[Organizers] Re: Twitter hashtags

[Lex Spoon via Organizers]

TikTok is different for sure, but 30 seconds of a dance clip would probably
be all it takes to get some views. Also, if you have any lessons recorded,
those can make for great source material, if you can find 30-90 second
snippets of them that can stand alone.

What you do is show the viewer what they want to see, which is an activity
that they fantasize about doing right now rather than being stuck at work
or whatever. Then, in the caption, you put your advertising material such
as the name of your group and a link to your web site.

I don't have energy for any of this myself, but what I see in people who do
post a lot is that they integrate it in their lives in a way that it's not
much of hassle to make a post. Commonly they will say they will stop doing
it if it ever becomes like a job, like something they have to do rather
than something they do spontaneously when they get an idea. While some of
them get into the complex recording setups and/or do a lot of video editing
after the recording, it seems more common that people randomly open the app
and press the little plus-sign button when an idea occurs to them.

Lex Spoon
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[Organizers] Re: Twitter hashtags

[Audrey Jaber via Organizers]

As someone who considers themselves a millennial, I don’t use Twitter and I 
think that if people my age use Twitter, it’s to read linked news articles or 
follow people they like, not necessarily for promotion.

I’m on Instagram a fair amount and “follow” certain hashtags so I can see 
what’s happening in the dance world on that platform. (So even if I don’t 
follow a certain account, if they use a hashtag, I can see it on my feed). It’s 
nice to see more and more organizations use it as a tool. Some hashtags I 
follow and see being used: 

#contradance 
#contradancers
#contradanceweekend
#contradanceband
#contradancelife
#englishcountrydance
#englishcountrydances

Hope this helps!

Audrey in San Diego (when I’m home)

> On May 10, 2023, at 9:02 AM, Emily Addison via Organizers 
>  wrote:
> 
> We set up a Twitter for Ottawa Contra Dance back in 2014. However, hardly 
> anything happens with it.
> The mailchimp e-newsletters are posted automatically onto twitter. 
> https://twitter.com/ottawacontra?lang=en
> 
> I'm in my mid-40s so can't speak for the younger crowd anymore but I do hear 
> a lot of chat about Instagram and Tiktok. I think Instagram could be cool if 
> you have people taking great photos and the event looks happening. But if 
> not, I'd avoid starting another channel.
> 
> Emily in Ottawa
> 
> 
> On Tue, May 9, 2023 at 2:44 PM Joe Harrington via Organizers 
>  > wrote:
>> Users of different socials cluster heavily by age.  My college students 
>> refuse to use Facebook.  They use Instagram a lot.  Discord is where they 
>> hang out, but Discord isn't useful for getting in front of new users.  
>> Facebook is getting less and less effective at that, too.  Facebook started 
>> being uncool about 10-15 years ago, so the non-Facebook crowd is now into 
>> their 30s.  I find that enough dances (not just contra) are organized around 
>> Facebook that there are plenty of dancers younger than that who do use 
>> Facebook solely for dance communication, but that doesn't find new dancers 
>> of that age group.
>> 
>> I tried Reddit and got over a thousand views on several posts!  However, not 
>> a single person who actually came to a dance had ever seen one of my Reddit 
>> posts.  I never found out who those others were, or what actually counted as 
>> a view.  
>> 
>> TikTok does put stuff in front of new people, but you have to make a video a 
>> certain way to get a lot of hits, which is much more difficult than just 
>> typing a message.  TikTok is also starting to be banned in certain places, 
>> such as Florida university campuses.  It mainly appeals to younger folks, 
>> maybe under about 25 now, so if you have a few of those, they might be happy 
>> to make and post some videos, and can do it authentically.  The most useful 
>> thing I got out of our one TikTok post was the ability to pull it up and 
>> show someone one-on-one.  That was quite effective, moreso than YouTube.  No 
>> clue why they liked it better.
>> 
>> I got almost 30 new members on Meetup right off, about four or five of whom 
>> actually came.  Then, after a month, suddenly no more.  I think they were 
>> trying to get me to pay more for placement.  Maybe Meetup Pro is worthwhile?
>> 
>> I've never tried Twitter.  It hardly seems worthwhile to start, now.
>> 
>> My dance is in all the local online calendars.  I discovered that the 
>> Orlando Sentinel, our paper, was cribbing its listings from 
>> OrlandoatPlay.com, but got a date wrong.  Out of curiosity, I asked the 
>> venue owner whether anyone showed up that night.  He was not holding an 
>> event but was at the venue doing paperwork.  Nobody showed up.  So, that 
>> gave me a sense for the value of the online arts calendar in a major city's 
>> main newspaper.
>> 
>> If they know what contra is and are looking for it, any web search should 
>> get them to your website.  For others, by far the most effective is 
>> person-to-person, but that doesn't scale until you've already got scale.
>> 
>> Getting covered in the media is always good.  Holding public outdoor dances 
>> or teaching a dance at another group's event also work.
>> 
>> In the end, though, people are pretty good at defending their time.  After 
>> all this effort and going on a year of dances, we're still steady at just 20 
>> dancers.
>> 
>> --jh--
>> 
>> 
>> On Tue, May 9, 2023 at 11:51 AM Harris Lapiroff via Organizers 
>> > > wrote:
>>> I can’t speak to what Rich meant by “our desired audience” but I personally 
>>> don’t think of Twitter as a place people go looking for local social dances 
>>> to attend, so I think it’s not most social dances’ desired audience of 
>>> “people who might come to a dance.” We use Facebook and Meetup to advertise 
>>> events and are planning to branch out into Instagram as well.
>>> 
>>> (It’s possible this isn’t true of all communities. Maybe there are places 
>>> where people 

[Organizers] Re: Twitter hashtags

[Emily Addison via Organizers]

We set up a Twitter for Ottawa Contra Dance back in 2014. However, hardly
anything happens with it.
The mailchimp e-newsletters are posted automatically onto twitter.
https://twitter.com/ottawacontra?lang=en

I'm in my mid-40s so can't speak for the younger crowd anymore but I do
hear a lot of chat about Instagram and Tiktok. I think Instagram could be
cool if you have people taking great photos and the event looks happening.
But if not, I'd avoid starting another channel.

Emily in Ottawa


On Tue, May 9, 2023 at 2:44 PM Joe Harrington via Organizers <
organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> Users of different socials cluster heavily by age.  My college students
> refuse to use Facebook.  They use Instagram a lot.  Discord is where they
> hang out, but Discord isn't useful for getting in front of new users.
> Facebook is getting less and less effective at that, too.  Facebook started
> being uncool about 10-15 years ago, so the non-Facebook crowd is now into
> their 30s.  I find that enough dances (not just contra) are organized
> around Facebook that there are plenty of dancers younger than that who do
> use Facebook solely for dance communication, but that doesn't find new
> dancers of that age group.
>
> I tried Reddit and got over a thousand views on several posts!  However,
> not a single person who actually came to a dance had ever seen one of my
> Reddit posts.  I never found out who those others were, or what actually
> counted as a view.
>
> TikTok does put stuff in front of new people, but you have to make a video
> a certain way to get a lot of hits, which is much more difficult than just
> typing a message.  TikTok is also starting to be banned in certain places,
> such as Florida university campuses.  It mainly appeals to younger folks,
> maybe under about 25 now, so if you have a few of those, they might be
> happy to make and post some videos, and can do it authentically.  The most
> useful thing I got out of our one TikTok post was the ability to pull it up
> and show someone one-on-one.  That was quite effective, moreso than
> YouTube.  No clue why they liked it better.
>
> I got almost 30 new members on Meetup right off, about four or five of
> whom actually came.  Then, after a month, suddenly no more.  I think they
> were trying to get me to pay more for placement.  Maybe Meetup Pro is
> worthwhile?
>
> I've never tried Twitter.  It hardly seems worthwhile to start, now.
>
> My dance is in all the local online calendars.  I discovered that the
> Orlando Sentinel, our paper, was cribbing its listings from
> OrlandoatPlay.com, but got a date wrong.  Out of curiosity, I asked the
> venue owner whether anyone showed up that night.  He was not holding an
> event but was at the venue doing paperwork.  Nobody showed up.  So, that
> gave me a sense for the value of the online arts calendar in a major city's
> main newspaper.
>
> If they know what contra is and are looking for it, any web search should
> get them to your website.  For others, by far the most effective is
> person-to-person, but that doesn't scale until you've already got scale.
>
> Getting covered in the media is always good.  Holding public outdoor
> dances or teaching a dance at another group's event also work.
>
> In the end, though, people are pretty good at defending their time.  After
> all this effort and going on a year of dances, we're still steady at just
> 20 dancers.
>
> --jh--
>
>
> On Tue, May 9, 2023 at 11:51 AM Harris Lapiroff via Organizers <
> organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
>> I can’t speak to what Rich meant by “our desired audience” but I
>> personally don’t think of Twitter as a place people go looking for local
>> social dances to attend, so I think it’s not most social dances’ desired
>> audience of “people who might come to a dance.” We use Facebook and Meetup
>> to advertise events and are planning to branch out into Instagram as well.
>>
>> (It’s possible this isn’t true of all communities. Maybe there are places
>> where people really do use Twitter to find local events! But it’s not
>> something I’ve encountered.)
>>
>> > On May 9, 2023, at 11:11 AM, Weogo Reed via Organizers <
>> organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>> >
>> > Hi Rich,
>> >
>> > I always thought of the folk scene as an inclusive community.
>> > "our desired audience"
>> > This hit me on a personal level.
>> > Why be exclusive?
>> >
>> > Thanks and good health,  Weogo
>> >
>> >
>> >> On 5/9/2023 9:39 AM, Rich Dempsey via Organizers wrote:
>> >> We have disabled our Twitter account. In addition to our concerns with
>> current management, we've found that keeping up with many social media
>> accounts hard to manage. And some CDR organizers feel that Twitter doesn't
>> align with our desired audience.
>> >>
>> >> Rich Dempsey
>> >> Country Dancers of Rochester (NY)
>> >>
>> > ___
>> > Organizers mailing list -- organizers@lists.sharedweight.net
>> > To unsubscribe 

[Organizers] Re: Twitter hashtags

[Joe Harrington via Organizers]

Users of different socials cluster heavily by age.  My college students
refuse to use Facebook.  They use Instagram a lot.  Discord is where they
hang out, but Discord isn't useful for getting in front of new users.
Facebook is getting less and less effective at that, too.  Facebook started
being uncool about 10-15 years ago, so the non-Facebook crowd is now into
their 30s.  I find that enough dances (not just contra) are organized
around Facebook that there are plenty of dancers younger than that who do
use Facebook solely for dance communication, but that doesn't find new
dancers of that age group.

I tried Reddit and got over a thousand views on several posts!  However,
not a single person who actually came to a dance had ever seen one of my
Reddit posts.  I never found out who those others were, or what actually
counted as a view.

TikTok does put stuff in front of new people, but you have to make a video
a certain way to get a lot of hits, which is much more difficult than just
typing a message.  TikTok is also starting to be banned in certain places,
such as Florida university campuses.  It mainly appeals to younger folks,
maybe under about 25 now, so if you have a few of those, they might be
happy to make and post some videos, and can do it authentically.  The most
useful thing I got out of our one TikTok post was the ability to pull it up
and show someone one-on-one.  That was quite effective, moreso than
YouTube.  No clue why they liked it better.

I got almost 30 new members on Meetup right off, about four or five of whom
actually came.  Then, after a month, suddenly no more.  I think they were
trying to get me to pay more for placement.  Maybe Meetup Pro is worthwhile?

I've never tried Twitter.  It hardly seems worthwhile to start, now.

My dance is in all the local online calendars.  I discovered that the
Orlando Sentinel, our paper, was cribbing its listings from
OrlandoatPlay.com, but got a date wrong.  Out of curiosity, I asked the
venue owner whether anyone showed up that night.  He was not holding an
event but was at the venue doing paperwork.  Nobody showed up.  So, that
gave me a sense for the value of the online arts calendar in a major city's
main newspaper.

If they know what contra is and are looking for it, any web search should
get them to your website.  For others, by far the most effective is
person-to-person, but that doesn't scale until you've already got scale.

Getting covered in the media is always good.  Holding public outdoor dances
or teaching a dance at another group's event also work.

In the end, though, people are pretty good at defending their time.  After
all this effort and going on a year of dances, we're still steady at just
20 dancers.

--jh--


On Tue, May 9, 2023 at 11:51 AM Harris Lapiroff via Organizers <
organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> I can’t speak to what Rich meant by “our desired audience” but I
> personally don’t think of Twitter as a place people go looking for local
> social dances to attend, so I think it’s not most social dances’ desired
> audience of “people who might come to a dance.” We use Facebook and Meetup
> to advertise events and are planning to branch out into Instagram as well.
>
> (It’s possible this isn’t true of all communities. Maybe there are places
> where people really do use Twitter to find local events! But it’s not
> something I’ve encountered.)
>
> > On May 9, 2023, at 11:11 AM, Weogo Reed via Organizers <
> organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Rich,
> >
> > I always thought of the folk scene as an inclusive community.
> > "our desired audience"
> > This hit me on a personal level.
> > Why be exclusive?
> >
> > Thanks and good health,  Weogo
> >
> >
> >> On 5/9/2023 9:39 AM, Rich Dempsey via Organizers wrote:
> >> We have disabled our Twitter account. In addition to our concerns with
> current management, we've found that keeping up with many social media
> accounts hard to manage. And some CDR organizers feel that Twitter doesn't
> align with our desired audience.
> >>
> >> Rich Dempsey
> >> Country Dancers of Rochester (NY)
> >>
> > ___
> > Organizers mailing list -- organizers@lists.sharedweight.net
> > To unsubscribe send an email to organizers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net
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>
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[Organizers] Re: Twitter hashtags

[Harris Lapiroff via Organizers]

I can’t speak to what Rich meant by “our desired audience” but I personally 
don’t think of Twitter as a place people go looking for local social dances to 
attend, so I think it’s not most social dances’ desired audience of “people who 
might come to a dance.” We use Facebook and Meetup to advertise events and are 
planning to branch out into Instagram as well.

(It’s possible this isn’t true of all communities. Maybe there are places where 
people really do use Twitter to find local events! But it’s not something I’ve 
encountered.)

> On May 9, 2023, at 11:11 AM, Weogo Reed via Organizers 
>  wrote:
> 
> Hi Rich,
> 
> I always thought of the folk scene as an inclusive community.
> "our desired audience"
> This hit me on a personal level.
> Why be exclusive?
> 
> Thanks and good health,  Weogo
> 
> 
>> On 5/9/2023 9:39 AM, Rich Dempsey via Organizers wrote:
>> We have disabled our Twitter account. In addition to our concerns with 
>> current management, we've found that keeping up with many social media 
>> accounts hard to manage. And some CDR organizers feel that Twitter doesn't 
>> align with our desired audience.
>> 
>> Rich Dempsey
>> Country Dancers of Rochester (NY)
>> 
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[Organizers] Re: Twitter hashtags

[Weogo Reed via Organizers]

Hi Rich,

    I always thought of the folk scene as an inclusive community.
"our desired audience"
This hit me on a personal level.
Why be exclusive?

Thanks and good health,  Weogo


On 5/9/2023 9:39 AM, Rich Dempsey via Organizers wrote:
We have disabled our Twitter account. In addition to our concerns with 
current management, we've found that keeping up with many social media 
accounts hard to manage. And some CDR organizers feel that Twitter 
doesn't align with our desired audience.


Rich Dempsey
Country Dancers of Rochester (NY)


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[Organizers] Re: Twitter hashtags

[Rich Dempsey via Organizers]

We have disabled our Twitter account. In addition to our concerns with
current management, we've found that keeping up with many social media
accounts hard to manage. And some CDR organizers feel that Twitter doesn't
align with our desired audience.

Rich Dempsey
Country Dancers of Rochester (NY)

On Tue, May 9, 2023 at 6:59 AM Mary Collins via Organizers <
organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> How many use twitter to promote your dance? Do you feel it is effective?
> What hashtags do you use?
>
> Thanks from Queen City Contra in Buffalo NY
>
> Mary Collins
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