Synchronicity by Peter Westermann | Threyda.com

Engaging Art: How Threyda Deliver…

January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A picture is worth 1,000 words, common wisdom has it. So social media should make it easy for artists to share their work, right? Image galleries, slideshows, done… …except there’s much more to it than that.   Copywriters are valued for a reason and engagement, though a notorious buzz word, is widely heralded on every [...]

Social Media Icons

The Paradox of Choice: Prioritize Your…

January 20, 2012 By 2 Comments

Last  week I posted more in depth explanations of  the first two points on my original 12 point check list for developing your web presence. Today, we’ll look more at the third point on the list: establishing the priority of your online platforms and the key elements that you’ll need to focus on as you develop them. [...]

Twitter & Television

Conquering the Smaller Screen:…

February 20, 2012 By 1 Comment

This is a re-post of a guest article from Minni Kemp, originally published on a previous incarnation of this site. Having attended a Social Media Week panel on Social TV last week, I thought it about time to resurrect her observations on the rise of social media and its integration with our television experience.  Minni [...]

Conquering the Smaller Screen: Twitter’s Impact on Television

February 20, 2012 By 1 Comment

This is a re-post of a guest article from Minni Kemp, originally published on a previous incarnation of this site. Having attended a Social Media Week panel on Social TV last week, I thought it about time to resurrect her observations on the rise of social media and its integration with our television experience. 

Minni Kemp is a Midwest freelance editor and writer. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, running, and reading cheesy romance novels. You can check out her writing at Professional Intern.

I admit that I’m addicted to Twitter.

Twitter & Television

It’s like the world’s largest custom-built chat room—and as long as you cultivate a good list of people to follow, Twitter can be loads of fun. For me, it’s the easiest way to keep up on what’s going on in the world; my timeline is a busy flow of tweets from friends, coworkers, journalists, and almost all of my favorite TV shows.

Even though I rely on my DVR for about half the TV shows I watch on a regular basis, there are a few shows I insist on watching live, just so I can watch with the other folks in my Twitter feed. The real-time conversations about certain shows are often just as good as the show itself.

Now that Twitter is becoming a part of mainstream media, television shows of all types are using Twitter as another way to interact with hardcore fans and to attract new ones.

The Vanishing Fourth Wall

For some shows, Twitter can carry the action and drama beyond the small screen. Twitter accounts often do more than just offer information about the show.

There are feed for a show’s fictional characters (like Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother and his @broslife account), for its actors (Neil Patrick Harris’s @ActuallyNPH), or even for a show’s production staff (@HIMYM_CBS). Giving fans a chance to interact with each other—as well as stars or show producers—can create an interactive and personalized television experience.

 

Absence Makes the Viewer Grow Fonder

Waiting for True Blood to return to HBO  sucked, but in a good way. With @truebloodhbo, the folks behind the show keep viewers hooked with contests and sneak peeks of the upcoming fourth season.

They’ve also used Twitter to build anticipation for the new season among diehard fans and Trubie newbies. For fans of the show, it’s become part of the True Blood experience—and it eases the pain until the show comes back on the air.

Community Service

Twittizens have created online communities to tweet about their TV shows in real time. And networks have taken notice: now, several shows offer Twitter feeds for their shows, featuring some of their favorite tweets onscreen during a first-run or rerun broadcast of a show. Using tweets written by real fans is a great form of advertising for a TV show, and is sure to be cheap and more effective than network commercials or e-mail marketing. The line between interaction and advertising continues to blur, but both fans and TV shows benefit.

For a genre that was once threatened by the rise of online entertainment, television has been quick to adapt and to use the Internet to its advantage.

With social media platforms like Twitter, television has become a collaborative experience. What the future of Twitter holds for more interactive television is still up in the air, but with tweeting becoming an integral part of watching TV, the future of entertainment could become more hands-on for viewers.

 

Your Two Cents:

Do you combine your television watching with tweeting? What does it add to your experience?

How do you see social media further developing and integrating with traditional broadcast media?

Your insights are what make the difference, so please weigh in below in the comments or over on Facebook.

Expect more on the social TV phenomenon as I delve deeper into the subjects of last week’s panel. 

 

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7 Ways to Amplify Your Creative Reach on Twitter

February 3, 2012 By 3 Comments

Amplify YourselfTwitter is now firmly established as a valuable social network in its own niche. For anyone wanting to connect quickly and freely with a wide range of folks, its 140 character limits and open follow model make it the platform of choice.

Despite all of this, I still see many dismissive attitudes towards Twitter from artists. Be it the simplicity or perceived echo chamber effect of the platform, a lot of creators are missing out on a channel that offers an outstanding way to connect with new fans from all walks of life. Even those that do take the plunge tend to simply feed through updates from other social networks, creating a very robotic profile with little chance of winning new fans.

 

So what can be done?

Photo Credit: The Paradigm Shifter

First Impressions

Get over the first impression of Twitter, for a start. Yes, indeed, it starts out a pretty lonely place. Few followers, and uncertainty of how to start conversations to build a following, both contribute to the early drop out factor that can plague the network. But persevere, get over that hurdle, and really start conversing with friends, fans, and followers will flock to you in a relatively short period.

Once you get going, you’ll be eager to amplify your tweets, spreading them farther than your own core following by connecting with other groups. Here are 7 pointers to get you sharing your messages far and wide:

1. Use hashtags: In tweets you want to emphasize & share more widely, research relevant hashtags that others are already monitoring and tailor your tweet to fit that tag.

2. Spread tweets & repeats: It’s okay (and indeed important) to repeat your key tweets at different times though the day, as people are online at different times and tweets are fleeting. Tweak wording and delivery to maintain variety, but be sure your core message gets acoss.

3. Ask for help: If something is truly important, don’t hesitate to ask for a retweet or for your followers to recommend to their own following. Don’t ask too often, but don’t be scared to ask, either.

4. Retweet others. Often: When you’re asking for help from others, it helps if you’ve already done the same for them in the past. Sharing the work of others that you enjoy not only adds variety to your Twitter stream, it builds goodwill for others to do the same for you.

Twitter Bird

5. Strategic @’ing: The @ mention has a more ‘personal inbox’ feel to it for most of us, so it can be used to get the attention of someone you’d ideally like to read and share your tweet. Use it sparingly and with subtlety for promotional tweets, though, as it’s easy to cross the line into spam. This is also 10x more true if you barely know the person to whom you’re tweeting.

6. Join communities: …or build your own! Again, hashtags tend to lend themselves to communities – #oTable, #UsGuys, #TweetDiner, to name just a few – as do chats and trending topics sometimes. Find the areas that others gather and begin to participate. If the crowd gathered there is a good fit and it feels comfortable to do so, you can begin to recommend your art or content to members of these communities. In addition, you can explore tools such as Triberr, which joins you to other like-minded content producers and their followers.  

7. Interact and influence: The first and last tenet of Twitter being that the more you tweet in, the more you’ll get out. Participate on a wide range of subjects, in a wide variety of ways, to both build your following and amplify your reach in the longer term. Join in with other established influencers in fields that interest you to boost your message still further.

 

Start Building

Twitter amplification is a strange beast.

In theory, it takes a slow and steady build up of relationships and reciprocation to have a significant audience sharing your messages. In practice, the serendipity of just one well placed tweet, attached to a valuable message or content, can take off like a bottle rocket and explode into all the results you desired.

Your best bet is to follow the tips above, tweet quality regularly, and enjoy the relationships that you build…all the while anticipating that one explosive tweet that shares your glorious creativity to the world!

What ways have you found to extend the reach of your tweets?

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Engaging Art: How Threyda Deliver Stunning to Social Media

January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Synchronicity by Peter Westermann | Threyda.com

Synchronicity by Peter Westermann - Visit Threyda.com for more

A picture is worth 1,000 words, common wisdom has it.

So social media should make it easy for artists to share their work, right? Image galleries, slideshows, done…

…except there’s much more to it than that.

 

Copywriters are valued for a reason and engagement, though a notorious buzz word, is widely heralded on every social media blog from New York to New Zealand.

For artists, creating a visually stunning piece is just the first step on the road to sharing.

 

Social Success Story

Threyda, an arts collective based in Wisconsin, is one of the first visual artwork organizations that jumps to mind when I think of in terms of social savvy.

From a simple Twitter follow early last year, I’ve been prompted to move through to their Facebook page, from which I’ve regularly checked out the gorgeously presented artwork showcased on their website. Having not yet taken the plunge to buy a piece, I’m almost certain to do so at some point this year, as soon the right deal pops into my inbox via their regular, though not  annoyingly so, e-mail updates.

In summary: Threyda gets it. And they’ve got me.

 

The Whys & Hows

Caught In A Web - Fabian Jimenez - Threyda.com

For a relatively small group of independent artists, Threyda’s army of 11,000+ fans on Facebook and thousands of Twitter followers is impressive in itself.

Digging deeper, there are a number of practices that make the company a shining example to anyone seeking a wider audience for their art.

Here are just some of those best practices:

  • A Competitive Streak - Regular competitions that couldn’t be easier to enter. Post a new piece, have fans ‘Like’ the post, random winner picked. Hundreds of likes (which feeds into how often fans see their posts in the ‘Top News’ stream - more on that here) and plenty of attention for new creations, even from those that don’t win. Competitions encourage participation and return visits.
  • Adopt & Adapt – They’ve learnt along the way that each social media channel has its own potential and limitations. Initially posting to Twitter only through Facebook automation, this tweet showed their intention to adapt to a more interactive, Twitter-friendly approach. Though they still have some work to do on interacting with followers, the adoption of Twitpic and @ mentions to friends show the importance of learning and developing…
  • A Place To Call Home – Despite the many outposts, the (not so) humble website is the central hub of a web presence. These folks seem to get that, with a powerful and visually striking site that is clearly the best place to check out all the creations of each artist. The outposts of Facebook, Twitter et al then feed into this, offering tantalizing thumbnails and Twitpics of the work as a draw to view more angles and full archives back on the website, where visits can be accurately measured and sales more easily driven.
  • Call To Action – Threyda posts always let you know what their intention is. From transactional (“Save 50% at checkout”) to inspirational (“It’s never too late, go create!”), there is a reason for what they put out there and they explicitly state it at the close of their piece. Clear calls to act drive engagement and sales.
  • More Than a Feeling - Other than quoting 80′s power ballads, the reason I include this intangible quality is that Threyda create an aura around their web presence. In truth, it is principally fueled by their other-wordly artwork. But their supporting content, such as this blog reflection on a night snapshot from Cleveland, feeds into the ambiance that they exude. Aligning your style to your social media makes the whole experience feel consistent for fans across multiple platforms.

There are always new, innovative steps that we can take to develop our web presence and improve social media efforts. First, however, the foundations need to be set up strongly and the platform hierarchies clear. In looking at the web presence of Threyda, I find a solid base and flexible approach to new media that I think helps them better deliver their stunning art to the world.

 

And your good selves? What artists or collectives do you see utilizing social media channels effectively?

What aspects of Threyda’s example do you think could be improved?

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