The document outlines the objectives, goals, strategies, and insights from a theater's experiment using Twitter and other social media to improve communications with its audiences. The theater's goal was to increase its follower count on Twitter and Facebook pages. Its initial strategy was to follow similar groups, copy their tactics of starting conversations and sharing blogs. Over time, it started creating its own content like videos. The response was small on Twitter but its Facebook audience started to grow and converse. The theater found it challenging to implement new marketing strategies amid its already busy schedule of productions. Its key insight was to focus first on listening, then find influencers and offer metrics to grow the audience over time.

1. SLIDE 1A: Cinnabar Title Page
-Experiment Type:
Twitter (but a lot of Listening too!)
SLIDE 1B: when we started we didn’t know anything and were
excited to fill our glass with knowledge
SLIDE 2: OBJECTIVE: Improve our communications to our
audiences
a) start talking and stop selling
b) create some thoughtful conversations
c) learn more about our audience
SLIDE 3: GOAL: Increase our audience on both Twitter & Facebook
Twitter followers 120 now 240
Facebook Education Page 71 to 82
Facebook Fan Page 223 to 311
Facebook Member Page 180 members to 420
*we believed if we increase our following on FB and
Twitter our audience will grow
SLIDE 4: What was my strategy to begin?
1) started following groups I admired
2) started following who they admired
3) I began to copy them
SLIDE 5: Tactics I tried: Conversation starters & forwarding Blogs
1) Is He Dead? show about an artist who decides he can be more famous
dead then alive...true or false? What do you think? Fri Apr 2 22:16:20 2010
via web
2) #petaluma #california @chiliempress How would you judge

2. chili? Find out how one of our VIP judges is Cookoff
http://bit.ly/d3cRdB Sat May 1 08:15:33 2010 via web
3) @CinnabarTheater Is opera kid’s stuff? Or just silly?
http://tinyurl.com/2bm4qwv @Cinnabartheater #classical #sonoma
#2amt #opera Wed May 26 12:11:30 2010 via web
SLIDE 6: PLUS: started creating content: Created Videos
Created these short videos we call Cinna-minute; a less then 2
minute videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHmvwJ7TpZM&feature=email
SLIDE 7: THE RESPONSE?
Small to moderate response on Twitter, but on Facebook we’ve
started to build an audience and they are just starting to talk
SLIDE 8: Obstacles –already too busy
-I found that my already busy schedule made it hard to start this
-As theater that is sort of a hybrid the task is great, with opera,
comedy, improv, musical theater, classical music, huge community
events & an education program –building groups has been slow
*Since this class started:
-Produced 1 Small Comedy Fundraiser
-3 Improv Shows
-Large City-wide Community Event (fundraiser)
-2 matching grant campaigns ($15k & $10k)
-Finished our Last Play for the season
-Open and closed our Young Rep Musical
-Opened and are closing our last Opera for the season
-Created and presented our Annual Budget to our Finance
Committee
-squeezed in a vacation

3. -due to the small staff – we all have so much on our plate --made it
hard to create a whole new set of marketing strategies mid-season
SLIDE 9: WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENTLY?
-wouldn’t have bit off too much to begin with, would have focused on
listening project only –started slower
SLIDE 10: MY BIG AH HA INSIGHT FOR NEXT TIME
I have much to do
1) Find an influencer and “woo them”
2) Begin to offer things to metric our audience
3) Continue to listen and grow our audience