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A N N U A L R E P O R T

exploring the intersection of arts management and online technology

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Technology in the Arts, a research initiative of the Master of Arts Management

(MAM) program at Carnegie Mellon University’s H. John Heinz III College,

provides the arts community with resources to better understand and

benefit from the intersection of arts and technology in order to make more

informed management decisions in an increasingly technological society.

Mission

2 | T E C H N O L O G Y I N T H E A R T S A N N U A L R E P O R T

T E C H N O LO G Y I N T H E A R TS S H A L L

Provide a forum for discussion at the intersection of

arts and technology through blog posts, webinars,

lectures, podcasts and social media

Present cutting-edge research on current trends and advances

in the use of technology in the arts

Explore the role of technology in the artistic process

Be a leading resource for the arts and technology communities

Share best practices in the field

Brad StephensonCo-Director of Technology in the ArtsSenior Web Media & Marketing Manager, Heinz College

Kathryn HeidemannCo-Director of Technology in the ArtsDirector, Master of Arts Management Program, Heinz College

T E C H N O L O G Y I N T H E A R T S A N N U A L R E P O R T | 3

Sean Bowie@seanbow

Sean is a lover of the arts and a first year Master of Public Policy and Management DC-track student here at Heinz College. Sean is from Phoenix, Arizona and counts sensible public policy, sunny weather and a good play on his list of favorite things.

Andre Bouchard@andreintransit

Andre has a BA in Anthropology and a BFA in Dance from the University of Montana. In 2001 he founded Walrus Performance Productions and in 2006 opened the Walrus Theater in Seattle WA and ran them until 2009. He was Ticketing and Publicity Manager and then the Managing Director for the Black Box Theatre at Edmonds Community College in Edmonds, WA from 2008-2011. He also presents at conferences on the topics of low cost marketing and audience development.

Elizabeth Quaglieri@equaglieri

Elizabeth is pursuing her Master in Arts Management at Carnegie Mellon University. A recent college graduate, Elizabeth has been involved with various arts communities and organizations. Her interest in urban revitalization through the arts in a product of her undergraduate training in Art History, specifically in architecture and landscape studies; her research interest in the accessibility of the arts to all demographics; and her involvement with the vibrant arts community in her home city of Portland, Maine. Off campus and off the clock, Elizabeth enjoys discovering local artists, architectural gems, and splendid landscapes.


Naina Singh@naisingh

Naina is a first year Master of Arts Management student at Carnegie Mellon University. Before coming to CMU, Naina studied Management, Art History, and Italian at Indiana University Bloomington. Naina’s interests lie in the realm of strategic consulting for arts organizations and the visual arts. She is also interested in studying the role of arts and cultural organizations in shaping societal and global values. She has had prior work experience at Religare Arts Initiative, an arts organization in New Delhi, where she was the gallery and social media intern. Naina enjoys visiting museums, art fairs, galleries, and believes that everyone else should too!

Rachael Wilkinson @rewilkin

Rachael is a first year Master of Arts Management student at Carnegie Mellon University. She recently completed a Bachelor of Arts in Arts Management at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her interests include social media and art museums, which is reflected in her previous experiences at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa and the Andy Warhol Museum. In her spare time, Rachael enjoys organic farming and cooking for her friends.

Terry Boyd@boydleservice

Terry is a recent graduate from Carnegie Mellon’s Arts Management program. He is currently self employed as a free-lance consultant in data-driven marketing and social media strategy.

The TitA Team


“...this post was amazing, nicely written and included all vital infos.

I’d like to see more posts like this.”

5authors

176 blog posts this year ( +22.2% )

776total posts ( + 29.3% )


REACH ACTION ENGAGEMENT EXTEND

Blog and Key Performance IndicatorsTechnology in the Arts relies heavily on web and social media analytics for impact measure-

ment and mission fulfillment.

VALUE CHAINThe customer value chain closely resembles a purchasing funnel used in marketing. Digital media benchmarking for a nonprofit blog can be divided into four, measurable levels of interactions (Figure I).

The process illustrates an individual’s progression, starting at blog awareness and ending in advocacy.

As the stages of the value chain advance, they require an extended level of partici-pation from a viewer, each of which can

be tracked and standardized. The next page is an analysis of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) identified by Technology in the Arts. These critical success factors validate the organization’s mission and objectives as an arts community resource

BLOG HIGHLIGHTSThe following posts were the most viewed articles for 2011/12:

Sean Bowie’s The Most Artistic City in America received 1,333 page views and was shared 66 times.

Naina Singh’s Pinterest, Instagram and Percolate: The Latest in Social Media received 1,133 page views and was shared 48 times.

Rachael Wilkinson’s Crowdfunding for the

Arts received 923 page views and was shared 40 times.

Ashley Paulisick’s A Visitor’s Experience: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Smartphone Apps in Art Museums received 836 page views and was shared 47 times.

Figure I • Social media value chain


Reach estimates number of eyes the blog captured over the course of the year. VISITSA visit is the action of a uniquely defined individual looking any of TitA’s pages within a session. The number refers to the single action, not the individual events associated with browsing a page. This year, Technology in the Arts’s blog was visited 102,182 times, increasing 69.4% from 2010/11 (Figure I).

PAGE VIEWSA view is the total number of web pages browsed during a visit. TitA was viewed 157,616 times this year, 63.2% more than 2010/11 (Figure II).

NEW VISITORS74% of the people who visited the Technology in the Arts blog were first time users (Figure III). New visitors are important becasue they are quintessential to the expansion of the blog’s reach and follower aquisition.

Technology in the Arts acquired about 75,590 visitors, 78.8% more than the previous year.

Once Technology in the Arts captures a browser’s viewership, the next step in the customer value chain is making a call-to-action. These actions quantify a visitor’s interests.

CLICK-THROUGH RATE (CTR)CTR measures the percentage of people who have clicked on an image or link within a post then divides it by the total amount of impressions (views). There

are two URLs on Technology in the Arts’ blog that the organization monitors, the Home Page banner and the About TitA menu link.

The Home Page banner is monitored because it is a visitor’s portal to all the content available on the blog. The homepage’s CTR was 3.17%, doubling last year’s rate.

About TitA should also be tracked because the page acts as a gateway to additional information about the Master of Arts Management Program. One of the goals of Technology in the Arts is to raise aware-ness for the MAM program while funnel-ling click-streams to the admission page. This past year, only 828 people clicked

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Figure I • Number of unique page visits by month

Figure III • New users out of total visits

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Figure II • Number of recurring page views by month


through to the About Page, earning a CTR of 0.81%.

PAGE VIEWS PER VISITPage views per visit measures how far a unique user is willing to explore a site in a single session. The TitA reader visits an average 1.54 pages per session. Although the site increased its reach by 41,847 visitors, their readership decreased 3.14% from the previous year.

Engagement monitors how users interact and communicate with Technology in the Arts’ content . Unlike actions, engagement builds user loyalty and dependency.

TIME SPENT ON SITETime spent on site helps TitA understand if the 102,182 visitors are actually reading the articles posted on the blog. On average, a visitor spends approximately 3 minutes and 37 seconds on the site, which is an increase of 1 minute and 37 seconds from 2010/11.

TOTAL COMMENTSComments increased by 3.17%, totalling at 228 for the academic year. BOUNCE RATE Bounce rate is a percentage metric that measures how many people visit a page and leave it without clicking anything. Although somewhat high, the bounce rate decreased 0.07% from last year at 72.9%.

We can better understand the overall sentiment and quality of the blog’s content without reading too deep into the comments. By following shares, we can tangibly measurable Word of Mouth (WOM).

REPEATING VISITORS Repeating visitors are the number of people who continue to use the site. This year, we saw a increase in retention rates for new visitors.

19.99% of new visitors 2010/11 converted to returners in 2011/12. Returners increased by 46.2% at 26,735 visitors (Figure IV).Technology in the Arts nearly exceeded all web industry standards and continues to trend upwards.

Both the increases in visits and page views show member cultivation and suggest that TitA’s audience base is growing. The growth rate is steady with a few excep-tions in the months when school is out of session, notably the summer.

Conversion Rate (CR) is similar to click-through rate but the clicks are compared to visits instead of impressions. Conversion rates are the simplest metrics to monitor web goals. A healthy CR is around 2%, and although the Home Page scored well, the About Us page fell short of the recommended mark (and the Master in Arts Management link inevitably scored lower).

In the future, Goal setting with in the

Google Analytics page can be utilized to set target URL destinations to track Heinz College links across all pages (not just limiting it to About Us).

Another unmonitored URL is the mailing list form. Not only should TitA monitor lead conversions, but the email registra-tion bounce rate as well.

Although Technology in the Arts saw a small a decrease in bounce rates. This tells us that people are more willing to read on after they’ve finished visiting their initial article. TitA’s 72.9% sits below the blog industry average of 80%, showing loyalty within the blog’s reader base. From a conversion optimization standpoint, the more Technology in the Arts can lower its bounce rate, the better opportunity we have to convert visitors to depend-able patrons.

Comments are important because they are a way for Technology in the Arts to improve our Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The more comments the blog receives, the more opportunities there are to backlink and direct traffic to more goal orientated pages about the MAM program.

Comments also help TitA solidify our reputation as an informative and trusted resource. Social proof suggests that the more comments an article has, the more willing a visitor is to accept that the content is a valid and a leading source.

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Figure IV • New users and returners over time

EXTENSION

ENGAGEMENT

SUMMARY AND IMPROVEMENTS


Facebook

PAGE VIEWS AND LIKESPage views refer to the number of users logged into their Facebook (FB) account who have visited the Technology in the Art’s Timeline. The Page has been viewed 3,538 times since its creation in 2010 (Figure V).

2,833 people have publicly Liked TitA’s Page, 22.4% more than the previous year.

FB REACH AND IMPRESSIONS Reach is the daily number of people who have seen any content associated with TitA’s Page (Unique Users). TitA’s 2011/12 reach was 136, 593, averaging 457 people per day.

An impression is each instance a unique user sees content associated with TitA’s Page. Technology in the Art’s posts received a total of 463, 524 impressions, averaging 1,550 per day (Figure IV).

POST LIKES The “like button’ allows a FB user to publicly show their approval of content without having to write a comment. This year, TitA’s posts received 270 likes.

BLOG CLICK THROUGH RATE7,488 clicks were made on Facebook that redirected a user to Technology in the Arts’ blog posts.

“TALKING ABOUT US” Talking about us is the number of people who share stories about the TitA page. These stories include page likes, wall posts, commenting, sharing, mentioning the page or tagging a photo. 1,240 people were talking about TitA on Facebook in 2011/12. (Figure VII)

COMMENTSOn Facebook, TitA earned 112 comments on content posted to the Page’s wall and timeline.

Aside from Google and organic searches, Facebook serves as Technology in the

Arts’ largest traffic source.

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Figure V • Page views by month with trend line

Figure VI • Impressions and reached by month with trend line

Figure VII • “Talking About Us” metric by month

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SHARESA share is when a Facebook user republishes Technology in the Arts’ content to their FB friends. This year, TitA’s posts were shared 63 times.

VIRAL REACHViral Reach is the number of people who saw TitA’s Page or one of their posts from a story published by a friend. These stories include liking, posting to our wall, liking/commenting/sharing a posts, mentioning the page or tagging a photograph. TitA virally reached 33,721 people this year.

Facebook is the primary distribution channel for Technology in the Arts.

Although our “likes“ and “talking about us” are moving in a positive direction ,Technology in the Arts’ impres-sions and reach look to be diminishing. Again, this may be attributed to the blog’s absence during academic breaks but the social presence can still be improved.

One goal for Facebook should be to improve their EdgeRank, the algorithm that determines what a user sees in their news feed. The relevancy of a post by Technology in the Arts is determined by an affinity-score and existing social interactions. This score can be “gamed” by implementing certain post tactics that further encourage engagement:• Posting media-rich content • Using various types of posts for a sustaining user

experience• Monitoring when TitA’s Facebook fans are most active

EXTENSION


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Twitter statistics are difficult to pull retroactively. A URL shortener, either through Hootsuite or bit.ly would allow Technology in the Arts to better gauge their Twitter followers’ actions. Not only would the URL shortener give TitA data on who’s clicking the links, but it would also give them information on who is tweeting the link on their own.

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Figure X • Hashtags


TwitterTwitter doesn’t offer any analytic tools but is looking to release an insights appli-

cation within the next few months. Some of the following data sets are partially

incomplete due to Twitter’s REST API rate limit.

FOLLOWERSA follower is someone on twitter who has subscribed to Technology in the Arts’ account. Currently, 6,844 people follow the TitA on Twitter, an increase of 28.5% from last year (Figure VIII).

TWEETS@Techinthearts sent out 671 tweet this year (Figure IX), increasing their total to 1,943 (52.8%). Post volume decreased 29.2% from the previous year.

BLOG CLICK THROUGH RATETwitter was responsible for 3,923 views on the Technology in the Arts’ blog.

MENTIONSA mention is a Tweet that contained the Technology in the Art’s username (@techinthearts). Starting in November, Technology in the Arts was publicly mentioned 495 time on Twitter by other users.

LISTSA Twitter list is a curated group of users that allows an individual to cluster people into segments. TitA belongs to 528 public lists.

RETWEETSA retweet (RT) is when a Twitter user republishes TitA’s original content to their pool of followers. Technology in the Arts was retweeted 65 times since November. These were public retweets, not through the official Twitter retweet button.

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Figure IX • Tweet volume by month

Figure VIII • Followers and follows

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Chad Bauman, Dir. of Communication at Arena Stage Confessions from an Arts Marketer - Learning from the Past, Looking Towards the Future

Chad has served as a chief marketing and communications officer for some of the nation’s most prestigious non-profit arts organizations, and as a sought after consultant, has advised complex institutions on strategic planning and organizational communication. His lecture discussed how his failures lead to his many accomplishments and successes.

Ashley Paulisick, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, LondonDownload. Check-in. Tweet: Mobile Technology & Art Institutions

Many visual art institutions are delving into mobile technology as new means of distrib-uting their content. This lecture covered highlights, anecdotes and fact & figures gathered during Ashley’s visit to several European and American mobile-friendly institutions and interviews with professionals who’ve created their respective mobile projects.

Stephanie Pereira, Art Program Director, Kickstarter Funding Creativity in a New Era

Kickstarter is the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects, most recently estimated to provide more funding than the National Endowments for the Arts. This lecture discussed how Kickstarter projects come to life: their structure a project, rewards, and other helpful tips and valuable statistics. Stephanie also delved into crowd funding trends that use this technology and how it has impacted the arts management field as a whole.

Lecture SeriesTechnology in the Arts worked closely with Carnegie Mellon University’s Masters

in Arts Management program and their MAM Speakers Series, bringing in three

distiguished lecturers who are all involved in the digital advancement of the arts

community.


Download - Tech in the Arts Annual Report

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