social media

Speaking of Theatre Marketing...

You know that little event I talked about in my last blog post? Well, I can now add one more reason why being in attendance was so great for me. One of the people I met is on the Board of Directors for the Professional Arts Organizations Network for Education (PAONE) and he has asked me to appear on a pannel discussing social media and how I use it around my artistic practice and/or audience engagement. I am incredibly excited about this opportunity to talk about social media and the arts some more and thrilled that people are now starting to think about me for events happening in Toronto.

Besides, I just got these and I'm really itching to hand some out.

Joking aside, those cards are actually part of a bigger branding scheme that I have been rolling out over the past six months to get to where I am right now. And it all started with this website.

My friend Jeremy at Critty Design was an absolute dream to work with. I knew what I wanted in terms of function, but had no clue when it came to design. The very first time I saw the purple colour scheme, I was in love. He designed my business cards to match the layout of the site and I've taken it one step further by matching up my Twitter page and fiddling around with my other various social media profiles.

The fantastic Rebecca Coleman shared a great story on the importance of a personal brand and I couldn't agree with her more. You really should be following her.

Social media keeps developing at a rapid pace and you need to claim your space, your name, your brand before someone else those. Otherwise, you might end up as thenancykenny on Instagram and www.nancykenny.com will take you to piano lessons in Nebraska.

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Theatre Marketing Done Right

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I've been trying all week to jot my thoughts down about an event I attended earlier in the week, but it's been hard. Honestly, it was just such an amazing, balls-out, forward-thinking kind of thing that I've been worried I wouldn't be able to do it justice. Well, here goes nothing: Last Monday evening, I had the privilege of being invited to a pseudo-theatre launch for World Stage, Harbourfront Centre's contemporary performance series in Toronto. Now, the invitation in and of itself is not unusual for me, but this was a pretty special one.

Here, read for yourself:

As a social media influencer we’d like to invite YOU to a private party!

WHAT: A twitter-kegger-party!

Come out from the web-world and schmooze in person with fellow social media’lites and meet the artistic director of World Stage, @tinarasmussen.  Get behind the scenes details and information about the programming of this year's season, which starts in February and runs until May, and raise a pint to cheers the 2013 season!

WHEN: Monday, January 28th 7pm, beer and pulled pork (veg option too) 8pm, season presentation

WHERE: Tina's place

This was a special party for a veritable who's who of Toronto Theatre Twitterati (say that 3 times fast). There was food and drink, but as you can see, this didn't take place at the Harbourfront Centre. Nope, we were invited to artistic director Tina Rasmussen's home for an informal get-together to eat, drink and talk theatre.  The personal touch did not go unnoticed by everyone in attendance.

 

Getting to know Tina on this personal  level made her passion and enthusiasm for her season that much more engaging. This event let me know about a very wicked upcoming season (and if I was the type of person who could plan ahead, I would buy tickets for every show right now), gave me a wonderful opportunity to catch up with some old pals, meet some online theatre media from Mooney on Theatre, Torontoist and Charlebois Post, and of course, make new like-minded social media friends.

Artistic Directors take note! From my perspective, this was a massive PR success for World Stage Toronto. Not only did it get an 'influencer' like myself who knew nothing about the company to see it (and talk about constantly) in a very positive light, we also managed to get both @WorldStageTO and the event hashtag #theatrekegger trending on Twitter in Toronto.

Since some  marketing team from the Canadian Stage where in attendance and saw what a success this type of event can be, I look forward to being invited to a season launch BBQ at Matthew Jocelyn's house in the very near future #fingerscrossed #agirlcandream

Some of my favorite Tweets from the evening - follow the whole discussion at #theatrekegger:

 

 

 

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Big Changes and Events Coming Soon!

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A friend messaged me on Facebook recently to ask if I was still alive. When I answered that I had been taking a break from social media, she quickly wondered how that was possible since "you ARE social media." I just got tired, you know? I spend approximately 15 hours a day at two joe jobs that revolve entirely around social media. The vast majority of my life is spent in front of a screen and I just don't have anything witty to say about it anymore.  I wonder if people who work as cooks or cleaners for a living then go home and realize that the last thing they want to do is cook or clean?  These days, I just want to sit in the sun with my new e-reader (ok, still a screen, but at least it's got me reading fiction again) and hang out with the people I love.

Plus, I'm getting my shit together and re-branding this site. By mid-June, expect a brand spanking new website from yours truly.  There will be a few blog posts before then, mostly about the London Fringe Festival, which I plan on attending, but until then I leave you with this tidbit of juicy news:

Les Prix Rideau Award-winning, critically acclaimed Roller Derby Saved My Soul RETURNS!

I've been invited to participate in the Summer Chautauqua Theatre Festival in Swift Current, SK.  The festival organizer was looking up successful Fringe shows that she would like to produce, read good things about RDSMS online and contacted me directly through Facebook (contrary to what I've been saying above: gogo social media!) asking if I was touring this year and would I like to bring the show to her festival.  Though the official line-up hasn't been released, I can tell you that I will be performing on Thursday, July 5th at 9 p.m. and Friday, July 6th at 6 p.m.

That said, since I haven't performed the show in almost a year, I will be heading up to Ottawa to rehearse with my director, Tania Levy.  Which means:

OTTAWA - ONE DAY ONLY!

Roller Derby Saved My Soul - PWYC - July 2nd, 2012 (Holiday Monday) at the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama - See it again or for the very first time.

Time TBD - If there is enough interest, I may do two runs of the show that day. If you'd like to see the show, please let me know in the comment section if you would like attend a matinee or an evening performance.