A brief review of how I applied the concepts from my thesis, Work Smarter, Not Harder: Relationship Building 2.0, at the Alliance Theatre during their 2009-2010 season

1. Work Smarter, Not Harder: Relationship Building 2.0 at the Alliance Theatre, 2009-10 Presented by Lindsey E. Hardegree Performing Arts Management Thesis Project

2. The Thesis My thesis provides direction on where to start planning a strategy that will: encourage the next generation of arts supporters and contributors through relationship-building. re-examine marketing techniques to embrace the new challenge of social media and more web-based efforts. create efficiency in staffing through the use of specialized web-based professionals. I explore using new media as a tool for audience development, and creating a forward compatible strategy to support that initiative.

3. Creating the Strategy One of the key components to any audience development plan “requires that we talk to our potential audience, hear what they have to say, and incorporate their ideas into the work of our institutions.” – Donna Walker-Kuhne Goal: create relationships with a targeted group of people First step: determine the target For the Alliance Theatre, this was young professionals.

4. Where I Started No current staff member managing social media Facebook Group (not Page) with roughly 800 members Twitter profile with 376 followers Unmaintained profiles on MySpace and YouTube No reference to any social media sites on the company’s website

5. Facebook Moved from Facebook Group to Facebook Page Actively connecting staff members Posting all reviews, articles, and photos Currently at 1,700+ page “likes”

6. Twitter Linked Twitter to Facebook Page updates to generate content Manually review each new follower Monitor strategic searches Communicate actively with all members of local community and other industry accounts Customer Service

7. Additional Steps Created profiles on many social media sites so that we would own our own name on those sites (Flickr, Delicious, SlideShare, etc.) Researched local bloggers and social media mavens Advocated for social media placement on new website design

8. Media Relations Solicited mommy bloggers and treated them like press members – got us some excellent blog reviews and a new channel for selling educational programs The press are paying attention to social media and bloggers as well, and some cases this is great. Other times this can have negative effects . . .

9. Come Fly With Me Unsuccessful with involving creative team in social media, so efforts were minimal during run Show was a HUGE success, and we’ve been able to utilize that to feed our social media after the show closed

10. A Life in the Theatre Opening night offer was picked up by bargain blog with large African-American readership, which started a new blogger relationship Captured information for each person Almost all were first time attendees More than half attended a show later in the season About four donated, most over $100 dollars

11. Avenue X Hosted a YouTube a cappella competition in conjunction with our a cappella musical Great opportunity to relate with new groups and give them an opportunity to perform on our stage Did not do a press release – almost all communication about contest was done via social media and email AJC found out and wrote an article on the competition

12. Lookingglass Alice We hosted a Sneak Peek dress rehearsal and invited social media contacts – got us some traction in the mommy blogger world “Twitter Tuesday” at our last preview Brought in approximately 50 new young professionals to see the show Over 500 tweets about the production over a 3 day period

13. For More Information LindseyEHardegree@gmail.com http://facebook.com/lindsey.hardegree http://twitter.com/LindseyatTizzy To learn more about utilizing social media in your organization/business, visit http://tizzyconsulting.com