Page 99 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014culture. It is a process of general cultural change, in which can be found all the economic sectors and in which, according to a recent report, has still not been successful even for the big companies in the Ibex35 listing, of which only little over 50% had an active presence on social networks, revealing through their dialogue with their users that they have unfinished business, using the networks above for the dissemination of content.Nonetheless, also in Spain there are other sectors such as leisure, and specifically discothèques, which are demonstrating that in this country it is also possible to do things well with social networks. A report published in 2013 stresses that Spanish discothèques are world leaders in the use of social networks and that of 35% of the Facebook and Twitter audiences of the hundred best discothèques in the world, ten of them are in Spain. Their figures for video viewings and comments on their YouTube channels run into the millions. This shows that it is possible for a sector to make the leap to the social networks if an effort is made to understand the rules and the users.Hence, the aim of using social networks in culture must be to create large, strong cultural communities in which a cultural institution or cultural initiatives are the catalyst that propitiates the interchange of experience. This would have two immediate effects: firstly, engagement (to use the marketing jargon), and secondly dissemination, far beyond what other communications media are able to do and at much lower cost.REAL CASES: THE USE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS IN CULTURAL INITIATIVESLet us turn to the analysis of the use of social networks in the field of culture.First we shall see how they can be used to extend the cultural experience to others and/or prolong this experience.We shall also see how they can be used to build ever closer links with users, creating cultural communities and to measure this relationship by their interactions (“likes”, “comments” or “shares” in Facebook or retweets on Twitter).Competitions are also a very frequent resource in networks to extend and stimulate the communities that have been created and so widely used and effective are they that they merit a section to themselves.We shall see how image‐based networks such as YouTube, Instagram, etc., can be used in a form of collective co‐creation and can also use other networks such as Twitter or Facebook as unexpected “new spaces” to bring a work into existence, be it literature, theatre or dance, for example.Finally, a lengthy section must be devoted to the issue of the collective financing of cultural projects, crowdfunding. In this case, the social networks share amongst their followers the support one has givenIts potential really comes to light when it is used to create interest communities, enabling participation, conversation and collaborationEvidently, thesocial networksmay be used ornot used. Thischoice is linkedto the strategyand what it issought toachieve. But their potential really comes out when they are used for what is truly their essence: to create interest communities, enabling participation, conversation and collaboration. Networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc., are merely tools, but what are truly changing the world, what has changed it forever, are the communities, the common interest groups that find on the Net their way of organising themselves, communicating and multiplying the exchange of ideas and knowledge. This was so even before the arrival of social networks and took place through forums, chatrooms and all the tools for interchange available to those who recognised each other as being similar in terms of their interests.WHERE WE ARE HEADING: DIGITAL TRENDS IN THE WORLD OF CULTURETHEME 8: ARE THE SOCIAL NETWORKS ANY USE TO THE CULTURE INDUSTRY?AC/E CURRENT PAGE...99