Facebook and Twitter have always been great platforms for staying connected, sharing resources and even meeting new friends, but when it comes to talkin’ smack, the stakes (and followers) seem to rise. Recently, the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) and the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) engaged in a little online sibling rivalry and in the heat of it all ended up betting some high praised works of art on this year’s Super Bowl. Via Twitter, IMA director Max Anderson wagered a three-month loan of a recently acquired painting on the outcome of the Colts v. Saints. Well, NOMA gave a big old “Who dat?!” and the bet was on. Again, all of this one-upmanship occurred in the digital tennis game that is Twitter. My serve, your serve.
Obviously Anderson was rooting for the Colts. And we all know how that story ends. (If you don’t, the Colts lost.) The significance of this whole bet, however, is rooted in the publicity that each museum garnered. In addition to Twitter, this smack talk was also discussed on the Modern Art Notes blog, meaning that anyone who follows their tweets or that art blog most likely followed the course of the bet.
In publicly announcing the bet and egging one another on, the two museums were actually generating interest through social media, whether they realized it or not. They rallied their art history communities around something entirely unexpected — home team pride — and in the process caught the attention of folks outside their average orbit. xiik did something similar when we realized that we had more Facebook followers than our friends over at another Indy firm, Mediasauce. See the humorous post here. In this case, we inspired several comments and feedback about our little popularity contest. You know what they say: any publicity is good publicity.
Unfortunately, it looks like Max Anderson and the IMA were just a tad over confident with their art wager. The Saints’ 31-17 victory over the Colts proved quite a few people wrong, including most of us xiik geeks. In a final tweet to end the Super Bowl bet, IMA declared, “Congrats to the Saints & @NOMA1910 on winning the Super Bowl bet. #Indy-be sure to see the JMW Turner before it heads to New Orleans!” Now that’s good sportsmanship! As Twitter continues to broaden its utility to interactions such as money transfers or one-on-one interviewing, we will likely see “tweeple” using the service in more creative ways, like smack talking, to entertain and thus promote their brand.
