Kronos and the power of social media

DOTDOTDOTMUSIC's campaign on behalf of Kronos Quartet's Perspectives Series concerts at Carnegie Hall has wrapped up. With assistance from Carnegie's formidable press department, it's been a big success: all four concerts in Zankel Hall were sold out. A superb NY Times 'Arts & Leisure' article by Steve Smith certainly helped ticket sales. But one of the most striking things we encountered in working with Kronos was the group's commitment to social media, a priority shared by Carnegie Hall as well. At the outset of the project, we worked together to identify sources of web-friendly content -- in this case, a series of short videos created by Kronos. These were deployed early and often through the Kronos Facebook and Twitter feeds -- and retweeted by us, among many others. With a high percentage of single-ticket buyers in the group's demographic, these efforts were arguably crucial.

What to do if your ensemble or festival doesn't have a dedicated marketing/social media person? Or if you've never held a video camera? DOTDOTDOTMUSIC can advise you on first steps or next steps to help you raise your social media profile. Many of these are quite simple -- for example, is your Facebook link hidden on the "Contact" page of your website? -- others, a little more sophisticated. But there's one social media strategy that's unlikely to help artists: ignoring it entirely. Here's an interesting analysis of Facebook's demographics. Note the tremendous growth in the 35-54 range...