October is National Arts and Humanities Month!

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Shoshana

Did you know?  Maybe you didn’t know.  October is National Arts and Humanities Month!  What can you do to contribute? The Americans for the Arts has a list of ideas for you: How will you celebrate this October? I like the #ShowYourArt Instagram campaign they have set up since anyone can participate.  This brings me to my main point of this…

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Last minute will not help you build audiences…

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Shoshana

In order to build audiences, you need the time to plan and get the work done. Last minute efforts will only attribute to the following: Oh, I just saw that an event is happening today. I wanted to go, but I already have plans. The event is two days away? I already have plans. The event is tonight?  I don’t…

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#Auddev Chat 9/25/14 w/Jim McCarthy

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Shoshana

Customer Service for Building Audiences! Jim McCarthy (@goldstarjim), CEO of Goldstar has been writing blog posts for their new blog resource Selling Out.  I was intrigued by a recent posting called The Easy Math of Good Service and agree with him that stellar customer service is more cost effective for audience building than the high price of marketing.  On Thursday,…

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Why do we keep dancing around the solution?

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Shoshana

I knew I would get myself into trouble by reading a You’ve Cott Mail email before breakfast.  I opened:  What some of the best younger minds in the arts have to say about broken models, Barry’s Blog, 9/14/14. I read the entries.  All of these entries are pointing to the same concepts, but none of them are hitting the nail on…

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Do you have a dynamic website?

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Shoshana

And, I am not talking about dynamic in the sense of technology.  I do recommend trying to use some of the latest technology to make a website more engaging, but there are simple ways you can make your website more dynamic. It always confuses me when I see a website of an artist or arts organization that falls flat.  What happened?…

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What to do if the press isn’t pressing…

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Shoshana

  I found myself in an unusual position. After submitting press releases since 1998, and always achieving at least 2-3 stories, I heard the sound of the crickets.  I have been extremely fortunate up to this date. I am promoting a quality show, with a well received artist, so I know this was not the problem.  I emailed a few…

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What I know to be true about donor campaigns

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Shoshana

Part of audience development is donor relations. Remember, the definition of audience development is to build relationships to get people more involved by becoming subscribers, volunteers and donors. Let’s face it, donations are a heck of a lot easier to obtain if you know a person well.  Knowing a person also helps eliminate the fear that is involved with asking,…

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Arts Preview: How to score the cheap seats?

Posted on September 5, 2014 by Shoshana

I had a mixed reaction this morning to the following: Arts Preview 2014-15: How to score cheap tickets For audience development, cheap seats may be necessary to get people to dip their toe in the arts water.  We declare, “Come on in, the arts are fine, and it won’t break your wallet to jump off the diving board!” I also…

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Stop recycling, and I mean this in a good way

Posted on September 4, 2014 by Shoshana

Here is a quick post for you today since I am busy building audiences and support for my clients! I received a marketing email from a local organization, and I was puzzled to see, yet again, the same old faces on their programming, and some of the same repertoire.  For a presenter, it doesn’t make sense to keep recycling the…

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Just do it! for audience building, advocacy, etc.

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Shoshana

I have seen a bunch of postings about change lately, including my own.  I am glad that other people in the arts are thinking about change. However, many of these posts are not officially sharing the actual change.  They end with asking us to think about what we will do to change, inspiring another cycle of thinking about change. I believe…

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“Boulder County Arts Alliance hired Shoshana to present a series of workshops. They were fabulous! Very well received and packed with useful and new information. The best part was I have been able to apply Shoshana's methods with very positive results. If increasing your audience is your goal, there's no question Shoshana will make it happen.” —Charlotte LaSasso, Executive Director of Boulder County Arts Alliance

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