Posted by Ann Bernard

…and what else? What’s it call? You know, come on…oh yea, Interact.  Entice me, feed my curiosity and interact with me. 

It’s doesn’t matter what aspects of the entertainment industry we talk about; doing the following three things – enticing fans, feeding their curiosities and interacting with them will lead to greater interest in your offerings and people attending shows, concerts and events. 

The internet, social media and utilization of web technologies make enticing fans, feeding their curiosities and interacting with them EASIER. It just takes a little bit of creativity and understanding of the tools that are available.

Social Media for Performing Arts: The Metropolitan Opera
Possibly one of the best organizations that’s making use of social media and strong overall marketing/promoting of their upcoming season is The Metropolitan Opera. 

Entice:  To entice a potential client/new fan is to share the experience, in this case of the opera, with them.  The Metropolitan Opera entices various audiences by offering broadcasts of their operas over a variety of mediums…to include radio and live in HD.

The Met’s new online subscription service features 13 HD videos, 37 historic TV performances, and 120 radio broadcasts delivered on demand. They certainly figured out how to deliver content to their audience when and how they want it.

Other enticing factors on The Metropolitan Opera website include a well stock picture gallery, some previews and audio highlights.  Visual and auditory features are key to sharing the experience and enticing people.

Really wish there were more previews.

Feed My Curiosity:  The Metropolitan Opera website is full of interviews, commentaries, and blog posts.  The comments are turned off on the blog posts which is very unfortunate. I also think they would do well to have more video interviews.

Visitors can definitely find the information they’re looking for and learn a lot.  If you can’t find what you’re looking for…you can always Ask Figaro!

I love this feature.  Let’s face it, operas aren’t the easiest things to understand so getting help from an expert on the topic is an excellent addition to the site, which by the way, also falls into the interact category. 

Interact:  Another interaction feature offered is the Ask Figaro Quiz “a highly un-scientific personality test to find the right opera for you!”

The Metropolitan Opera could do a little better with the interact portion of their website…they definitely could engage with their audience more by asking questions of their audience, looking for feedback and member reviews.  Adding a forum to their website would probably go a very long way to allow opera fans to interact together while participating as well. 

Parting Thoughts – What’s Completely Missing
The Metropolitan Opera is doing a pretty good job on their domain…however, there isn’t a whole lot of ways to spread the data on their domain to outside sources. 

No way to share the Metropolitan Opera trailer of Madam Butterfly or any other videos on the site.

And I have to note again – the comments are off on the blog, which is a prime method for people to interact with them.

It really isn’t that hard nor is it expensive to get involved in leveraging web technology and tools to entice, feed curiosities and interact with people.  It’s also not about doing perfectly, but at least getting started in engaging with your audience.

Filed in performing arts, social media

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