Johnathan Branson , Audience Development Manager, Audiences Central

1. An introduction to a number of free online tools and resources that can help support future audience development activity within arts, cultural and heritage organisations. The session will focus on data collection, internal and external communications and social media. Johnathan Branson, Audience Development Manager, Audiences Central

2. What is Audience Development? “The term audience development describes activity which is undertaken specifically to meet the needs of existing and potential audiences and to help arts organisations to develop on-going relationships with audiences. It can include aspects of marketing, commissioning, programming, education, customer care and distribution. The term ‘audience’ encompasses attenders, visitors, readers, listeners, viewers, participants and learners.” - Arts Council England, March 2010

3. Broad term • State of mind • Specific way of working • Not just something that gets added on at the end • Includes all areas of the business • It doesn’t have to be difficult or extra work • It’s about working smarter, not harder

4. Focus of this session • Google Documents - Forms (online surveys/data)- Calendar (clash diary/planning)- Maps (data/planning) • Wordpress (website build and hosting) • Tweetdeck (social media/marketing)

5. Other useful tools • Basecamp (project management software) • Survey Monkey (online survey/questionnaire software) • Mailchimp (online survey/questionnaire software) • Joomla (Content Management software) • Audacity (podcast software) • http://sourceforge.net (thousands of free tools)

6. Google Forms can help you easily gather information from a large number of people without having to send and receive multiple emails

7. Features • Design your own online questionnaire(s) • A range of templates • Embed it within a website or email • Collates findings into an online spreadsheet • Export to Excel • Provided with a basic summary of findings • Integrated with other Google software

8. Benefits • Collect and control your own audience data • Use forms to evaluate projects, visitor experiences, get sign ups to your mailing lists • Add/remove questions - update with ease • Share widely via on/offline marketing materials • Access from anywhere (cloud computing)

10. Google Calendar is a free time-management web application offered by Google

11. Features • Overlay multiple calendars • Integrate with your email system • Interoperable with popular calendar applications • Openly share or password protect • Access with your mobile device • Publish a calendar to make it searchable • Embed into web pages • Links with other Google software

12. Benefits • Access from anywhere (cloud computing) • Increase existing sites functionality • Useful for: • Internal planning • Programming • Project/partnership work • Marketing • Clash diary

14. Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google

15. Features • Street, satellite and map views • Journey planner, route finder • Fully editable; add pins, places, import postcodes • Private and public options • Multiple contributors • Embed questionnaires, video, audio, images, links

16. Benefits • Helps search engine optimisation • Embed maps in your site / improve functionality • Helps audiences plan how to get to you • Find out where your audiences are coming from by importing postcodes from your database • Identify existing arts and cultural provision • Identify gaps in provision

18. WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time

19. Features • Set up and build a website within a few minutes • Simple, easy to use interface (like Word) • Large online community (support) • Includes powerful features; comments, stats, plugins • Hundreds of free templates • Integrates with Facebook, Twitter, RSS, Google Docs (maps, forms)

20. Benefits • Useful for specific projects if you don’t have control over your own site • Can have multiple collaborators with various permission levels • Can be used as a public facing site / password protected project space • Access a range of stats to inform approaches • Increase online presence

22. TweetDeck is your personal real time browser, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Buzz and more

23. Features • Update Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn,Google Buzz and Foursquare • Manage conversations • See what's hot with trends • Integrated LinkedIn for your professional contacts • View YouTube videos within TweetDeck, and record and share video clips

24. Benefits • Save time managing lots of social media accounts • Use ‘trends’ to inform marketing • Manage the interface to meet your needs

25. “I like that I can move the columns around depending upon what I need to keep any eye on. E.g. when we opened booking for Matilda in London, I moved all Matilda searches to the front, so I could keep an eye on what was being said. This allowed me to pick up on some rumours that were spreading across Twitter (e.g. the waiting time on the phones was 7 hours) and post tweets with the correct information” • Amy Clarke, Royal Shakespeare Company “I like that you can easily set up different columns to monitor various things. I have set up a column to view all of BCMG’s friends, a column to keep track of BCMG mentions via twitter, one to monitor direct messages, and one to keep an eye on current UK trends in twitter” - Tim Rushby, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

27. Top Tips • Practise personally before professionally • Join online discussions • Don’t be afraid to ask for help • Don’t do use a certain tool just because everyone else is • Look how other organisations are using these tools

28. Questions

29. Thank You Johnathan Branson Audience Development Manager Audiences Central Johnathan.branson@audiencescentral.co.uk 0121 6852620