rvaartslistdraft (4)

RVArtsList
Ashley Bruner | Mary Bruner | Vera Lukacs
Sam Campbell | Nneka Ikem | Lydia Scafidi

table of contents
Introduction
Audience
Research
1
2
3-5
RVArtsList + Groundswell
Campaign Objectives, Strategies + Tactics
Platforms
Collaboration
6
7
8-9
10
Content + Anecdotes
11-13
Campaign Analysis + Measurement Data
14-17
The Future of Socia Media
18

introduction
Richmond, Virginia is home to the currently ranked #1
public art school in the country: Virginia Commonwealth
University. With 3,000+ students currently enrolled in art
programs at VCU there is an immense and immediate
need for resources for cheaper, easier portfolio building.
The idea behind RVArtsList is this: provide a platform for
artists to search for and provide services to other artists.
Imagine this: a painting and printmaking major in her
third year has sunk hundreds of dollars into building her
portfolio, from hiring models to buying canvases. Now,
imagine a first year painting and printmaking major who
is discontinuing his studies and is thus left with canvases
and supplies he will no longer need. RVArtsList seeks
to connect these two individuals and many others who
are looking for free or discounted services and supplies.
The basis behind why we chose this topic is simple:
need. A city full of artists and art students will always
be in search of services and supplies to express
themselves. RVArtsList will fill that need.
1

audience
In developing methods of research to determine the
most effective, appropriate platforms for RVArtsList, we
had one target audience: VCU art students.
We selected VCU art students as our target audience
because we perceived them to have the most immediate
need for our community.
Though VCU art students will form the base of our audience,
we expect the community to eventually encompass
all local artists and those individuals or businesses
looking to purchase art.
2

esearch
Before we chose our social media platforms and established
our objectvies, we neeed to get an idea
of what the community wanted from us, and what
methods of communication they were already using.
We designed a 10 question survey using SurveyMonkey.
The questions measured our audience’s demographics,
wants, and needs. We also included questions designed
to evaluate which communications platforms
they were currently using, and which they preferred.
Below, we will examine the questions in further detail.
Demographics
Occupation
Age
We included two demographics questions that measured respondents’
age and how they classify themselves (artist, designer,
art enthusiast, model, curator, business owner, other)
From our results, we gathered that 90% of our respondents
are aged 18-24, and 87.5% classify themselves as “artists.”
3

Communication + Social Media Use
Three questions in the
survey pertained to respondents’
current communication
method
and their social media
use and preferences.
First, we asked respondents
how they currently
communicate with other
members of the art community.
Half of the respondents
said social media
was their preferred communication
method, while
25% said word of mouth.
Second, we wanted to
see exactly how often
our respondents’ logged
on to social media. We
found that every respondent
logged on daily,
and 77.78% of respondents
reported logging on
more than once a day.
Next, we had respondents
rank their preferred
social media. Our respondents
indicated that
their most preferred platforms
were Tumblr, Instagram,
and Facebook.
4

Wants + Suggestions
Our survey included two questions that allowed respondents to type their
answers. We used the questions to see what specific features respondents
would like to see in RVArtsList, and gather suggestions they had for the community.
Below, are listed the two questions and a selection of responses.
Question One: “What kind of features would you like to see on an online
community like this?”
“Customizable profiles, lots of features to communicate with
other artist...”
“A feature to organize collaborations, raise funds for projects,
stay updated on changes in the local art community (newspaper-esque)...”
Question Two: “In regards to creating an online community to connect
artists, do you have any comments or suggestions?”
“I would suggest deciding what area you want the community
to span. Connecting artists across the globe is an awesome
idea which great things could come from but there’s also a lot
to be said for keeping it more locally focused; really defining
those parameters I think would be a good start. Also, deciding
whether or not money will be involved (e.g. in allowing artists
to sell their work via a certain feature of the site) will play a big
role in composing the feel of the community.
“Maybe be aware of copyright stuff. I know a few folks who
have had art stolen bc they’ve posted it online. Maybe a watermark
or be able to link artwork to the artists portfolio/site?”
5

RVARTSLIST+
GROUNDSWELL
P profiles
We identified our target audience as VCU art students. We estimated
that the age range for our target audience was 18-24 years old.
The Social Technographics Profile of U.S. adults aged 18-24 indicates
that 85% of individuals in that group are “joiners.” According
to Groundswell, “joiners” are those who “participate in or maintain
on a social networking site…” (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 45).
O
There is an already strong community of artists within the VCU art
school. Our main objective with RVArtsList was to support our audience.
RVArtsList was intended to be an online community for artists to
source the supplies needed for portfolio building. We want to support
the functions that artists participate in outside of the groundswell.
S
T
Because we sought to support our audience, our strategy was
to provide a central online location for artists to congregate, engage,
and crowdsource. Although Groundswell discusses strategies
for corporations, we translated their question, “how do you
want relationships with your customers to change?” to “how do
you want relationships between audience members to change?”
We surveyed our target audience to see which social networks
they were joining. Our surveys indicated that our audience uses
Tumblr and Facebook most often, followed by Instagram and
Twitter. Because the nature of our community, we concluded
that Facebook and Twitter fit the needs of our audience.
6

objectives+ strategies+
tactics
Objective 1
Objective 1
To increase interaction between individuals in the art
community through facilitated conversations between
15% of our followers and members of RVArtsList social
media accounts.
Strategy 1.1
Harness the referent power of local
business owners and artists to increase
credibility and increase group membership
and followership.
Tactic 1.1.1
Tactic 1.1.2
Reach out to local
business owners who
are in need of art for
their space.
Facilitate conversations
on social media accounts
To increase awareness of local art-related events by
10%.
Strategy 1.1
Promote events happening in the local
art community to a following base of
local artists, art enthusiasts and business
owners.
Tactic 1.1.1
Retweet event postings
from local galleries, artists
and businesses.
Tactic 1.1.2
Tweet media and fliers
related to upcoming
events using #RVA.
7

platforms
The target audience for RVArtsList is VCU art students aged
18-24. Using the social technographics profile, we found
that 85% of people in this age group are joiners, meaning
they have and/or maintain profiles on social networks.
Our survey indicated that our audience uses the following
social networks (listed in order of most used to least used):
Tumblr
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
The social networks we chose for our community needed
to serve two functions: allow for interaction between
community members and provide a way for
us to easily repost content from relevant sources. Because
of that, we concluded that Facebook and Twitter
would best serve those needs. The next two pages
will discuss our chosen platforms in further detail
8

Facebook
Facebook tied with Tumblr
for most used social network
among our audience. We chose
Facebook for three reasons:
Facebook has the option to create
a “group” where people can
join, instead of just ‘like’ the page.
Group membership on Facebook allows
to tap the 46% of our target audience
who fall under the “creator”
category in the social technographics
profile. They are able to create and
post original content to the group.
Facebook allows members to privately
message each other and create
private event pages that will make for
an easier crowdsourcing experience.
Twitter
We chose Twitter for three
reasons:
Twitter allows us to interact
with small businesses and other
organization that could benefit
from RVArtsList members
“Re-tweeting” content from
relevant media outlets and
organizations increases
awareness of our community.
Allowed us to more easily talk
to the groundswell as an organization,
rather than moderators
of a Facebook group.
9

collaboration
To create a brand for our community, we needed to make sure that our
content was cohesive across all platforms. In order to do this we created
a content calendar that was split into two sections: twitter and facebook.
We decided on basic daily content of different categories: upcoming
events, news, interesting finds and housekeeping items (i.e. rules and
regulations). Once the content calendars were created we split the
team into two sections: Mary-Margaret, Vera and Ashley handled the
twitter account while Sam, Vera and Lydia handled Facebook posts.
The division between platforms
helped us keep content from
being repetitive. In some cases,
however, we reposted content on
Twitter that was originally on Facebook
if we deemed the content to
be appropriate for both platforms.
The division was strictly organizational,
team members collaborated
on any additional content to
be posted even it was not within
their designated platform. This especially
held true in posts relating
to upcoming events, as team members would collaborate on finding
upcoming events. For example, Ashley saw a flyer for an event at work,
and posted it to Facebook though her assigned platform was Twitter.
Facebook collaboration also included a third party: group members. The
majority of content posted to Facebook was by outside group members. The
team facilitated posts by posting relevant content to keep the page fresh.
10

content+anecdotes
Below are some screenshots and anecdotes from our experience
building and running an online community.
8 April 2015
The cuddle salon “Cuddle RVA” was set to open on Monument
avenue. Prior to its opening, social media and news outlets were
covering it like crazy. While we were scrolling down the twitter
feed we saw a tweet from them about needing art for their
walls. We retweeted their original tweet then sent them a secondary
tweet suggesting they join our Facebook group. The
owner tweeted at us to say she sent the group a request to join
and now she is officially a part of the RVArtsList Facebook group.
11

19 April 2015
We posted a poll on Facebook
asking group members if they
would attend an RVArtsList meetup,
swap meet or yard sale.
Though it was seen by 47, we only
got 11 responses. The responses
were positive, but illustrated
that group membership does not
necessarily mean the person will
actively participate -- even if its
as simple as checking a box. Engagement
with our target audience
wasn’t our main objective;
we ultimately wanted to facilitate
engagement between members.
This poll proved that our members
want the same for the group also.
12

20 April 2015
We tweeted about RVA Restaurant
Week using “#RVA” (a hashtag used
by all local news outlets and organizations)
and we were retweeted by
an organization called RVA Source
who’s bio says “Retweeting & originating
what’s happening in #RVA.” The
retweet caused us to gain 4 new followers
within the hour. It proved to us
how important it is to retweet and be
retweeted by reputable organizations
and twitters. It proved more follower-lucrative
than going through and following
people in hopes of a follow back.
13

campaign analysis+
measurement data
Facebook Summary
At the beginning of the project we struggled with getting Facebook
users to join the group. Unlike a page that you “like,”
group membership is a slightly elevated level of commitment.
You are sent a notification every time a member posts
in the group. Group membership started off slow because
we didn’t take the route of sending invites, rather we posted
about the group on other relevant pages. When we started
sending personal invites to people, group membership skyrocketed
from 10 members to 50 in the period of a few days.
Next time we are tasked with building an online community
in a Facebook group, we will definitely build our membership
base through personal invites. We learned that after we
built a base membership of around 60 members, people began
to send requests to join the group because it now had
more credibility than it had with only 10 members. The main
takeaway we drew from this experience is that, on Facebook,
credibility in the forms of “likes” or “members” is key.
We used Grytics to analyze our Facebook group engagement. Of
our 120 members, 40 are active, meaning they post, like, or comment
regularly. RVArtsList has 23 total posts, 89 total likes, and 12 comments.
Of our 23 total posts, 74% were “liked” or commented on.
14

Facebook Stats
15

Twitter Summary
Twitter proved to be difficult throughout the duration of
the project. We started out going on a following spree.
Though we followed around 150 people, we only got
about 20 follows back. After we ramped up our retweets
of other organizations and users, our followership doubled.
This project taught us that engagement on Twitter is not as easy as
you would assume. One tip we always hear about Twitter is to ask
your followers questions they’d enjoy answering. Following that
tip, we tweeted asking our followers who their favorite local artists
are. We got no responses. In the future, we will follow the tip given
to us by guest speaker Adam Crowe: if there is an existing, popular
hashtag, use it rather than creating your own. Failure to use
the “#RVA” in the majority of our posts stunted our engagement.
We analyzed our Twitter success using Twitter Analytics. Using that,
we found that our tweets earned 1.3K impressions from 13 April to
22 April. Additionally, our top tweet earned 129 impressions over a
two day period. On average, we have a 5.3% engagement rate.
The RVArtsList profile was viewed 787 times. RVArtsList is followed
by a Luis Rosenfeld (@luisrosenfeld), who has 20.6K followers.
16

Twitter Data
17

the future of
social media
The future of social media for organizations is bright, but
expensive. In the future we see more platforms adopting
a paid advertising format for business pages.
A few years ago, Facebook implemented a new system for business
pages where they must pay to serve their posts to all of
their following. Similarly, Twitter allows users to pay to promote
their posts to users who don’t follow them, but doesn’t limit the
amount of followers who can see their tweets. We believe this
will change. In the future, we see Twitter charging business pages
to serve their Tweets to all of their followers. Personal pages
will remain unchanged, but business pages will now need
to budget in order to promote themselves to their followers.
Because of this change, social media managers might see pushback
from their CEOs on budgeting money for social media advertising.
Social media managers will need to be savvy in their justification
of social media accounts and provide detailed ROI data to CEOs.
The conclusion: the lines between social media
and paid advertising will become blurred.
18