By Sue Edworthy
Social Media Week (#SMWTO) starts in two weeks and it makes a lot of sense for the arts community to attend. I’m on the Advisory Board this year, and it’s given me some time to look over the schedule to see what I want to attend, and what I’d recommend. (As a shameless plug, I’m doing a workshop with the Parkdale Village BIA, as well as sitting on a panel about Women and Social Media.)
A brief note that many workshops are close to or already full, but you can just show up and get yourself on a waiting list for cancellations or no shows.
Although it’s tempting to attend all and only arts-related events, try not to do that – look for panels that can expand your horizons with ideas that can be applied to arts and culture, if that’s what you’re going for.  There are hundreds of events going on all over the city the entire week and all are free, so hopefully you’ll find something that sparks your interest and attend.
At any rate, here are some of the events I think look interesting.
Social Media: Successful Audience/Community Engagement in Arts & Culture Our panel will share their experiences in successfully leveraging social media to achieve audience engagement goals and stimulate community awareness.  Using case studies the discussion will undoubtedly stimulate idea exchange and potential partnerships.  A conversation for both visionaries and doers.
What You Really Must Know To Succeed in Social Media Marketing It is understood that in a social world, brands must participate to succeed, evidenced by 94% of the Canadian online population actively utilizing social networks, in the past month.1 However, to win, brands must leverage the power of paid, owned and earned media in order to promote discovery, consumption and sharing. By investing in and building an ecosystem of followers, advocates and participants, brands can attract, engage and amplify their message to potential partners and customers.
Curation vs Curation This panel discussion places art curators and online content curators side by side to discuss changing definitions of the word. Is there common ground and the potential for a common understanding? If we all have the potential to become curators online, what effect does this have on traditional concepts of the profession?
Lunch and Learn –> A Social E-Society: Community Building Online Learn how to create, share and build community online using new tools for digital dialogue. We’ll tie together the most popular social networking sites, user generated content, conversation hubs, forums and community calendars – to form a social E-society.
Social Media, Crowdsourcing and Microvolunteering for Charities and Non-profits Fundchange and Koodonation invite you to an interactive breakfast workshop on social media, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding for charities. The format will be a combination of seminar with discussion in order for you to learn from the successes of your peers.
SMWTO is also running the SMWTO Coffee House by ING DIRECT all day, every day – stop by and recharge your batteries and your devices! And I will be honest – parties are something the arts community does best, and SMWTO is having one every night of the week. Check the schedule for locations and timess
You can find Social Media Week on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter. Happy Social Media Week! Hope to see you around!
Sue Edworthy runs Sue Edworthy Arts Planning, a freelance arts consulting service specializing in marketing, communication and planning for the arts.
