Technology and Art: An Unlikely Match?

Today Lucy and I went to Spoleto Festival USA and interviewed their Director of Marketing and PR, Paula Edwards, about their use of social media and technology. She had a lot of great advice and input on the topic. She said their main task, and possibly the most difficult, was keeping up with the day-to-day of social media while also making it fit to their market. The Festival uses YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to reach consumers. She said that Facebook is great because it allows them to take their product and put it right in front of the consumer. Twitter is a little more difficult because they don't want the consumer to feel like they are being pressured to buy anything. While talking about this, she gave a really interesting statistic we hadn't heard before. 80% information, 20% promotion.  At first, we talked about how we would have thought that would be switched around, but after thinking about it more, it makes complete sense. Always trying to sell and promote will drain the consumer. Give them the information, and promotion will follow. Paula also stressed that strategy is very important when using social media. For you students out there, the advice we were given is to read and research professional blogs and keep up on it! Maintaining that online presence is one of the hardest parts. She also suggested joining professional associations and connecting with reputable people online.

As for the future, a mobile app may be in the making by Spoleto Festival USA, so keep a look out!

And be sure to look at how they're using social media and technology!
Spoleto's Facebook Page
Spoleto's Twitter
Spoleto's YouTube Channel