Nuyorican Facebook Cafe

The Wall Street Journal published an article about how the Nuyorican Poets Cafe uses social networking tools to attract young people. The executive director, Daniel Gallant, says that the new tools allow them to reach a geographically, economically, and ethnically diverse audience:

Since late 2009, Mr. Gallant has exploited expanding social-media tools to grow the cafe from a small, volunteer-led venue best known for weekly poetry events to a thriving arts center with partnerships across the city. Through strategic use of Facebook, Twitter and a $10,000-per-month grant from Google, he said he has boosted online ticket sales by 30% and web traffic by 40%, and doubled the number of events from around one per evening to two or more. Mr. Gallant said the cafe went through a "Darwinian process," using the Google Analytics service to "see which search terms are inspiring enthusiasm."

And they also allow the Cafe to read audience response and demand:

One Nuyorican staff member monitors the cafe's Facebook page—which now boasts nearly 18,000 members—throughout the day, posting announcements and answering questions. Mr. Gallant can then divine how particular artists or time slots are received by his customer base, which in turn affects programming. "Being able to see the interests and needs of audiences in a real-time way can also dispel myths and conventional wisdom about what are or aren't good programming and operation procedures," he said.