1. Live Blogging & Live Tweeting
The smArts & Culture blog reported in February about the Portland Center Stage’s Live-Tweeting Theater experiment. “They invited ’30 or so of [their] closest twitter friends’ plus anyone else who cared to join them, to live-tweet the world premiere performance of the play Apollo.”

The Art of Business Blog also used the Portland Center Stage Twitter experiment as an example in their post, How Businesses are Using New Media for Publicity, and noted that, “The Vancouver Opera invited three bloggers to come and live blog and Twitter a performance of their latest Opera, Carmen. The show was a sell-out.”

2. Niche Social Networks
In his Mashable post, How Broadway Talks to its Audiences Using Social Media, Ken Davenport recommends creating niche social networks for fans like the social network, 80s Rock Fans created for the musical, Rock of Ages.

He also suggests that theaters do outreach in niche social networks that already exist: “Promoters of the play Billy Elliot can find groups of ballet lovers on a site like intermission.ning.com, while Next To Normal might look into DoctorsHangout.com to appeal to psychiatrists and psychologists who would find the subject matter compelling.”

3. Podcasts and Video
Jon Stancato of The Stolen Chair Theatre Company writes in his post on the Jenzabar Foundation blog that, “Stolen Chair participates in at least 3 podcasts a year (often through NYtheatrecast), giving supporters the opportunity to hear the voices of our creative team, often in dialogue with other New York theatre artists.”  The company also creates trailers to build excitement for new productions.

4. Collaborative Content Creation
The LA Times’ Culture Monster blog post, Theaters are taking social networking to a new level, reported in June about the La Jolla Playhouse’s Your Life, Our Stage initiative that invited people to, “submit ideas for a play based on their own lives by uploading videos, photos, artwork and written descriptions via the social networking vendor Brickfish.”

5. iPhone Applications
Finally, in its April post, Broadway in Chicago courts theatergoers with iPhone app, The Chicago Times blog, Media and Marketing Mix wrote about the Broadway in Chicago iPhone application that allows users to check performance times, purchase tickets and preview videos of of shows.

What are other examples have you seen of how theatres are using social media?

Image Credit: Broadway in Chicago iPhone application image taken from www.broadwayinchicago.com/iphone.php

I don’t know about you, but I *love* bookstores.  Yes, sometimes I order things when I’m in a rush from Amazon, but nothing beats bookstore browsing.  I can’t imagine a world without independent bookstores, can you?

Bookselling this Week had an article by Karen Schechner (@KSchechner) earlier in the summer about how, Savvy Booksellers Use Twitter to Draw Crowds, Boost Sales. The article highlights 3 case studies of how bookstores have used Twitter, a microblogging and social networking tool, to improve business:

1. Fountain Bookstore (@FountainBkstore) used Twitter to take questions for authors during book readings from fans who couldn’t come to the event.

2. Skylight Books (@skylightbooks) had a tweet-up, a meeting of their Twitter followers, one night at the store.  Attendees received, “15-percent off all books in the store, and 20-percent off hardcover fiction and graphic novels.”

3. Rainy Day Books (@RainyDayBooks) hosted a contest on Twitter that, “gave indie fans a chance to proclaim their love for their favorite bookshops.”

The Booksellers Blog, by @AnnKingman, which focuses on, “online marketing, social media, and blogging for the Independent Bookseller,” has 7 posts about how booksellers can use Twitter:

1. How to get 700 new visitors in 2 days
2. Making things happen using social media
3. What I Think about Twitter for Booksellers
4. Can booksellers and publishers use Twitter to drive business?
5. How I follow 1700 people on Twitter in only 20 minutes a day
6. A simple way for bookstores to use Twitter
7. Can Twitter really work for small businesses?

Finally, you can see additional examples of booksellers using Twitter by browsing through the WeFollow Twitter directory for Twitter accounts tagged with bookseller and bookstore.

Do you have a  story about how independent bookstores are using Twitter, or other social media tools, to build their business?  I hope you’ll share it in the comments.

Britt Bravo also blogs for Have Fun * Do Good, BlogHer, and WE Volunteer.  She is a Big Vision Consultant.