A survey of Web 2.0 and the performing arts

Is the presenting arts world ebracing Web 2.0 and social networking as tools for audience development? That's what we wanted to know, so we put a survey in the field, and got back some interesting results. In summary, it appears the arts world is slow to incorporate many of the new tools available, but is eager to do so. No big surprise, I guess.

The survey went out to subscribers to the Association of Performing Arts Presenters marketing list serve. Forty-two people responded, representing a good cross section of arts presenters (a near-even split between organizations with annual operating budgets under $5K, $5K-2M, $2M-$5M and over $5M).

Ninety-two percent use email marketing and the same number sell tickets online.

Web 2.0? Not so much. Twenty-one percent use blogs, but no more than five percent use patron performance reviews, e-groups, e-vites, forums, personal patron profiles or classifieds.

But they want to. On a one-to-five scale, one being "not valuable at all" and five being "very valuable," five of the seven tools we surveyed averaged a response of three or better. In order, they were: groups,3.63%; e-vites, 3.59%; forums, 3.42%, reviews, 3.35%; blogs, 3.26%; personal profiles, 2.32%: and classifieds, 2.18%.

Several organizations mentioned anecdotally that they have profiles on social-networking sites like myspace or Facebook.

And a few survey respondents provided valuable comments:

"The more we can use methodology to engage our audiences and extend the experience beyond simply sitting in the theatre attending a show, thebetter. Pre- and post-show events, lectures, receptions, interactive activities, kids nights, behind-the-scenes opportunites, etc."

"We have actually developed a series, completely separate from our standard season sponsored events, to target young adults (and students). We are marketing the series exclusively with social networking tactics. I think in the future these strategies will become increasingly important--most especially, with developing audiences that are younger..."

"We are a presenting, multi-genre PAC. I think blogs, etc, WOULD benefit arts producers like ballet and opera co's, symphonies, rep theatres, etc. But not beneficial to us, because I see only very limited crossover of our buyers from country to classical, acrobatics to Irish, or even ballet to modern dance, even though I've spent LOTS of bucks trying to get them to do so."

"This is long overdue! Nonprofit orgs don't have the resources to independently hire computer programmers to make this possible, so somebody needs to become a comprehensive contractor right away!"

Thank you to everyone who responded to the survey. It's still open, if you'd like to participate. Click here to take survey.