This Spring and Summer, I’ll be leading a series of workshops and classes at 3rd Ward. Topics will focus on ecommerce, online marketing, social media, online communications, building an online audience, and finally – a 3-part wordpress workshop.

The classes were initially designed to be taken together, but are now flexible enough to be taken as individual components. Below is a description of all the courses.

Curious about past courses and workshops I’ve led? Want to peruse lots resources or just kill a Saturday nigt? Great. Check out my new archive of workshop resources.

During SMartCamp (Social Media Art Camp), nonprofits, artists, arts organizations, bloggers, strategists, and a bunch of other really really interesting people gathered to talk about the intersection of Arts, Culture, and Technology.

As part of SMartCamp, we also ran a 4 hour Social Media Bootcamp. The workshop, which was limited to 20 participants (broken up into smaller groups of 5), allowed attendees to develop the foundations of a social media strategy, or workshop an existing social media strategy in a small group setting with one-on-one support from workshop leaders.

The workshop leaders included
Farra Trompeter
Maryann Devine
Damien Basile
and me, Jaki Levy.

Each facilitator gave a short 10 minute presentation, and then led a conversation within the small groups. All 4 presentations are included below (for even more SMartCamp presentations, go here).

We also took participants through a series of questions and shared resources (which were gathered by all the facilitators in a google doc). For your reference, I’ve also posted those resources below.

Enjoy!

GENERAL RESOURCES

NTEN: We Are Media
http://www.wearemedia.org
Case Foundation: Gear Up for Giving
http://www.casefoundation.org/social-media-tutorials
Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media
http://beth.typepad.com
The A-to-Z of Social Media for Brands
http://econsultancy.com/blog/3965-the-a-z-of-social-media-for-brands
5 Must-Read Social Media Case Studies
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-must-read-social-media-marketing-studies/
A List of Articles on Social Media
http://www.arrowrootmedia.com/tag/social-media/

Audiences

Social Technographics
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2010/01/conversationalists-get-onto-the-ladder.html
http://www.arrowrootmedia.com/2009/05/10/the-pyramid-of-engagement/
The Conversation Prism http://www.theconversationprism.com
Social Media Demographics http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/2009-social-network-analysis-report/
Museum 2.0 http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/
Twitter Directory (search, find Twitter users) http://wefollow.com/
Twiangulate (Relationship analysis tool) http://twiangulate.com/search/

Strategy (including staffing)

The POST Method
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2007/12/the-post-method.html
Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report
http://nten.org/research/2009-nonprofit-social-network-survey-report
(participate in this year’s survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/R8PL9RB)
How much time does it take to do social media?
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/10/how-much-time-d.html
Should CEOs and Executive Directors Use Social Media
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2010/02/should-ceos-and-executive-directors-use-social-media.html
How to Deveop A Small-Scale Social Media Plan
http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-develop-small-scale-social-media.html

Monitoring and Listening

Frog Loop: Build Your Own Listening Dashboard… http://bit.ly/3JIwZ
A Recipe for Social Media Buzz http://nten.org/blog/2010/02/17/recipe-social-media-buzz

Metrics

Nonprofit Social Media Benchmark Study
http://www.e-benchmarksstudy.com/socialmedia/
Nonprofit Text Messaging Benchmark Study
http://mobilebenchmarks.org/
How To: Measure Social Media ROI
http://mashable.com/2009/10/27/social-media-roi/
Using Social Media to Meet Nonprofit Goals
http://www.idealware.org/sm_survey/download.php?key=14586454

Policies

Social Media Policies
http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php
What’s in a Social Media Policy and Why You Might Need One
http://www.bigducknyc.com/blog/?p=228
Nonprofit Communications – Weekly Roundup
http://www.bigducknyc.com/blog/?tag=roundup
Sample Policy for Responding to Comments (US Air Force)
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/01/usaf-blog-respo/

Relationship/Community Building

Online community building: Gardening vs. landscaping
http://www.socialbrite.org/2009/08/06/online-community-building-gardening-vs-landscaping/
5 Tips for Creating Non-Profit Online Communities
http://mashable.com/2010/02/12/non-profit-communities/

Twitter

Twitter Guide Book
http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/
Twitter: I think I get it. Now what do I tweet?
http://www.bigducknyc.com/blog/?p=329

TOOLS

Tweetdeck monitor conversations + posts on twitter : http://tweetdeck.com
Hootsuite.com helps you manage twitter accounts online: http://hootsuite.com
Facebook Page Analytics (find similar pages + fans) : http://fanpageanalytics.com/
Mailchimp (some of the best email marketing software around) : http://mailchimp.com

This weekend, I’ll be participating in SMartCAMP with a host of very distinguished folks. Tickets are going quick, so you can read on, or just go to the site and register (I’ll be leading a Social Media Bootcamp session on Sunday). 1/2 day passes are still available.

ABOUT SMartCAMP

Taking place during art fair week, SMartCAMP will be tackling some of the most important topics in social media as it relates to the cultural sector. Designed to give an overview of how professionals working in the arts can put these new communications tools to work for them, SMartCAMP will be offering a series of panels, presentations and case studies to help artists and arts professionals put together a course of action. For those already familiar with the social web, it will be an opportunity to deepen their knowledge, hone new skills, refine social engagement strategies and gain inspiration from distinguished peers and colleagues working at the intersection of art and social media. For social media professionals who are looking to connect with arts organizations, SMartCAMP offers an opportunity to learn about the challenges and possibilities unique to the cultural space.

“Social media is changing the way people share and discover content, the way they consume information, the very essence of modern-day communication itself,” says Julia Kaganskiy, ArtsTech founder and SMartCAMP program curator. “No industry, especially one as socially significant as the arts, can afford to ignore the social web.”

SMartCAMP will address a variety of topics; social media strategies, technology art start-ups, emerging trends and measuring social media success. The program will begin on each day with keynote speeches from Marc Schiller, Founder of Wooster Collective and CEO of Elecrtic Artists, and Maria Popova, founder and editor-in-chief of Brain Pickings, respectively. The remainder of the day’s agendas will include case studies from artists and institutions, a mobile media presentation, an online ‘video kit’ instructional and a bloggers panel.

In addition to this agenda, several top social media and branding strategists will lead a small group workshop entitled Social Media Bootcamp. The workshop, which is limited to 20 participants broken up into groups of 5, will allow attendees to develop the foundations of a social media strategy, or workshop an existing social media strategy in a small group setting with one-on-one support from workshop leaders.

For full symposium schedule click here
For full speaker list click here
Website: socialmediaartcamp.com

Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/SMartCAMP

Friend on Facebook: facebook.com/SMartCAMP

REGISTER FOR SMARTCAMP

This winter, I’ll be teaching a series of classes at 3rd Ward. The first part of the series will be a workshop focused on setting up an ecommerce store. We will look at live sites and multiple ecommerce platforms. This will be a great class and flexible enough to meet your needs. Read below for more

REGISTER HERE

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Running an online store enables you to sell your works and products without the constraints of time and space. This seminar serves as a crash course in running your own online business. Two main topics will be covered:

The basic mechanism of e-commerce: who’s involved in transacting online? What are the roles of different parties? What happened when users click the “Submit Order” button?

Steps to set up and run your own online store. Get an Internet merchant bank account. Find a reliable host. Learn how to go about your ecommerce technology. Consider buying an off-the-shelf solution, renting technology from a 3rd party provider, or using open-source or free shopping cart software packages. Learn about payment processing with PayPal, 3rd-party hosting and doing it yourself. Get familiar with shipping methods, managing inventory and your products, securing online transactions, designing your store appearance, and basic search engine optimization (SEO).

Instructor
Jaki Levy founded Arrow Root Media, a New Media Production and Consulting company. Jaki has worked with multiple non-profits, including: Issue Project Room, The Field, Dance/USA, Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, Queens Council on the Arts, DanceBrazil, and Soundstreams.  His online initiatives and work with Misnomer Dance Theater helped the company secure over $1.25 million in grants from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation to help develop new initiatives for the arts online. He was also the recipient of Cisco’s $25,000 Digital Incubator grant. In 2010, he will be officially launching elastic-city.com, a full ecommerce site devoted to artistic walking tours in NYC.

Location
573 Metropolitan (btw Lorimer & Union), Brooklyn

REGISTER HERE

NOTE: This post was published for participants taking an online marketing seminar at 3rd Ward. I will be fleshing this post out with actual descriptions and summaries. In the meantime, I hope you find this list useful.)

“What can be measured doesn’t always count and what counts can’t always be measured.”

- Einstein

Running a business, organization, or freelance operation in the new economy requires you to be savvy online (if you want to survive). Below is a list of online tools I use and/or recommend.

Online Publishing : WordPress, Posterous, Tumblr, SquareSpace, BusinessCatalyst

I use WordPress to run this site. For more wordpress resources, visit my wordpress archives.

Sample Blogs:
http://unclutterer.com/
http://www.getstoried.com/
http://www.chromasia.com/iblog/

Social Networks : Facebook, twitter, flickr, youtube
Some sample facebook pages:
http://www.facebook.com/issueprojectroom
http://www.facebook.com/brooklynmuseum

Online Communities : Ning, Meetup.com

Some sample ning communities:
Radiohead’s Ning Community
Dance-Tech.net

Email Marketing : Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Vertical Response

Tracking Online Activity : Google Analytics or Clicky

Communication : Setup Google Apps on your own domain for business email + google docs for collaboration. Setup an account here

Web Hosting: Bluehost

Organizing Yourself : BackPackIt, Basecamp

Bookkeeping + Invoicing : QuickBooks or Freshbooks (online invoicing)

CRM (customer relationship management): Salesforce, Tactile CRM, HighRise

Publicity : PR Newswire

I hope you’ll be able to join me this weekend at 3rdWard.

I’ll be leading 2 seminars on e-commerce and online marketing.

The workshops will be at 537 Metropolitan Ave

ONLINE MARKETING

This seminar offers a quick overview and demos of a variety of free/cheap tools and resources for your online marketing and promotional needs. From blogs, social networks, RSS feeds, twitter, friendfeed, Google AdWords and mailing list management, to tools that enable easy sharing of your content, gathering of user comments, simple-to-make animations, photo-video slide shows, and annotated video clips.  We’ll also discuss the all-important search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

To better use these services, we will discuss the basic ideas behind them and how they function together. We will also cover how to design marketing and promotion projects for your own business.

ECOMMERCE (register)

Running an online store enables you to sell your works and products without the constraints of time and space. This seminar serves as a crash course in running your own online business. Two main topics will be covered:

The basic mechanism of e-commerce: who’s involved in transacting online? What are the roles of different parties? What happened when users click the “Submit Order” button?

Steps to set up and run your own online store. Get an Internet merchant bank account. Find a reliable host. Learn how to go about your ecommerce technology. Consider buying an off-the-shelf solution, renting technology from a 3rd party provider, or using open-source or free shopping cart software packages. Learn about payment processing with PayPal, 3rd-party hosting and doing it yourself. Get familiar with shipping methods, managing inventory and your products, securing online transactions, designing your store appearance, and basic search engine optimization (SEO), etc.

Please join me and Fran Kirmser at The Field for a hands-on workshop:
PR for the 21st Century

During this workshop, we will help you plan an effective PR campaign. We will also list best practices, and review tips for reaching traditional press, bloggers, and fans.

Here’s the official word:

In a culture saturated with information, how can an artist continue to stand out from the pack? What are some new (and old) methods to help your work get noticed? Join us at The FAR Space to explore the intersection of traditional marketing streams with newer web-based media platforms. Hear examples of creative and effective marketing campaigns and best-practices for how to get the word out in the 21st century.

6:30 pm – 9pm

Sign up here

The FAR Space
521 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor
Between 10th and 11th Avenues

On Sept 23rd, I’ll be joining Marc Kirschner, Sydney Skybetter and Tom Schreiber for a Keynote Lunch at the New York State Arts Summit

You can see my presentation here.

We’ll be talking about Arts + Social Media

(the video above was featured on TechPresident.com)

On Sept 29th, I’ll be joining Brian McCormick and many others to talk about Dance, New Media, and Blogging at Movement Research.

For those in NYC – Here are the critical details.
This should be an awesome panel (Brian is great)

Studies Project: Towards an Adjudication Model for Dance Criticism
Tuesday September 29, 2009 at 7pm.
Abrons Arts Center at 466 Grand Street.
Conceived of and moderated by Brian McCormick

Read about the event here

In addition to these speaking engagements, I’ll be leading a few workshops at The Field

I hope you’ll be able to join me at one or more of these exciting events!

Public Relations for the 21st Century
Fran Kirmser & Jaki Levy, Thursday, October 8, 6:30-9pm
LOCATION: The FAR Space
$40/$25-Field Members

In a culture saturated with information, how can an artist continue to stand out from the pack? What are some new (and old) methods to help your work get noticed? Join us at The FAR Space to explore the intersection of traditional marketing streams with newer web-based media platforms. Hear examples of creative and effective marketing campaigns and best-practices for how to get the word out in the 21st century.

Co-presented with Harlem Arts Alliance

Growing Your Web Presence
Jaki Levy, Mondays, October 19, 26, November 2, 6:30-9pm
LOCATION: Harlem Arts Alliance
$120/$75-Field Members

This hands-on three-part workshop helps participants create their online presence. Learn how to set-up your own site and integrate free web platforms like Flickr, YouTube, & WordPress to build a cost-effective and dynamic communication center that reflects your creative work. We will begin to develop and implement individual plans and strategies for your current projects.

Harlem Arts Alliance
290 Malcolm X Blvd, 2nd Floor
Between 124th and 125th Streets in Manhattan
2/3/4/5/6/A/B/C/D to 125th Street

Co-presented with Harlem Arts Alliance

Advanced Internet Strategies
Jaki Levy, Mondays, November 16, 30, December 7, 6:30-9pm
$120/$75-Field Members

Take your existing online presence to a whole new level in this hands-on three-part workshop. Brainstorm innovative strategies in a group setting to harness new media platforms, incorporate social networks, blogs, and other free web services. We will discuss appropriate and relevant technologies and techniques to move your current work forward.

Beginning this Tuesday, I will be leading a 3 week workshop at The Field. The workshop is focused on building a solid and meaningful internet presence, and is geared towards practicing Artists and Arts Organizations, looking to build new audiences and connect with their current base.

The workshop ranges from the very practical nuts + bolts to a broad strategy. In the past, I have given overviews and tutorials of various online platforms including Facebook, Email Marketing Software, Content Management Systems, and WordPress.

I know there are some readers + subscribers who’ve taken the workshop before – I’d love to hear from you!
If you’re reading and have any comments about the past workshops, please feel free to add them here.

CURRENT PARTICIPANTS SHOULD

1. Join the facebook group for this workshop [click here]. If you don’t have a facebook account, you will need to set one up.
2. Setup a Tumblr account
3. Setup a Twitter account, if you don’t already have one
4. Setup a WordPress Blog on your host (Read this post for help installing a wordpress blog on your host)
5. Once you have a blog setup, please leave a comment below with a link to your blog

Finally – make sure you subscribe to this blog (sign up on the right hand side) for updates + tutorials

This month, I am leading a workshop at The Field called Strategies for Online Outreach.

In addition to looking at online marketing, I am hoping that the working artists in this workshop will begin developing interesting online projects. I was thinking about how artists translate their work online and came across this great article on Creative Capital.org.

The article looks at interesting web projects that artists put together as an extension of their work. I remember seeing (and loving) one of the projects, Learning to Love You More by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. The project asks user to complete “homework assignments” – and the results are often heartfelt, hysterical or both. The artists say, “We spend hours drifting through the site…reading your life stories, watching your videos, listening and looking. It is one of our favorite things to do, and we know that thousands of other people feel the same way.”

I wonder how this kind of project can be developed within the performing arts community. . . . What will it take?