A Proposal for TCG

I recently made a bet with a friend of mine that who ever snags a presenting role at the TED Talks first, has to buy the other one a ticket to the most expensive conference ever. Ever since I worked for Brian Greene, superstring demigod and frequent TEDster, it’s been my dream to be accomplished enough to get selected as a presenter. TED is all about gathering the brightest minds from across the globe to discuss “ideas worth spreading.” I’m hoping this is the first step towards that goal.

The TCG national conference is coming up in June, and our managing director, Vicki Nolan, has asked me to propose a break out session topic based on my social media strategy research. While I’ve given an endless succession of presentations for work and class (4 degrees and counting), I’ve never presented at a national conference. The theme of this year’s TCG conference is “Ideas into Action,” so I’d like to talk more about the practical application of my somewhat theoretical research. But trying to pitch what I’d be speaking about four months from now in an industry that changes daily is proving to be a challenge. So I need your help! Here’s what I’m thinking:

Session Title: Social Media Strategy: Why ROI Isn’t Enough

Session Description:
You’ve got an active Facebook fan page, a rabid Twitter following, and a kick ass website. Now what? Once you’ve started experimenting, how do you know when you’ve hit upon something that works? How do you measure success? What’s the true impact of your social media strategy? Can you start scaling back other marketing efforts now that you’ve got all of these engaged fans? Why might you want to take social media beyond the marketing department? Where can you find other social media tools and resources on the web? Join us for a practical discussion on framing a robust social media strategy, deciding what to measure, learning about what’s next in this quickly changing field, and sharing with colleagues from across the country about what’s working and what needs a new solution.

Learning Objectives:

1. Best practices for developing a social media strategy.
2. Key benchmarks for who’s doing what in the field.
3. Meaningful metrics and the tools to capture and analyze them.

Following this session, participants should have a new method for crafting a social media strategy, whether in marketing, fundraising, collaboration, or beyond. They will have the tools to benchmark their peers, analyze the customer segment they’re trying to reach, formulate a strategic plan, and select appropriately measurable outcomes.

Handouts:

1. Social Media in the Theatre, 2009.
2. Social Media Strategy.
3. Additional material from my blog, 24 Usable Hours.

In particular, I plan to update the social media field research to include non-LORT theatres, and hope to bring up the issues and ideas in social media that are most pressing as of June 2010.

Presenter Biography:
Devon Smith is a recent graduate of Yale School of Drama’s Theatre Management MFA, and Yale School of Management’s MBA programs. She has worked for Yale Repertory Theatre as their Director of Research and Analysis, and as the Associate Director of Marketing; with Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Managing Director to help articulate their long range plan, for the World Science Festival’s corporate relations department, for Roundabout Theatre’s major gifts program, and at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, helping to devise a business plan for $500 million in project expenses, as well as for other theatre and dance companies in New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles, and South Carolina. She regularly blogs about her research on social media in the theatre at 24 Usable Hours.

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Is this a session you’d want to go to? Are there new or different topics I should be addressing? Are you totally bored to tears by my descriptions? I’ve helped you a few times before, right? Now it’s your turn!