Good morning! This will be a quick one. I recently saw a news article via my friends at Twitter:
Texting at a Symphony? Yes, but Only to Select an Encore
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/arts/music/16text.html
As you can see, this article was in the New York Times for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. They Twittered because they were excited they received the coverage. The story was about their audience participation smarts where the conductor instructed people to take out their cell phones and text vote for which encore they wanted to hear. Pure audience participation and audience development!
Not only was this news worthy for the New York Times, but I have a feeling that the audience was thrilled to be a part of the programming for the evening. The excitement to find out if your encore won also adds to the evening, and the concert will end on a bang with the audience very satisfied that they were a big part of the concert.
So, still not sold on audience development? If it gives you a chance to get covered in the New York Times, maybe you should be!
Until next time, may your audiences be happy and loyal ones, and if they are not, feel free to contact me!
~Shoshana~
Shoshana Fanizza is the founder of Audience Development Specialists. Her mission is to introduce artists and arts organizations to their existing and potential audiences and to help them to form more rewarding relationships.
http://www.buildmyaudience.com
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