reworking of the most famous Bizet work. Well, we have been getting a lot of feedback from our patrons (through surveys and telemarketing calls) that some do not want to see this because it’s a travesty to mess with Bizet. So, in that video we addressed that directly with the director to try to help people understand that’s not what this work is about. It is honoring Bizet’s work, not destroying it. Not everyone will be convinced, but what a great way to address artistic issues.
What advice do you have for other companies and artists who want to use social media to promote themselves?
First, use interns! I know this is odd to put [first], but without them, it’ll just fall by the wayside. They like to do it, they know it inside and out, and they keep it vibrant.
Second, keep it updated. Add new content as much as you can, but only add content that is relevant or interesting. Don’t write something just to write something.
Finally, don’t take yourself too seriously. This is a time for a company to let loose a bit and not be so stuffy or formal. For a great example of that, [Opera Cleveland’s] blogger is called the Opera Chicken. It’s brilliant!
