Encouraging Your App Subscribers to Get Social

The Social screen in your mobile app's At-The-Event module enables your app subscribers to post photos and text messages about the event and respond to each other's content.  The Social screen aggegates posts from the In-app form as well as posts to Instagram and Twitter featuring the event's hashtag.

To post to the Social screen, the app subscriber taps on the pencil icon and selects the platform they would like to use to share their content.

Example: The Social screen for Berkeley Repertory Theatre's production of Party People.

Simply providing the tool, however, does not mean that your app subscribers will use it.  So how can you encourage your audience to engage via social media when they are at your performance?

Put Your Patrons in the Picture 

Culture Track 2014 recently surveyed patrons to determine how they use their mobile devices while attending cultural events.  The most popular activities among respondents were taking photos (66%) and sharing photos (47%).  Some arts organizations are rightfully concerned about copyright issues and the potential for disrupting a performance.  So, here are some ideas for encouraging photo taking and sharing while simultaneously protecting copyright and the integrity of the live performance.

• Selfie Campaigns - "Selfies" are photographs that mobile users take of themselves and their friends using their smartphones or tablets. Selfie campaigns have emerged among arts organizations as a way to galvanize social media participation among audiences.  Selfie campaigns encourage patrons to take photos of themselves and their friends at your event and post it to social media with a corresponding hashtag.
• Both Twitter and Instagram allow mobile users to post pictures from their devices, which makes it easy for your app subscribers to post photos to the Social screen.
• Promote the selfie campaign on-site with signage in public spaces and a mention in your printed program  
• Promote the selfie campaign within the app by (1) using the Spotlight Text area on the Info screen, (2) including it as one of the items in Things to Know (see the example below), and/or (3) linking from the Info screen to a custom tab describing the campaign.
• Consider incentivizing selfie campaigns by offering participants a chance to win a backstage tour, a chance to meet the artists, tickets to upcoming shows, etc.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra incentivized participation in their selfie campaign by offering
participants the chance to win a VIP table for 4 at an upcoming event.

• Selfie Stations - Take your selfie campaign to the next level by setting up "selfie stations" where patrons are encouraged to take pictures of themselves and their friends with artists, background images, or props featured in the event.
  
  Example: For their production of A Christmas Story, The Musical, Dallas Summer Musicals created a selfie station with a cardboard cut-out of the character Ralphie and the show's iconic leg-shaped lamp.  The station also featured a background with DSM's logo.

Audience members took pictures with a cardboard cut-out of the main character and an iconic
prop at the Dallas Summer Musical's production of A Christmas Story, The Musical.

• Volunteer Selfie Takers - Sometimes, it's difficult to get a great photo when you have to hold the camera yourself.  Help your patrons get the best possible photo at your event by providing volunteer selfie takers.  
• They are responsible for offering to take pictures of patrons using the audience member's mobile device and encouraging patrons to post their photos to Twitter or Instagram with the events hashtag.
• Position volunteers at selfie stations, near iconic artwork in the venue, or roaming throughout public areas before the performance, during intermission, and after the show.
• Provide volunteers with buttons, T-shirts, hats, or some other item clearly marking them as a "Volunteer Selfie Taker."
• By using a term like "selfie taker" or "photo taker," you reduce any expection  for the volunteers to be professional photographers.

Let the Audience Guide the Conversation

• Invite Questions - For most live performances, the audience does not have an opportunity to directly engage with the artists.  The Social screen can serve to facilitate conversation between artists and your patrons by inviting app subscribers to submit questions for artists to answer. 
• The questions may be answered directly by the artist within the app or during a live post-performance Q&A session.
• Use signage in public spaces and a mention in the printed program to invite patrons to download your app and submit their questions.
• Within the app, use the Spotlight Text area on the Info screen or an item in Things to Know to invite your app subscribers to submit their questions.

Austin Symphony Orchestra displays slides on digital screens in the lobby to invite patrons
to download the ASO app to chat with Maestro Bay and musicians.

A second slide provides instructions for downloading the app and using the Social screen.

During intermission, Maestro Bay answers questions directly within the ASO app.

• Tweet Seats - In recent years, many performing arts organizations have experimented with "tweat seats" - a section of the audience (usually the back row or upper balcony) where audience members are encouraged to converse with one another during the performance via social media.  The Social screen is a great tool for facilitating this form of interactive engagement.
• Some organizations set aside tweet seats for each performance. Others restrict tweet seats to specific performances.  
• Still other organizations like Opera Omaha offer tweet seats to the final dress rehearsal for a production.
• If you are interested in trying tweet seats at your events, the Arts Management & Technology Lab published an article earlier this year highlighting lessons learned from their experiment with Carnegie Mellon University's School of Music.

Give Them a Chance to Win

• Incentives - One tactic for spurring more participation in the Social area of your app is to include an incentive for patrons.  With an incentive, the patron becomes eligible for a reward by simply engaging in the desired behavior. 
• For example: In exchange for sharing a selfie or submitting a question, participants become eligible to win two tickets to an upcoming show.  
• Tickets are one possible incentive, but not the only viable one.  You could offer a chance to win a backstage tour, a free drink from the concession stand, , etc. Get creative!
• Reward recipients are often chosen by pulling participant names from a hat or a similarly randomized process.
• Another variation is to provide the reward to all participants.  For example: Everyone who submits questions to the event's hashtag is invited to a reception with the artist after the post-performance Q&A session.

• Contests - Take things up a notch by including a contest in the Social area.  Contests differ from incentives in that they include a competitive element.  Contests may be formal or informal in structure.  
• An informal contest has a subjective judging process.  For example: Audience members stop by the selfie station in the lobby before the performance and during intermission to take pictures of themselves with a violin.  Guest artist Joshua Bell selects his favorite selfie at the end of the night, and the winner receives dinner for two from a local partner restaurant.
• A formal contest has more objective criteria for determining a winner.  For example: Patrons are invited to download the app and take part in a trivia contest during intermission. A staff member posts a series of trivia questions on the Social screen. For each question, the first app user to post the correct answer wins an invitation to a backstage tour after the show.

Tips for Promoting Your Mobile App, Part 1: Encouraging Downloads When Patrons Are Off-Site

One of the questions our partners frequently ask is, "How should we promote our app?"  To help you answer that question, we decided to provide you with some tips.  However, there is so much information that we had to break it into two separate posts.

We'll start with tips for how to promote your app when the patrons are not at one of your events.

8 Tips for promoting downloads when the audience is not at your event or performance

1.  Encourage mobile users who visit your website to download your app.  Makes sense right?  They are already on their mobile devices, so you should take the opportunity to direct them to your app.  Here are two ways you can do this:

Silk Road Rising uses the

mobile redirect script to

send mobile users visiting

their website to the mobile

web version of their app.

• If you do not have a mobile responsive website or separate mobile site, be sure to use InstantEncore's mobile redirect script. (click here for how-to video)
• This will redirect mobile users from your standard website to the mobile web version of your app.
• It will also detect if the mobile user is on an Apple or Android device and present them with a prompt at the top of the screen to download your app on their device.
• If you do have a mobile responsive site or separate mobile site, feature a notice for your mobile app on the home screen.
• Provide a short message highlighting what additional features they will have access to by downloading the app.
• Add the icon for your app to the screen.
• Link the icon to your app's Smart App Download URL.
• Instruct the user to tap on the icon to download the app.

2.  Encourage desktop/laptop users who visit your website to download your app.  This one might not be as obvious as the first one.  With the rapid rise of smartphone and tablet users, the probability is strong that people who visit your website on their desktop and laptop computers are also mobile users.  So why not encourage them to download your app? Here are two suggestions:

• Add mobile app download buttons to your home screen.  



Austin Symphony Orchestra uses buttons on their website to
encourage visitors to download their mobile app.

• Add a button for both your Apple mobile app and your Android app.
• Buttons for:  Android  |  Apple
• Link the button to its appropriate URL.
• To find the web link for each of your apps:
• Go to www.instantencore.com
• At the top where it says "Search or Redeem," enter the name for you or your organization.



"Search or Redeem" field on the InstantEncore site.

• Find and click on your account name to go to your InstantEncore profile.
• Clicking on the image for your mobile app gives you a drop-down menu with links to your Android and Apple URLs.

Links to Seattle Shakespeare Company's Android and Apple
apps in their InstantEncore profile.

• Create a separate page on your website highlight your app's features and encourage your website visitors to download.  (Great example from Detroit Symphony Orchestra.)

3.  Create a video to spotlight your app.  While this may sound difficult, it really isn't.

• Decide which features you want to mention and which ones you want to show in use.
• Write out a script for the video.
• Consider recruiting one of your artists to be video spokesperson for the app.
• Practice going through the script while interacting with your device.  
• Get a sense of how long it takes you to go through the script.  You should be able to highlight the more exciting features in a 1 to 2 minute video.
• For example: here's an informative and funny video for the 2011 YouTube Symphony mobile app featuring flutist Nina Perlove:

• At the end of your video, include the Smart App Download URL as the closing image.
• Upload the video to YouTube - be sure to put the Smart App Download URL in the video's description.
• Post it everywhere -- embed the video on your website or blog; share it on social media; link to it in email newsletters; etc.

4.  Feature the app prominently in your email communications.  

• Spotlight your app in e-newsletters, subscriber emails, pre-show emails to ticket holders, etc.
  
  

  

  Email example from Curtis Institute of Music.

• Be sure to mention your mobile app in confirmation emails for online ticket sales and/or reservations.
• Include a brief description of your app's features as well as a link to the Smart App Download URL.

5.  Spotlight your app on the back of printed tickets and/or ticket envelopes.

• Include the app logo and a brief description of the app's value.
• Highlight the Smart App Download URL.
• Add a QR Code linked to the Smart App Download URL. (click here for how-to video)

6.  Highlight your app on printed promotional pieces for your events and season.

• Feature your mobile app and its features in your season brochure.
• Mention your mobile app and its value in your event postcards, posters, and flyers.
• Include the app logo, the Smart App Download URL, and/or QR Code.

7.  Alert your social media followers to your app.

• On a regular basis, post screenshots from your app to highlight new content available in your app.
• Include a link to the Smart App Download URL. 

8.  Use your App Store Description to highlight its features.  It's not enough to simply send patrons to your app's URL on iTunes or Google Play.  Once they are there, you need to communicate why they should download the app.

• How will downloading your app benefit them? What will they be able to do with it?
• Click here to learn How to Rock Your App's Description in the App Store.

In Part 2 of this blog series, we will focus on tips for encouraging app downloads when your patrons are attending your event or performance.

Questions?  Contact us at support@instantencore.com. 

Recent Changes to Twitter and What That Means for Your App

For those of you who have your mobile app configured to pull content from your Twitter stream into the Buzz area of your app, you may have noticed that your Twitter posts have not been appearing in your app.

What happened

Earlier this summer, Twitter made a major change to how they feed content to other web services by switching from RSS / XML code to JSON.  Correspondingly, the RSS / XML feed link you entered into the Buzz area of the mobile suite is no longer active.

What you can do

The infrastructure for the Buzz area currently relies on RSS / XML code to import content from social media and other sites, so incorporating your Twitter content into the Buzz section of your app is not possible at this time.

While we explore our options for reintegrating Twitter with Buzz, we suggest creating a custom tab in your mobile app for your Twitter stream.

1. From the InstantEncore dashboard, go to Mobile >> Tabs.
2. Scroll down past the list of current tabs to the section labeled "Add a Custom Tab."
3. Enter a text label for the new tab.  You might use "Twitter," "Updates," or "Follow us on Twitter."
4. Select the icon to associate with the new tab.  We have included a commonly recognized Twitter icon in our library for you to use, if you like.
5. In the "Content" area, select "Display an existing web page."
6. In the URL box, enter http://mobile.twitter.com/YourTwitterName.
7. Click on the "Create" button.

Your Twitter profile will now appear as a tab within your mobile app. It's that easy!

Social Media and Your Mobile App, Pt 2 - Custom Tabs and a Centralizing Submenu

While syncing your social media feeds with the Buzz area of your mobile suite will centralize your dynamic content into a single area for your mobile audience, you also want to provide your fans with the ability to like your Facebook page, follow you on Twitter, etc.  The video below shows you two simple ways to add this feature to your app.



In the video, we talk about using the mobile-friendly URLs for your social media accounts. Here are the standard mobile-friendly formats for some of the more popular social networks:

• Facebook -- http://m.facebook.com/YourFacebookPage 
• Flickr --  http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/YourFlickrAccount
• Google+ -- https://m.google.com/app/contacts/mp/220#:v=pc&g=-YourGooglePlusIDNumber
• Find your Google+ ID number by going to your Google+ profile page. The number is located in the URL address between 0/ and /posts. For example: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117336246664676002690/posts
• MySpace -- Unfortunately, you cannot take them directly to your mobile page.  They will need to go to http://m.myspace.com, then login and search for you.
• Pinterest -- http://m.pinterest.com/YourPinterestAccount
• Tumblr -- These blogs are already mobile optimized, so you can use your standard blog address.
• Twitter -- http://mobile.twitter.com/YourTwitterAccount
• YouTube -- http://m.youtube.com/user/YourYouTubeChannel

Social Media and Your Mobile App, Pt 1 - Feeding Content into Your Buzz

The Buzz area of the InstantEncore control panel provides dynamic content for your mobile app - in the What's New section of the home page as well as its own separate Buzz tab.  Many artists and arts organizations publish fresh content online through social media platforms and social networks.  So how can you bring this fresh content into your app's Buzz area?

The Buzz area automatically brings your content into the mobile suite by synchronizing with your content's RSS and Atom feeds.  The best way to automatically pull your social media and social networking content into your mobile app is to identify the RSS feed for your account and add it to the Buzz area.

Finding your content's RSS or Atom feed 

• Blog or Podcast - Most blog and podcast platforms provide you with an RSS address so that your followers can subscribe to your content.  If you are not sure what your feed address is for your blog or podcast, conduct a search within the platform's FAQs or in its forum area.
• Facebook - UPDATE: As of June 2015, Facebook no longer provides RSS or XML feeds for sharing content with web services. Click here for information on how to add Facebook content to your app.
• Twitter - UPDATE: As of June 2013, Twitter no longer provides RSS or XML feeds for sharing content with web services.  Click here for information on how to add Twitter content to your app.
• MySpace - MySpace provides you with the ability to grab the RSS feed for your MySpace blog.
• On your profile page, click on "View All Blog Entries." 
• In the top right-hand area of the next page, there are a few text links, one of them says "rss". 
• Click on that link and the RSS feed address for your MySpace blog will appear in the web address bar.
• Google+ - Here is the workaround for Google+.
• Find your Google+ ID number by going to your Google+ profile page.  The number is located in the URL address between 0/ and /posts.  For example:
  https://plus.google.com/u/0/117336246664676002690/posts
• Copy your ID number
• Add it to the end of this sequence:
  http://plu.sr/feed.php?plusr=YourGoogle+IDHere
• Tumblr - Tumblr definitely has the easiest RSS feeds to find.  Use http://YourTumblrBlog.tumblr.com/rss
• Flickr - This one is pretty easy, too.  
• Go to your Flickr photostream page and scroll to the bottom.
• Where it says "Subscribe to YOUR photostream," click on the link next to it labeled "Latest"
• The RSS feed address for your photostream will appear in the web address bar.
• Pinterest - For Pinterest, the RSS feed will depend on whether you want the feed for your account or for a particular pinboard.
• The RSS feed for your account will be http://pinterest.com/YourScreenName/feed.rss
• The RSS feed for a particular pinboard will be http://pinterest.com/YourScreenName/YourBoardName.rss

Adding a feed to your Buzz

1. Once you have located the feed for content, go the Buzz area of the control panel.
2. Select Feeds in the submenu.
3. Enter the RSS or Atom feed address in the empty text field.
4. Select if the feed falls into the Blog, Podcast, or News category.
5. Click on Add Feed.
6. Once you have added your feed, be sure to click on Edit Image and upload a 75px X 75px graphic to  associate with the feed.  (We recommend PNG or GIF image files.)  Whenever content from the feed appears in your Buzz tab or on your Home tab, this graphic will appear in the list as a visual indicator of the source.

And you're done!  Now, you have dynamic content automatically feeding into the Buzz tab and the What's New area of the Home tab of your mobile app from your social media account.

Something to Consider 

Take a moment to think about your social media behavior.  If you frequently repost items from one social media source to another, then you may not want to add both feeds to your Buzz.  This would create redundant content entries.

So, if you automatically pull your Twitter posts into your Facebook wall posts, then perhaps you just want to select one of those social media accounts to feed into the Buzz area.

In our next post, we will look at two other ways of bringing your social media content into your mobile app.