13: Audience Building Online
with Andrew Ousley
What kind of audience building makes an artist attractive for concert presenters and managers?
I think it's a combination of all of the numbers
Kellogg:
OK.
Ousley:
So how many followers do you have? How engaged are those followers? So how-- what kind of result do you get when you post something? And then how compelling is that presence? How strong is the storytelling, the narrative, your online personality, so to speak, and how do you-- how can you engage with them?
Kellogg:
So could a presenter, if they were considering an artist, they might even go on to Facebook, go on Instagram, go on to other platforms and see the amount of views, followers, likes...?
Ousley:
100%. Yeah, I think most people now visit social media when assessing an artist.
Kellogg:
So in some ways, it's the new, I'm going to Google that person.
Ousley:
Exactly. I think they still go to a website, but I think they also look at social media to see how does this artist approach this aspect of their career. Is the Internet and social media an extension of the concert hall now?
In some ways it is, especially in the time of COVID, where performances have shifted online. But I do think there is still ultimately a difference that publicity in social media and marketing and branding, they affect how somebody perceives you. But-- and they will they can color what they take away from your musical experience, the musical experience of hearing you, but at the end of the day, a career will rise or fall on the music, the performance. And so while all of these are ancillary and important in their own right, you can be the best social media executioner in the world and have an extraordinary presence online, an amazing story, but if, if your performances leave people flat, then there is going to be a ceiling.
Kellogg:
Sure. But at the other, the flipside is if you are a compelling artist with great art to share and you can compellingly share that in advance of the concert, you potentially have an audience that is hungry to hear that performance, that new piece, before they even walk into the concert hall.
Ousley:
Very much. And it builds it builds anticipation, it builds connection to you, support for you, sort of moral support for you. It-- all-- Publicity and social media, when done right, enhance the concert experience for everybody there and an artist, when it's done right, the artists should feel that too. It's part of that sort of communion of performance. So again, that's why I think it's incredibly important that artists not neglect them and learn how to do them. But again, learn how to do them in a way that is authentic and realistic. You can't spend 90% of your time on social media because you also have to play your instrument,
Kellogg:
Sure.
Ousley:
…make your music.
Kellogg:
Do you have any idea, if you went into a concert in a major city, maybe let's not take New York, but like Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, what percentage of the audience do you think may have engaged with the artists, looked at something online, of the artist, in advance? Either a website, a YouTube video or some other social media platform?
Ousley:
I'd say a pretty high percentage. It depends also on which concert hall and which concert series.
Kellogg:
Sure. Which presenting organization, which orchestra.
Ousley:
An older demo is going to be less engaged on digital content. They'll believe, They'll believe what the presenting organization tells them.
Kellogg:
Right.
Ousley:
And they'll come out of habit with subscription and so on, but with the younger generation or sort of newer generation where the decision is made about each concert, part of that decision-making is going to come down to what convinces them and what aspects of, of an artist's presence convinces them. And that's often an amazing video or seeing something about them online or reading an article or having a friend share an article. So all of those things combine to, to make people say, I want to be in that room.
Kellogg:
Every presenter, every orchestra's painfully aware of that, to cultivate a new audience, to reach new audiences, we're going to have to reach out through different avenues and social media, and the Internet is a prime part of that. So there-- even when they don't always have the numbers to support how important it is, there's a belief that this is important. And so if you demonstrate that you're active, you have a good website, you have a good presence, I think even the perception of the value of the artist goes up for a presenter.
Ousley:
Absolutely. Yeah. It's, and-- a lot of that is, a lot of publicity is simply the creation of perception,
Kellogg:
Perception, right.
Ousley:
and the shaping of perception. And it's, in a way a Jedi mind trick, but it's a Jedi mind trick that works and, and is, as long as it's not used to nefarious purposes, is worth doing, it's important to do.