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PESSIMISM OF THE INTELLECT,
OPTIMISM OF THE WILL

Twitter - a Challenge to Theatres

24/1/2011

18 Comments

 
Over the last couple of weeks, those of you on Twitter will have found it difficult to avoid tweets from BetFair Poker. Whoever manages the account is producing fun material at a remarkable rate - almost none of which has anything to do with poker. The tweets are mostly either faux-motivational gobbets of the sort Chris John Jackson might create, or surreal and rambling narratives unfolding over several tweets. Here's the first from a little series I enjoyed today, to give you a flavour:

'We've all been informed that our annual bonus will be decided by our ability to create a Faster-Than-Light drive in the next 45 minutes.'

What starts as a mildly satirical vignette moves up through several gears. in a journey to the centre of the sun - without losing that mildly satirical sting:

- 'But I have dinner plans!" I cried. My complaint was dismissed. "We need you to teach poker to the people of the Sun." Alison barked.'
- 'Alison has only been head of marketing for one day and she's already trying to conquer the universe. She can't even use the photocopier.'

Some of you will dismiss this as trivial and silly, and of course you will be right. And if you've just scrolled through it having linked to the account above (it was today, starting around 3pm), I hope you enjoyed it. But you won't have got the best out of it. Rather than gobbled up, it's designed to be drip-fed on alongside all your other tweets by Stephen Fry and Barack Obama and that guy who wrote that show. Nibbled on in such installments, it's doing something tastily different with the form, without being so unusual as to be indigestible. Still, sure, it's pretty silly.

But compare it with the twitter feed of your local theatre. Bland nuggets of fact and instamatic retweetings of praise, right? I follow most of the theatres I've found on Twitter. Their tone is almost indistinguishable.

In a sense it's hardly surprising. Twitter (and other social media) are so new that we still think of them as simply media for imparting information, particularly if we work in marketing and imparting information is a big part of our job. But a well-designed poster can be about more than simply imparting information. It's about atmospheres and ideas and it's part of the narrative. At its best it can be an art form in its own right. So why not the twitter feed?

In another sense, it's incredibly surprising. So here's the strong version of that argument: given an opportunity to do something creative in an entirely new medium, the theatres, some of the most creative organisations in the world, instead see a plain tool with a plain function. 

Meanwhile an online poker website steals the march.

There are of course exceptions in the theatre world. I'm not sure to what extent they're still at it, but the West Yorkshire Playhouse used to run a very human, chatty Twitter feed that asked interesting questions and engaged in discussion with the answerers. I'm sure there are others. But they don't begin to consider the really creative possibilities.

There have been attempts to create drama for Twitter. (At some point someone will coin the conflation "twama" and we will all be forced to send them to Twoventry.) The RSC's Such Tweet Sorrow, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet via Twitter, had great potential, but in deciding to have it tweeted by actors they made a bit of a boo-boo. There are some great actors tweeting brilliant material, but the skill of acting well is coincidental to the skill of writing well for twitter. They cast the piece badly: they should have used writers. (If you're interested in reading a fuller critique of STS, Hannah Nicklin's is the one to read.)

There have been huge successes, too. Dan Rebellato's series of tweets entering the mind of Raoul Moat, an account that imagined the hilarious goings-on at the bottom of that Chilean mine. Dan Rebellato's were particularly thrilling, because they give the lie to the idea that in order to be successful on twitter, you have to be a stand-up. Sure, funny material gets attention. But it is possible to start funny and go further.

And it's not as though @betfairpoker has got everything right. For a start, there is no interaction, killing one of Twitter's key joys. It hasn't sustained any narrative line for more than a dozen or so tweets spread over a couple of hours, sometimes flatly contradicting itself a few days later. And it hasn't done much that isn't essentially facetious, however hilariously so. But it has created some memorable characters, some enjoyable storylines and some cracking comic lines. It's The IT Crowd. That's an improvement on marketing, but when do we get The Wire?

This is a genuine challenge to theatres. Why is it left to a few individuals and a poker website to explore this new medium's creative possibilities, when an art form that spends its time commissioning writers, generating stories and creating characters to tell them, is instead using it to tell us when we can catch the open dress rehearsal? One answer is obvious: because they're theatres, not a digital arts organisation. But just because I occasionally play a guitar doesn't mean I'm not a theatre director. Just because Fuel are creating a series of podcasts doesn't mean they're not theatre producers. It's possible to create in more than one medium. It can only do you good to try.

And if you want an instrumentalist argument: it still works as marketing. @betfairpoker has a hatful more followers than any regional theatre I can find. They're not there for the poker. There really isn't any. Yet every so often there is some mention of a new blog on the website or the weekly offer (yes, weekly: that's really it) and we all dutifully traipse over, trusting that it will be fun. Yep, that's it. We trust this nonsense to give us a good time. What better advert for a theatre? Added to which, if any of us does fancy a spot of online Hold'Em (missus?), what's the first place we're going to think of?

Like it or not, the digital world is here. Social media have radically changed the way we interact with one another, and that isn't going away. I love theatre above any art form and will defend to the death the beautiful simplicity of a group of people in a room, together, sharing a story or an experience. But it isn't either/or.

Can we make great art on Twitter? We'd be bloody idiots not to try.

__________________________________________________


Declarations of Interest:

Firstly, I am a writer and I tweet, so I guess this could read like a pitch for work. That wasn't the intention. But hell, I'm open to offers.

Secondly, later this year, along with the abovementioned Dan Rebellato, I'm taking part in an R+D for Pilot Theatre (working title: #tag), where we're going to look at how we create a drama that unfolds on Twitter, possibly over quite a long time. That's an enormously exciting project, but what I'm talking about here is more modest. At root, I'm just wondering if theatres can make their feed more interesting. The word "more" is optional in that sentence.

Thirdly: big thanks to @patrickriot for the fantastically stimulating conversation that finally prompted me to get on and write this post.

__________________________________________________

Addendum - 25/01/11

There's a distinction to be drawn here between two effective uses of Twitter. There are plenty of individuals using Twitter well and interactively on behalf of their organisations, tweeting provocative and interesting stuff and generally being a very human face. Several of them are name-checked below in the comments.

But that's different to using social media as a place to generate artistic work. That's happening very sporadically, although again there are exceptions. @andytfield's various "imaginary theatre" projects are lovely for the medium. But there could be a whole lot more.
18 Comments
Hannah Nicklin link
24/1/2011 06:54:06 am

Interesting stuff, and looking forward to seeing what you and Dan come up with - although I think it's worth pointing out that we don't notice the companies buildings on Twitter that are doing it more personably, because we see the people behind them - @braduniarts is a good example of a building, and there are hundreds of companies @untheatre, @redladdertheatr to name a couple. I think the problem with buildings is that they're fighting against a much more ingrained marketing department, who struggle with the lack of control social media brings. We need communication, not marketing departments now, really.

Reply
twitter followers link
19/8/2012 02:51:15 pm

Thank you for taking up the time and effort to write this vital piece of information. It is really a commendable job that you have done. I think you’ve put up a very nice effort. This is a interesting topic, thank you for taking the time to start up this discussion.

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Daniel Bye link
24/1/2011 07:13:17 am

Yes, now you mention it, I'm bloody embarrassed not to have hat-tipped @untheatre and @redladdertheatr in particular. But you're on the money about why. Instead of registering on which company's behalf they tweet, I think of them simply as Rod and Jon, both of whom I know fairly well personally.

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Jen Thornton link
24/1/2011 05:46:59 pm

Hannah's comment touches on my immediate reaction to this. I'd love to be more creative and chatty on my venue's Twitter but the leadership from a marketing department who know nothing of social media makes it difficult. I'm not authorised to post anything on twitter that's not approved by the manager, at least in principle, and I'm still working hard to explain the conversational aspect and why this works as marketing.

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Simon Bedford link
24/1/2011 06:15:00 pm

Thanks Dan for making this challenge. It does seem strange that those in the commercial world seem to be beating us at our own game. I'm excited to see the products of your R&D with Pilot. And I agree with Hannah that we need to become increasingly savvy about communication and not marketing. There is a difference.

At Hoipolloi, our work with @hughhughes is about attempting to build a creative and exciting world for audiences to tap into beyond seeing him tell his stories on stage. Over the next few months we're developing a new project to share Hugh's childhood stories, taking full advantage of the digital tools now available to us.

The launch last year of http://www.hughhughes.me is the starting point for this.

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Daniel Bye link
24/1/2011 06:19:05 pm

Jen - when I tweeted to draw attention to this blog, I particularly asked for Artistic Directors to comment. I think you're entirely right, and this is something that will need leadership from the very top.

Simon - @hughhughes is yet another fairly honourable exception, where it seems to me you're starting to think about really *using* the form.

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Kellie Whitehead link
24/1/2011 06:32:41 pm

I ama prolific 'twitter' no doubt to others chagrin, but I work for myself and I can say what I like :)
I've said it a gadzillion tyimes, but tweeting (and same with facebook interaction) is still 'social' Real people like to read 'real' things - these are not advertising platforms, and if you use it as such, you will be ignored.
Pick your warmest most engaging personality in your organisation to tweet on your behalf!
I referance the Yorkshire theatre that posts such 'exciting' updates/statuses as 'Proofreading the new brochure'
Name me a member of the public who gives a toss?
:)

Reply
Amy Clarke
24/1/2011 06:45:14 pm

Jen - as a marketer who had the job of convincing the rather large theatre company I work for that social media (Twitter particularly) wasn't a scary thing that was going to cause trouble I would advise you to keep on at your management.

I found that sharing case studies of best practice and looking at the hard results of using social media to engage audiences really work.

It sounds a bit dull but if your senior management team begin to see the return of using social media (whether that's in meeting audience development targets, increased ticket sales, great positive press coverage, developing a more personable relationship with audiences) then they become more at ease at using these channels, and start to see the benefit. Once you gain the consensus that it is actually a good thing to do, then you can start experimenting with the fun stuff!

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Alexander Kelly link
24/1/2011 09:12:22 pm

Hi Dan. I think you've got a really interesting and timely debate going here. I think the challenge of Twitter is exactly what you and a few commenters have got at, which is that it *can* and *is* used for several different modes of communication - from weird, funny, chatty, artistic, bleak (I'm thinking of Dan Rebellato's extraordinary Raoul Moat tweets) to informative, and direct marketing.
Generally I'm much less likely to pay any attention to someone who only tweets marketing info. But if they tweet other interesting stuff, I'll pay more attention when they tweet a link to another aspect of their work.

I'm more interested on the whole in the individual artists and marketers I follow, rather than the organisations, because, on the whole, most of the organisations haven't worked out what their voice is. Or rather, they haven't worked out that they can vary their voice. I agree with the thoughts/feelings about @untheatre and @RedLadderTheatr for that reason - they are clearly individuals under the company name.

I'm obviously part of Third Angel on Twitter, and no doubt that's why most of my followers follow me. But I'm on there under my own name, which I feel allows me to tweet as myself, giving my take on what Third Angel is up to, plus anything else I'm interested in. We haven't set up a straight Third Angel account on Twitter as we don't want to do just a 'this is on next' account - although of course that info is included in my tweets.

As a viewer and artist I'm particularly interested in work that can only exist in the medium it is presented in - that really uses what that medium can do. I like some of those fictional tweeters, and I think your instincts about drama that unfolds over quite a long period is what Theatre-On-Twitter would need - and it would need to embrace the conversation. Intrigued to see what you and Dan come up with for Pilot.

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Hannah Nicklin link
24/1/2011 09:19:41 pm

@Amy, that's a good way to work it into current systems, but like most of the arts I can't help wondering if the best of Twitter can't be packaged quantitively - and perhaps to do so for marketing depts defers a problem that needs addressing sooner rather than later - the loss of control at the heart of the shift from marketisation to conversation.

Man that sounded buzzwordy.

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Rod Dixon link
24/1/2011 09:52:25 pm

Dan this is fascinating - and I am more than a little surprised to get a mention - I tweet as and for my company and get into all kinds of trouble in the office! I am also guilty of the absolutley boring 'aren't we doing well?' marketing tweets which are Twitter a faux pas as you rightly point out. I get into trouble because I get all angry about the Tories and call them abusive names or I retweet activist stuff. 'You have to SO careful Rod' I am told. For me that is the WHOLE POINT of Twitter - being a bit naughty and taking risks - in order to stimulate a conversation or even a debate. I really enjoy reading Dan R's tweets, and Alex Kelly's and hannah's and your own among other people - so like real society we are taking part in an online clique. That in itself is a fascinating and time-consuming activity. Indirectly it is marketing but more creative.

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Miriam link
24/1/2011 10:47:53 pm

Fascinating - have just started a new role which entails me, besides other duties, running the social media. I've only been here a couple of weeks so am really yet to sink my teeth in. We were discussing it at lunch - I am very keen to put together a social media strategy. Although we currently have Twitter, it's not very conversational, which I'm keen to do. We need to build up everything from followers to those we follow, and to find a way (and this goes for Facebook as well) of building it into a conversational voice without compromising the organisation.

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JB
24/1/2011 10:52:21 pm

Never before has so much been discussed about so little (and in so few characters) as the various branches of debate surrounding Twitter and theatre/the arts.

The future of arts marketing is not in Twitter/social media. These are merely ephemeral tools in general shift of strategy. To 'challenge' venues to adopt a more dynamic presence on Twitter seems to me to understate a larger problem. Though I agree, it's a good start.

The key lies in changing the whole approach of a marketing team. It's about turning - at the worst end of the scale - the institutional marketing office, buried deep in the bowels of a regional building, with staffers glued to their temperamental PCs, into a broad, imaginative, almost virtual nation/audience-wide presence.

What the eff does that mean? Not entirely sure, but I think it at least means building a whole identity through physical materials, professional relationships, audience communication and the Internet. EG Fuel Theatre (www.fueltheatre.com) have a nation-wide presence, and not just because of the variety, quality and frequency of their productions. Here we have the perfect example of a company who in my opinion are defining modern arts marketing in the UK and globally by inexpensively getting out there and making their voices heard to venues, the community and the public, all from a tiny office off the BAC foyer - and relatively speaking, without using Twitter much.

Twitter's great and all that (I love it as much as the next Twit) but it's really only small fry for a small clique (as mentioned above). Very, very few of your non-audience, whose lives may be altered in some way by catching your show, will be following anxiously your latest Tweets.

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Marcus Romer link
25/1/2011 09:56:12 pm

Hey Dan

interesting indeed, as ever. Yep picks up on our planning and discussions with Dan Rebellato about how to utilise this medium creatively.

Looking forward to discoveries and plans later in the year

And again remembering that some of this also started from your #artsfunding blog 'Milk" which is where we started talking

good stuff

#onwards

Marcus Romer
Artistic Director
Pilot Theatre

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Jen Thornton link
26/1/2011 05:05:05 am

@Hannah, JB - Totally right. We need to be looking at a shift from 'marketing' in the traditional sense to 'communicating' and 'sharing' with our audiences and potential audiences. As ever change is slow in organisations, and changing the job of someone who's written direct mail letters and a brochure each month for 15 years is not going to happen overnight. I sometimes feel like a rude young upstart coming in and talking about social channels and communication, but then I remember that young upstarts often get things done. Hopefully that will happen!

@Miriam - would love to chat strategy with you if you're interested. I'm trying to put ours together and it would be great to share some ideas!

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Daniel Bye link
28/1/2011 01:48:43 am

Thanks everyone, for these terrifically interesting responses.

One surprising side-effect of this post is that I now have about 50 extra Twitter followers from theatre marketing departments. Surprising because although I do think that what I'm advocating has marketing benefits, only in so far as does any other good work. Marketing isn't really my interest here.

I'm looking for theatres to step up to the digital challenge by creating great artistic work. Livening up the feed a bit is always welcome - they can be pretty samey - but that barely begins the work I'm talking about.

That's a challenge for artistic directors.

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9/8/2012 09:52:51 pm

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