The Space’s Online Audiences Toolkit

Where are your audiences?

When you say “audiences” to cultural organisations, most think of their physical audience first: the people who sit in their theatres, visit their exhibitions or listen to their music in situ. But the vast majority also have a virtual audience – whether that’s the people who buy their tickets through a website, who like a Facebook or Instagram post about an upcoming event, read programme notes online or watch a short video interview with a featured artist.

Your virtual audience may overlap with your physical audience. But it may be unique. And – cherished with the right content and supported with the right strategy – it can be grown and developed, potentially bringing a bigger and more diverse audience to your work.

Why engage online?

There is a whole host of reasons why an artist or arts organisation might want to engage and develop a digital audience – perhaps you want to stream an artwork online, build awareness of your brand, create a community online around your work, trail an upcoming event, encourage people to visit your building, show or collection… The list goes on and on.

But as we all spend increasing amounts of time online, this is where arts audiences are – now and in the future.

We want to help you to develop your digital audiences

We know building audiences online isn’t always easy. There are lots of options for platforms to host your content, tools to track it and metrics to measure it. From our work across the cultural sector, we know there’s a demand for guidance on effective online audience engagement.

This Toolkit is a starting point – it’s packed with straightforward advice from our team about what to think about and practical tips for what works.

The Space’s Online Audiences Toolkit includes:

• An introduction to what we mean by online audience engagement
• How to do an online audiences audit
• Advice on how to approach digital distribution
• Pros and cons of the major social media platforms
• Dos and Don’ts for creating great social media content
• How to give your content the best chance through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), social media algorithms and seeding strategies
• Guidance on how to measure your success in a meaningful way

If you would like more information about the services The Space offers around online audience development for cultural organisations, please contact us.

Download The Online Audiences Toolkit (8.5 MB)