Over the past few years, Arts Wisconsin has embraced social media as a critical means of communication with our wide ranging and diverse constituency. I have a lot of mixed feelings about how people over-share intimate details of their personal lives through this medium (Please! Must we hear the details of what you ate for breakfast in the morning and how you feel about running into your ex-boyfriend and his new wife?!!), but overall, there’s no doubt that FaceBook and Twitter are great tools for promoting our cause locally and globally and having an ongoing conversation about the power, benefits, value and impact of the arts, arts education and creative economy.
Of course, being a member of the generation that has learned “internet” as a second language, I confess that I am in perpetual catch-up mode when it comes to using these resources. But I learn something new every day, and, we’ve got some great young interns who have spoken the language since birth and are creative and savvy about using technology to communicate. With their help, we are moving forward with these important 21st century tools.
Along those lines, Breanne Sommer, our fabulous summer communications intern from UW-Madison, has set up a new Tumblr site for Arts Wisconsin. If you don’t know what Tumblr is, here’s how it’s described online: “A feature rich and free blog hosting platform offering professional and fully customizable templates, bookmarklets, photos, mobile apps, and social network integration.”
In our ongoing discussions about adding this tool to the toolbox, Breanne and our second equally fabulous intern, Grace Felion of UW-Whitewater, say that Tumblr is where it’s at and will be (an important consideration in this fast-changing world) for Arts Wisconsin to share blog posts, longer pieces on the state of the arts, arts education and creative economy in Wisconsin and beyond, reviews, pictures, etc.
That all sounds good to me! And, we’re linking Tumblr to our FaceBook page and Twitter accounts so that we have a (mostly) seamless connection between these communication tools without adding one more task to feel guilty about when/if we don’t keep up with it. It will be an ongoing learning experience to use it well and wisely, but we’re up for the challenge. Please read and ponder our posts and information, and add your comments, questions, and critiques. We appreciate the feedback, no matter what.
Forward!
