Four Arts, part of sponsorship and PR agency Four Communications, recently launched a new offering designed to help arts organisations engage with audiences via digital media.

Four Arts director Rachel Clarke says: "We had been working with arts organisations in this space for a while. But we wanted to formalise our offering, making the sector's players aware of how they can implement a digital strategy based around the rich assets that many of them already have in-house."

According to Clarke, some arts organisations (like the Tate and the National Theatre) are very adept in the digital space - providing engaging on-line experiences that are about more than just ticket sales. "But others tend to delegate it to junior members of their marketing team, who in turn have other responsibilities. The result is that it tends to get overlooked and its potential is not realised."

Reaching hard to target audiences

As a result, Four Arts has been running courses, helping arts organisations get to grips with both website development and social media. "By the end of the course, the aim is for arts organisations to be able to understand the value of different platforms - whether that be Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or industry websites - and actually run a social media campaign the minute they get back to work"

Clarke believes the digital space can do a variety of things for arts organisations seeking to revitalise their communication: "One is that it can reach out to hard to target audiences - for example young people. Another is that it can be used to develop a deeper relationship with existing audiences. And finally it can be used to create self-standing online assets."

The beauty of digital

On the first point, Four Arts is working with London Museum's Hub, a group of 23 non-national museums on its Stories of the World project. "These aren't the very biggest institutions," she explains. "But by sharing expertise and ideas they are able to reach out to a wider audience, empowering 14-24 year olds and telling the world how they are changing their museums for the better. The beauty of digital is that it doesn't only have to be about the big organisations, it can be a very democratic platform."

As for deeper engagement, "the aim is to create content that makes people more inclined to come and visit. Video tours of the site, photo galleries, even classes and tutorials - all these have the ability to drive more traffic to arts venue."

Commercial benefits

Of course, part of the appeal of online is that it can reach audiences who are not close geographically. So the question then is: can this distant audience can be monetised - perhaps through the kind of classes mentioned above? Or, even more ambitiously, by screening live performance into remote venues (something happening in the 3D cinema arena)?

"That's a decision for the arts organisation," stresses Clarke, "based on what it knows about its audience. Some do this already, others use crowdfunding or other fundraising tools, or make sure their digital programmes can deliver benefits for sponsors. What's certain is that there are commercial benefits for arts organisations in having a strong digital offering which don't necessarily involve charging their visitors."