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Turn to the person next to you and complete this sentence: One of my most embarrassing moments ever was...

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It’s these shared human experiences that are the true connection points between us. Human experiences are the basis of conversation. Conversation then leads to trust.

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As I was planning this session, I returned to the core definition of conversation. This is something I like to do, in order to get back to the essence of a word and away from my misconceptions of it. What stood out about all the definitions of “conversation” I read were these key elements:

Between 2 people or small group of people

Informal

Exchange

Sentiments, observations, opinions

This is exactly what we want happening between us and our audiences, and amongst our audiences about our art. An informal exchange fuelled by – and in an environment conducive to – sharing of sentiments, observations and opinions.

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On Sunday I was listening to a live stream from the Opera America Conference 2014 in San Francisco. My friend and colleague, cultural researcher Alan Brown, was speaking on Achieving Civic Impact, and one thing he said was:

“People who engage in conversation after artistic experiences report higher impacts. Engaging audiences is absolutely strategic.”

I’ve become very interested in how digital content can facilitate this.

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In the wider world, beyond the arts sector, there has been a fundamental shift in how organisations engage with their customers and prospects. If you recall, organisations used to primarily sell. They would promote their product, service or brand via advertising, seeking to match benefits with customer needs. “Do you wish that you could remove that soap scum off your shower without a fight?’

Many organisations still do this. But now the more forward thinking companies are using another method.

Content. Content marketing is the buzz word right now and is seen to be one of the most important digital trends of 2014. Once you realise this, you see it everywhere.

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“Content marketing is really about providing valuable information or content to current and potential customers for the purpose of building trust, branding, awareness, and positive sentiment.” – Forbes.com

The Forbes article goes on to explain that successful content marketing campaign establishes you as an expert in your field, and simply put, its primary focus is on building the relationship, not the hard sell.

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Types of content that typically form a content marketing strategy include...

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Why is content marketing suddenly the thing?

Well, look at the context.

People (the recipients of the aforementioned advertising) have become overloaded with information, jaded and discerning. They can see straight through advertising. More from the Forbes piece: “While consumers continue to tune out traditional, intrusive marketing communications, they increasingly crave the type of genuine, customer-focused information that content marketing delivers.” Gen Y and Millenials in particular have been bombarded by advertising claims their entire lives. Not only don’t they believe them, they’re suspicious of the companies that make them.

Attention spans are supposedly declining "If we spend our time flitting from one thing to another on the web, we can get into a habit of not concentrating," - Ted Selker, MIT (Massachussetts Institue of Technology). This has led to visual content being more easily able to capture people’s attention. And technology is enabling the telling and sharing of stories. We can all now make and share video. We can all now create and share images instantly. We can view video and images. Anywhere, because we’re now mobile. Optimiser pilot: On average, visits by via mobile phone increased by 40.17% and via tablet by 55.24%.

Content marketing is a response to a more sceptical and information-overloaded public with tools at their disposal to create, view and share content anywhere and

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any time.

What’s exciting about this trend for us?

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Well, we are in the business of telling stories, right? If we’re not telling them ourselves on stage, screen or gallery, we’re facilitating others to tell theirs.

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And we have content! Boy do we have content. We have the sort of content at our disposal that corporates can only dream of. Works of art, dancers, sets, buildings, music, written words, stunning images. And not only that but we can source and create ”content about our content” – more on this in a moment. We can tell the stories of the artists who created the works of art that are stories in themselves.

The art we love and promote requires truth, courage and honesty. And using content, particularly that which tells the human stories behind our organisations, feels like a more truthful, courageous and honest way of connecting with our audiences than “orthodox marketing”.

And as we discussed, real human stories are what facilitate conversations.

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So...

We have content.

We’re in the business of telling stories.

And we have audiences who want to tell their own stories.

Where’s the opportunity?

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A quick, but relevant, aside. What do people get from being on Facebook?

In a 2011 study of about 300 college students, Cornell University researchers found that students who were asked to look at their own Facebook page for just three minutes showed a boost in self-esteem compared with control groups who either looked in a mirror or simply sat in a room for three minutes.

The researchers theorize that we might get that ego lift because we self-select the information we include in our Facebook profiles and post on our walls. Looking at that Photoshopped version of ourselves — our favorite flattering photos, our witty comments and musings on our recent vacation — reinforces the version of ourselves who we want to be and can have a positive effect on our self-esteem. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/03/cover-facebook.aspx

A Facebook profile is something that is deeply personal and reflects the view we have of ourselves and we want the world to have of us. I love the care with which people select their profile and cover images and the reactions they get in terms of likes and comments when they change them.

Where do you think the opportunity lies for us in this desire by our audiences “craft their own image” on their personal Facebook pages and other social media accounts?

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How can we find the content and stories in and around our art, organisations and audiences that facilitate that human connection?

First it’s about understanding what content we have to share and knowing there is likely to be more than we think we have. Then about creating a safe environment for our audiences to connect with this content and share their own content, experiences and stories.

When I’m working with arts organisations on digital strategy and social media planning, what do you think is one of the most common things I hear?

“We have nothing to talk about.”

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It’s why social media engagement for annual Festivals goes like this.

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Lindsey Schofield of Festival of Colour (who’s leading another of the breakout sessions right now) said this to me, and I said “woah”. Once she got started, the ideas of content kept coming – what’s happening in the planning phase, stories of local sponsors, the photos of Wanaka, local events, what the artists who came to the Festival are doing now, stories of the volunteers and then ultimately the role of being curator of quality arts in Otago.

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I decided to give myself five minutes on the flight down to brainstorrn as many content ideas I could think of that could relatively easily generated by the average arts organisation.

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There are so many content opportunities and stories around our organisations.

In the social media world, conversation translates to engagement – likes, comments and shares. How about some real life examples of content from artists and arts organisations that did provoke conversation?

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