FINDINGS
“What I enjoyed the most was the community...I really felt that I was part of a group that actually was passionate about the same things that I was”
- Alumni on the Young Talents Program
Young Talents Pianist
Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are the most popular social media sites among young Romanian artists for sharing their work.
Current members and alumni generally preferred Instagram the most in regards to promoting their work online. As shown in the figure, 100% of current members indicated they use the platform alongside 86% of alumni. As one interviewee expressed, “nowadays I feel like Instagram is really powerful and it's not only my opinion, but I also heard it from people in the business, managers... It's very important to put yourself out there and to present yourself and to show people what you're doing and how you are doing it” (Young Talents alumni, age 21). Young Talents respondents also indicated high preference for Facebook, with 73% of current members and 78% of alumni selecting the platform. Finally, alumni and unaffiliated artists enjoy promoting on YouTube, as 77% of alumni and 70% of unaffiliated artists prefer the platform. This suggests that Instagram, as well as Facebook and YouTube may be effective platforms for promoting art in Romania.
Artists can gain professional opportunities from social media.
Two alumni explained that they received their current jobs through social media: one through YouTube and another through the audio-sharing site SoundCloud. “It was a dream; I was searching for some auditions and I was in Stuttgart to make an audition and then someone found me on YouTube,” stated one interviewee when explaining how she received her current position (Young Talents Alumnus, age 27). These statements indicate that professionals utilize social media to find new talent. Furthermore, these success stories have the potential to inspire Young Talents’ current members who may not yet have as much experience with social media as the alumni.
Those applying to the Young Talents Program would like to see more diverse work from past members on social media.
Current member interviewees expressed an interest in seeing the work of alumni on the Young Talents social media pages. “I was curious about what kind of artwork or people from other years participated in this program, and I couldn’t find it,” explained a current member when describing her feelings during the application process (Young Talents Current Member, age 21). An alumnus expressed similar opinions about the diversity of the Young Talents social media, stating: “if you want to promote visual art, then promote every visual artist that actually was in your program” (Young Talents alumni, age 26). Alumni of the program expressed to the team that they felt certain types of art were not as well represented on the program’s social media as others, and an analysis of the program’s social media pages revealed that they feature a wide range of visual artists, but do not highlight as much work from musicians.
Young Talents Instagram Posts May 6th, 2020 - August 29th, 2020
Artists want to hear personal experiences and emotional stories from other artists.
As well as posting the art and music of current members and alumni, artists also expressed that they want to see personal testimonies as a companion to these posts. One interviewee said “… if [the Young Talents Program] wants to grow outside of [the art community], they should have something [that] translates to any other group of people that may not be so interested in art … something that will connect with more people, and stories always do that” (Young Talents alumni, age 26).
The Young Talents Facebook and Instagram pages have inconsistent posting schedules.
As shown in the figure, the Young Talents Facebook (yellow) and Instagram (orange) go through periods of high and low posting frequency. The average number of posts-per-month for the Facebook page is 13, and for the Instagram page is three. Nonprofit organizations should post four times a week (16 to 20 times per month) on Instagram to maximize user engagement and audience recognition and five times a week (20 to 25 times per month) on Facebook (Feehan, 2021).
Social media takeovers are a technique that organizations use to allow persons of interest to create content for their pages.
A social media takeover is a form of marketing where an organization grants posting privileges to a person of interest such as a celebrity, expert, or community member. Users have the opportunity to take advantage of social media takeovers on all platforms, however it is most popular to do so on Instagram or Facebook (Sehl, 2019). Takeovers allow social media administrators to delegate the time needed to create content to other stakeholders, and provide those stakeholders the opportunity to tell their stories firsthand. Through a takeover, Young Talents current members could learn how to create engaging content for social media, therefore strengthening their individual promotional skills, meanwhile the program would also benefit from an increase in content without a high time commitment.