Wal-Mart on Facebook....

Social Media...

Sigh...

So I go to Wal-Mart the other day (I know you can all crucify me later) and on my receipt it says "Find Us On FaceBook!" I almost died. Wal-Mart is on Facebook.

Having big companies like Wal-Mart on Facebook makes the Not-For-Profit Arts Marketer's job more difficult. Facebook is free and efficient tool for NFP's to use to communicate with their clientele. Wal-Mart has all the money in the world. Why on earth do they need to be on Facebook? Look around you, Wal-Mart probably has ads in your local news paper, on your local television stations, billboards, on the internet, I wouldn't be surprised if they have radio ads!

Maybe I'm just crazy but I hate being spammed with Wal-Mart advertising as it is I don't need them on Facebook too. What do you think? Should major corporations have Facebook pages? Is it worth it for NFP's to try to compete with them for space in the social media world?

Social Media Marketing...Are we doing it right?

We have been talking a lot about how to use social media to market our organizations but are we doing it right? How should we measure the success of our internet marketing in dollars? clicks? fans? ticket sales? Chad M. Bauman is the Director of Communications at Arena Stage who has a fantastic blog about arts marketing issues in the United States. In his blog post "Measuring the Impact of Social Media, he poses that we measure the success of our endeavors in the "engagement levels of our online community" rather than ticket sales.

I had never really thought about social media marketing like this before, but now it totally makes sense! I think that effective social media marketing would create a place where people can go to find out what the organization is about and what it is that they do for the community who views it. Mr. Bauman refers to another blog where the writer relates using social media as only a means to sell tickets to virtual junk mail.

People are all about try it before you buy it, especially with new or unique things. If a theater company was trying to market a new play written by an unknown playwright, they might want to "sell" it by having videos of rehearsals on their page along with a biography on the playwright or director and maybe even a discussion board where people could ask the cast and director questions about the play.

What do you think? Would you rather go to a social media site for an artist that is set up solely for selling their art or would you prefer a site where you get to know the artist as a person before ever being asked to make a purchase?