Voices Inspired

The Gertrude C. Ford Center of the Performing Arts at the University of Mississippi in University, Mississippi is a facility that tells you to, “Come as you are. Leave better off.” The Ford Center opened in 2003, after raising funds since 1998 and beginning construction in 2002. The Center hosts, theater plays, dance productions, singers/choruses, bands and orchestras.

The Ford Center makes use of the Internet, but could improve considerably. The official website has useful information about events, location, education, history and how to support. Many of the information are inked to another site, which makes the Ford Website seem pointless. There is a video profile on the Center and a very detailed list of events, besides that the website is very bland.

The website should be much more colorful, animated and lively to invite visitors to stay and browse through the site. The Ford Center website should attract the public by integrating photos, video and place association. Under the events tab, should be an option to view photos from previous events and possibly even behind the scenes video. Under history, construction photos could also be displayed. Not just photos of employees and staff, photos that show the public involved, to entice more to volunteer and donate. Videos of people discussing what they enjoyed most about their visit to the Center.

Interestingly enough, the Center website links to the Facebook page but not to the Twitter page. This can mean the Twitter page host is not an official staff member of the Center; therefore the Center does not publicly support it. The Facebook page has many friends and check ins on Facebook places; they have a Monday giveaway and respond to all comments from the people. Thumbs up for that!! The twitter page, posts updates about events and to the students mainly, but the credibility of the page host again is questionable. The Center should become active on sites such as Flickr, YouTube, and Foursquare and start a blog.

People want to be inspired by an organization to be involved with the organization. Right now, I can guess most support of the Ford Center are from students and their word-of-mouth. Above and beyond that, the public needs to be able to share their experiences with others as well as with the Ford Center. The public relate through the stage, outside of that it would seem that the public does not exist as a crucial factor to the Ford Center. And how long will word-of-mouth live on, if the organization is “dead” from a lack of voice and conversation.