It’s a phenomenon most networks are well aware of, and their social media strategies are forced to take a back seat to fan communities, often due to legal and creative restrictions placed upon their source material.

Girls, HBO’s hipster answer to Sex and the City, has found itself at the mercy of a GIF generation without enough street cred to keep things real on official social channels. The network attempted to play the GIF game with “What Should We Call Girls,” a Tumblr page created in November. Great, right? Well, it couldn’t ignore legal restrictions and included a list of “rules” fans are meant to follow if creating their own animations.

Buzz kill or Buzzfeed? Neither. WSWCG is merely one of many pages helping propel Girls in the right direction on social media, albeit the only one with an “official” label. Of course HBO should have created a Tumblr account highlighting GIFs. But, it doesn’t need to be the most popular page in existence.

“Sometimes, quite frankly, the fans do it better than we do,” Sabrina Caluori, vice president of social media and performance marketing at HBO, said at a recent Social Media Week event. “We’re not on Instagram for Game of Thrones because there are 10 fan accounts who can post content more quickly than we can and post content that we wouldn’t legally be able to do.”

It’s easy to think entertainment brands like television, movies, and Broadway shows have an endless amount of cool assets to utilize when creating digital content. After all, when the likes of Lena Dunham and David Mamet are writing your source material, why wouldn’t marketers easily be able to push that out on social channels?

Copyright, union restrictions and creative license concerns are just a few of the hurdles brands face when thinking of ways to extend storylines or showcase behind-the-scenes activities through digital media.

“We as marketers would never say that we are the creators,” Caluori said. “Lena Dunham is the voice of Girls and we are never going to create a side storyline that isn’t written by her or somebody that is in her show capacity. The challenge we always have is that there is a lot of excitement to do these ancillary storylines.”

Broadway’s Next to Normal did this on Twitter through digital storytelling — the musical’s book writer, Brian Yorkey, was tasked with adapting the show into 140-character messages. But, what happens when a playwright isn’t involved in digital creation? As Caluori points out, a marketer should not dare try writing something for a character that isn’t written by the creator.

Should more show creators be contractually obligated to write digital versions of story lines to extend the action? Perhaps. Yorkey bought into the idea, although, he admitted that it sounded like “a bit of a chore.” Lena Dunham is quite the avid Twitter user, taking to the social network for fan interaction during broadcasts.

Twitter sees great power in actors and show creators joining the social conversation during broadcasts. The social media company works directly with celebrities to encourage, and tout, real-time engagement. They often promote upcoming actor Twitter sessions on their blog. Marketers at HBO can now let the likes of Dunham help generate social buzz without needing to create their own “marketing” content.

While an industry like Broadway can’t rely on actors tweeting during a performance — they have a nasty habit of being on stage while a show is taking place — there are creative types offstage that keep social chatter going. Broadway songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda is always taking to Twitter and boosting fan engagement. If Twitter employees want to kick things up a notch, try arranging for the likes of Stephen Sondheim to jump on the digital bandwagon — 140-character lyrical outtakes, perhaps?

And what about the GIF situation? Take a page out of HBO’s playbook and yield to the fans. Those fans can often be social media influences, a demographic that should be included in any solid social media strategy. Take the master of cranking out GIFs in near real-time, New York Times cultural reporter Dave Itzkoff. He has become an amusing leader in the world of fan-generated digital content.

Brands can be great storytellers, but so can fans. A tweet, GIF, or Vine doesn’t need a verified badge behind it to make it successful marketing. Can’t crank out your own hot Instagram images on an official account? Round up the great stuff your fans are creating and spotlight their work. We now live in the age of content marketing. If you can’t create it, don’t give up, give in and embrace the fans. Just make sure those monitoring tools are fired up.

“It will be a beacon to the world,” The New York Times wrote in 1959, just as ground was broken for construction of Lincoln Center. Beyond some of the world’s greatest art taking place inside the performance spaces, that beacon has been cemented on the silver screen in a handful of classic Hollywood films.

From Barbra Streisand in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and Cher in Moonstruck to Natalie Portman in Black Swan and Gene Wilder in The Producers, here are just a few of the movies that filmed at Lincoln Center:

Margaret, 2011

Sweet Charity, 1969

The trick to social media adoption in the world of entertainment is to move beyond the label of “social media.” Imagine a computer and how, over the last five years, technology has allowed the physical understanding of a computer to disappear. People now constantly interact with some of the most advanced computing devices imaginable and they don’t even realize it, thanks to Apple. My wife’s mother uses an iPhone with ease, yet the idea of sitting down to use a traditional computer still presents her with a challenge — one still wonders how someone can contract so many viruses.

“Computers have disappeared. You don’t think about the fact that you’re using a computer when you’re on your iPhone or your Samsung,” Goldstar CEO Jim McCarthy told me during a recent conversation about the future of live entertainment ahead of TEDxBroadway.

“The computer disappeared.” Literally? Of course not. However, the perceived barrier computers once had to non-techies is gone. Apple’s iPhone revolution popularized the once complicated piece of technology. As McCarthy pointed out, a person doesn’t think about using a computer while using a computer. Social media needs to crack that nut.

Integrating television viewing habits with social technologies is now at a point where actions such as live tweeting, hashtag engagement, and viral messaging is common practice among certain demographics. Certainly, there are exciting opportunities to further develop those basic practices; however, it’s time to go one step further.

People use mobile devices in order to make their tasks more convenient. It’s not the phone that creates the tasks rather the tasks already exist and the iPhone makes it easier. Otherwise, you would have to walk to a pay phone — god forbid — or send that tweet when you got back to your computer.

Consider mobile photo sharing. Taking photos is something people are naturally inclined to do. They take them with their phones because it’s easier. Why did it take an app like Instagram to open the floodgates? It took an already commonplace action and made it easier and prettier. Now, an everyday Joe can add a filter in five seconds then spit out a prettified photo of his group of friends. Instagram is simple and integrated itself into a now commonplace action.

For one to participate in the current model of social television and music experiences, they are still forced to turn away from the screen or stage, type on an awkward device, and stare at TweetDeck for fellow hashtag users. It breaks their attention span and disrupts the entertainment experience. There has to be something better.

“Ultimately, it’s just about people expressing themselves and their connections to other people, and the way that they feel like it, with as little effort as possible,” said McCarthy. “Eventually it’ll be so minimal, the effort, that we’ll stop talking about it except that it will be happening constantly.”

Great minds — like Facebook, Graph Search and Google Glasses — are at work developing advancements. Not only will Google Glasses turn “geeky” into chic-y for kids wearing glasses in school, it will attempt to seamlessly integrate many digital tasks into already established behavior. How will television programs integrate with social technologies that begin to blur the lines between social interaction and normal viewing habits?

Earlier this month, Twitter acquired Bluefin Labs, a company that monitors social conversations around television programming. Twitter’s stated goal is to “create innovative new ad products and consumer experiences in the exciting intersection of Twitter and TV.”

Twitter’s intention to create new consumer experiences is promising, but mere software or app development might not be the answer. Opening GetGlue or holding my iPhone up to a television set to let Viggle scan a sound wave disrupts the viewing experience.

As Apple deals with chatter of a stalled iPhone 6 development cycle — potentially leading to consumers further jumping ship for devices with larger screens or lower prices — perhaps the long-rumored Apple Television set could fully integrate social media with prime time viewing habits.

CNN has just re-introduced The Ticker to the lower third of its screen, a shift brought by its new boss, Jeff Zucker. What’s to stop a television set from running a social ticker? Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion fully integrated social alerts into its system, no longer requiring a user to open Facebook or Twitter to see mentions or friends’ posts.

Imagine turning on your television for Downton Abbey and having all of your social networks show your friends what you’re watching. Think of it as Spotify for TV. Your trusted network of friends just Tweeted with a hashtag for the program you’re watching? It scrolls in the social ticker. Did a scene just blow your mind? A quick click on your remote and your social feeds pinpoint the exact moment you screamed as (spoiler safe) a character died. Why should you need a laptop or iPhone at your fingertips when your television set has all of the tools built in? Want to express your outrage at The Walking Dead’s latest character assassination? Tell Siri’s television set cousin, Nielsen.

It’s time for technology to wow us consumers again. A hashtag in the corner during Glee or awarding a GetGlue badge for watching the latest Pretty Little Liars episode — that’s just social media 101. Audiences are ready to graduate to the advanced class. They are just waiting for the proper toolset. Google TV never really took off when it was first introduced, but talk of Google stores might breathe new life into this experiment. The trick is in perfecting the user experience. You need to convince grandma that this new fangled technology isn’t new fangled after all. Your move, Apple.

I originally wrote this article for the Huffington Post on February 21, 2013.

Big ideas are what made Steve Jobs a god amongst geeks. They allowed Henry Ford to crank out cars for the masses. Big ideas can become so popular, that they turn to the dark side. Take the concept of outsourcing, for instance. Businessweek.com has a nice roundup of the big ideas thought up over the past 100 years.

Expiration dates on big ideas appear to be coming faster than ever before. Once a big idea is mainstreamed, the original innovator has a small window of opportunity to crank out another game changer.

Apple is facing that harsh reality as the iPhone is now coming up against venerable competitors. “Questions are going to be around innovation and where the next products are coming from and what does [Apple's] Tim Cook see in the next 12 to 18 months,” a Cross Research analyst told Reuters. No time for rest in the big ideas business.

Technology isn’t the only industry in search–and in need–of the next big idea. Live entertainment, more specifically Broadway, is facing its own struggles as it searches for ways to brush off its staleness and start dreaming up its own metaphorical iPhone.

“Very little from Broadway figures on my list of this year’s most memorable productions,” wrote New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley. Those are harsh words for a year-end roundup of 2012′s “best” productions.

Does that mean we can’t pin our hopes of a better tomorrow on the playwrights and directors of Broadway? Not exactly, but you can’t rush art. What you can rush is art’s surroundings, because things like physical theaters, merchandise, ticketing systems, second-screen experiences, and broadcast equipment have been rapidly evolving in industries other than Broadway.

The arts are in desperate need of technological convergence. And TedxBroadway is hoping to give theatrical entertainment a push towards progress. “We’re now in this sort of sweet spot for people recognizing that change, and I don’t want say change, but like an evolution is happening faster than I think people expected,” Situation Interactive founder Damian Bazadona told me as we discussed what is in store for TedxBroadway 2013. This is the second iteration of an industry event aimed at “bringing together experts from a wide range of fields to create, share, and stimulate dialogue about making Broadway the best it can be.”

Bazadona started TedxBroadway last year along with producer Ken Davenport and Goldstar CEO Jim McCarthy. “I hope to be in this business another ten years from now, twenty years from now. So if I’m going to be here, I think we need to start having discussions, and not just with ourselves but from outside perspectives and outside point-of-views.”

While Broadway’s core is not built upon technology–acting, writing, and stagecraft reign supreme in the theater– many of the big ideas that could potentially transport the theatrical industry into a safe future are grappling with ways to provide a play or musical with a larger footprint and exposure to a wider audience.

“Maybe there’s not a clear path from here to there, but it’s not insane. It could be done, it’s conceivable,” McCarthy added to our conversation before drawing a correlation to the iPhone. “One example of that is, and I was just talking to George Takei [who is set to speak at TedxBroadway] so Star Trek is on my mind, is the communicator. If you ask a lot of the guys who were in the telecommunications industry in the ’70s and ’80s, they thought to themselves, oh yeah, okay. So how would something like that actually work? 20 years later, it was real.”

Okay, so a new mobile phone isn’t likely to be the next savior of Broadway, but that sense of active imagination and big dreams big positioned Steve Jobs as an industry savior. Broadway needs its own Steve Jobs. And that’s what TedxBroadway is presenting–big thinkers positioned in front of the theater industry’s movers and shakers. They want to open minds and unlock potential.

“How does an ecosystem like Broadway actually lead the culture rather than follow it? It often does and sometimes doesn’t, but live entertainment as a whole has an opportunity to be a kind of leader of the culture rather than a taker of the influences of the culture,” said McCarthy.

In a room full of Broadway marketers and producers, how do you sell an idea of change without a clearly defined return on investment? When it comes to TedxBroadway, it’s the big idea that turns a profit, although it’s not a dollar sign attached to the value, it’s onboarding Broadway to the idea of thinking big.

“I think the curiosity curve for Broadway is beginning to slope,” added Bazadona. “There is a sort of sense of curiosity of the talent within the industry, and I mean everybody. That’s from everyone, like what does live theater really mean?”

What does live theater really mean? That’s a big question requiring a big answer. Some ideas were tossed around at last year’s inaugural TedxBroadway, including talks by Randy Wiener on “The Future of Show Content” and Vincent Gassetto on “Audience Development.” This year, when TedxBroadway takes to New World Stages in New York City on January 28, some of these ideas will be dug into deeper and new ideas will be brainstormed.

“Last year we nibbled at it around the edges, about the idea that Broadway is a limited inventory industry, and one of the ways that we framed this before is imagining if the NBA only made money from selling tickets to the games,” said McCarthy. “[Court Theatre's] Adam Thurman is going to cue that up with his thoughts, and the example he gives is actually a basketball one where the kid in China wearing the LeBron James jersey will never set foot in Madison Square Garden.”

Broadway’s pulse is still strong. Arts organizations are hearing these conversations and have started acting on digital impulses. A recent Pew Research study noted that 81% of organizations receiving funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) say the internet and digital technologies are “very important” for promoting the arts while 78% say audience engagement is increased by those digital means.

TedxBroadway will not leave Broadway theater owners and producers with the keys to the future. There are no to-do lists handed out at the end of the conference. The tool needed to unlock the next big idea is a willingness to experiment, fail, and try again. Remember, for every iPhone there was a Newton, that rare Apple miss.

“I think it’s good to have a public facing moment because I hope that these things help trigger more people,” said Bazadona. “I think there’s only good that comes out of it, especially when you take out the pressures of having to feel like we’re going to solve anything. We’re not there to solve things. We’re there to start a conversation.”

“Here in the world’s creative capital we should ensure all of our students receive a comprehensive, integrated arts education,” the campaign’s leader told the Los Angeles Times. “I think we owe it to the parents to bring this back to the schools.”

The struggle to keep arts alive and well in public school systems is not unique to Los Angeles. Vans is now in its fourth year of promoting the importance of arts in schools with its “Custom Culture Mission.” The company describes this program as aiming to have high school students “embrace their creativity and draw attention to the importance of art as an integral part of our schools’ focus in the face of shrinking budgets.”

Beyond Los Angeles education officials and shoe companies, there is a strong awareness campaign taking place on social media channels. In fact, I found links to the above two initiatives through the Twitter hashtag #ArtsMatter.

Art is not a luxury. Let’s bring art & creativity to every classroom in LAUSD. Tell @lafund why #ArtsMatter to you!

— LACMA (@LACMA) January 9, 2013

I’m happy to report that there are plenty of organizations taking to Twitter and Facebook in hopes of keeping arts in schools.

I was recently asked to speak with Lincoln Center Institute (LCI) about the social media landscape in relation to arts education. While researching for my discussion with the educational arm of Lincoln Center, I decided to assemble a few tips for those interested in joining the arts education conversation on Twitter.

Arts Education Social Media Resources:

Twitter Accounts to Follow
I have created this Twitter list for you to either follow or pick and chose those you are interested in directly following: http://twitter.com/SimsJames/arts-education

For a broader education group of Twitter users, try here: http://wefollow.com/interest/education

Hashtags
Below you will find a list of active hashtags used for education-related chats on Twitter. For a more complete list, look here: http://edudemic.com/2012/09/twitter-hashtags-now/

#artsed – Arts education chat
#afterschoolworks – After school programs
#4thchat – Fourth grade teachers chat on Mondays at 8pm ET
#cpchat – Connected Principals
#cr8edu – Creative education ideas/stories/resources
#earlyed – Early education
#edapp – Educational apps
#edchat – Global education discussions
#edreform – Educational reform and change
#edtech – Technology for educational purposes
#musedchat – For music educators
#profdev – Teacher development

Social Media Strategy
Time must be dedicated to researching and developing a proper social media strategy for your organization. Begin by observing the hashtag conversations and following like-minded individuals on Twitter (links above) to see how they are using social media. The hardest part is getting started, so get to it!

Live Tweeting the Golden Globes

Storified by James Sims· Sun, Jan 13 2013 20:56:41