Susan Gunelius, President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., delivered this presentation at the OPERA America annual conference in Boston, Massachusetts in May 2011. The seminar taught attendees how to use social media marketing to build their brands and businesses strategically.

1. Social Media Marketing
Beyond the Basics
By Susan Gunelius
www.KeySplashCreative.com
Featuring concepts from:

2. What Social Media and Content
Marketing Can Do for Your Organization
• Increase awareness and recognition
• Increase primary website traffic
• Drive engagement with a new, younger audience
• Increase ticket sales
• Earn wider media coverage
• Build and strengthen relationships
• Deepen brand loyalty
• Jumpstart word-of-mouth marketing
• Achieve long-term, sustainable, organic growth

3. Emotional Involvement and Brand
Loyalty I love
Damrau as
• Entertainment brands – Queen of the
inherent emotional Night
involvement
• Social media allows
people to experience
brands in their own
ways and make brands
their own.

4. People Talk about the Brands
They Love
• Word-of-mouth marketing is
powerful
• Loyal brand advocates are
every brand manager’s dream
Social media can deepen
emotional involvement,
brand loyalty, and
word-of-mouth marketing.

5. Establish Your Core Branded
Online Destination
Sample Business Social Media Presence
SlideShare
YouTube
Vancouver Opera
• Blog
Page Your
Group • Twitter
Profile
• Facebook
Other • Flickr
Other Facebook Blog LinkedIn Groups
Groups
• YouTube
Answers
Ads Your
Group
Twitter
Flickr
Exec Twellow
Tweets

6. Develop Internal Brand Advocates
• Your employees and performers are your
most powerful brand advocates.
• Educate them about your brand.
• Give them a reason to want to advocate your
brand.
If your employees and performers
believe in your brand promise,
they’ll want to advocate your brand.

7. Social Media Is More than Twitter
• Blogs (Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, MoveableType, etc.)
• Microblogging (Twitter, Jaiku, Plurk, Tumblr, etc.)
• Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, etc.)
• Social bookmarking (Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, etc.)
• Podcasting (iTunes, BlogTalkRadio, etc.)
• Photo sharing (Flickr, Picasa, etc.)
• Video sharing (YouTube, TubeMogul, Viddler, etc.)
• Online chats and telephone (Skype, Google Voice, etc.)
• Mobile (foursquare, apps, etc.)
• And many, many more

8. Let Employees Get Involved
Human Resources Executive
Networking Thought Leadership
• Facebook • Blogs
• LinkedIn Marketing
• Twitter
• MySpace Create Content
• Bebo • Blogs
• Niche networking sites • Twitter
• Blogs • YouTube
• Twitter • Digg
• YouTube • StumbleUpon
• Facebook
• MySpace
Public Relations • You name it!
Commenting
• Blogs
• Twitter
• YouTube Customer Service
• Digg Direct Dialogue
• StumbleUpon • Blogs
• Forums • Twitter
• Other social bookmarking sites • YouTube
• Review sites like Yelp and Epinions

9. Social Media Employee Participation Tips
• Employees crave involvement and ownership.
• Allow employees to take control.
• Offer flexibility and leniency within specific guidelines.
• Make it easy and non-threatening to participate.
• Create a 360-degree loop of information sharing.
• Be accessible.
• One sentence of corporate rhetoric ruins everything!
Social Media Policy examples: http://bit.ly/AboutBloggingSocialMediaPolicies

10. If Zappos Can Do It, You Can Do It
Zappos Twitter policy:
“Be real and use your best judgment.”
Build internal brand advocates and give them
the freedom to advocate your brand through
their own social media activities.

11. 3 Cs of Social Media Marketing
WRONG (FAILURE) RIGHT (SUCCESS)
CONVERSATION Stop it. Let it flow.
Copyright-protect it, or put
CONTENT Share it.
up a barrier to access it.
CONTROL Hold it tightly. Give it up.

12. Example: Harry Potter
• The Harry Potter brand was
originally built by consumers not
marketers.
• Consumers shared it, experienced
it and lived it, particularly on the
social web.
• J.K. Rowling and the publisher
originally sent cease & desist
letters but quickly learned letting
fans take control of the brand on
the social web was far more
powerful.

13. Dell’s Big Mistake
1,730 Diggs,
422,032 views,
& 77 pages of
comments
3,672 Diggs,
149,963
views, and
142 pages of
comments
• Don’t try to control
the conversation.
• Admit your mistakes.
• Be transparent.

14. But What if They Say Something BAD?
Use the 3 Fs of Social Media Reputation Management
You have three choices:
F LIGHT F LOOD
Ignore it. Bury it.
Bury
F IGHT
Join it.
Join

15. Think Like a Publisher, Not a Marketer
• Two-way conversation
• Pull marketing, not push marketing
• Create amazing, shareworthy content
• One party won’t get it done
Your Twitter follower list
isn’t just a list of people to
try to sell tickets to.

16. The 80-20 Rule
Me, Me, Me!
20%
Engage
80%
For every 20% of self-promotional
content you produce,
create 80% that is not self-promotional.

17. Research and Benchmarking
• Customers and competitors
• Look outside opera

18. Set Your Goals
• If you just want to sell more tickets, you’ll fail
Goals Social Media
• Raise awareness • Blog
• Customer service • Facebook
• Feedback • Foursquare
• Publicity • Twitter
• Marketing • Flickr
• Reach younger • YouTube
demographic • Livestream events
• E-newsletter

19. Define Your Strategy – Part 1
• Content (creation, curation, aggregation)
– TheDailyBeast.com, TheWeek.com, SeekingAlpha.com
• Conversations
– Google Alerts, advanced Twitter search, Monitter.com,
forums (Portland Center Stage: live tweets before shows
and during intermission)
• Community
– Facebook page, Ning.com (Broadway: Rock of Ages, Shrek)
• Influencer outreach
– Twellow.com, Klout.com, WeFollow.com (Nashville Ballet)

20. Influencer Outreach - Nashville Ballet
• Children’s Ballet Performance
– Identified online influencers (mommy bloggers and community
leaders)
– Invited to preview ballet - small group, no promotion
requirement to get free tickets
– Provided news kit for easy promotion
– Ticket sales 6x higher than previous children’s ballet
performance
• Director’s Choice Ballet Performance
– Identified online influencers (20-30 years of age, young
professionals, local businesses)
– Invited to preview ballet – large group, cross-promotion offered
and required to get free tickets
– Provided news kit for easy promotion

21. Define Your Strategy – Part 2
• Tactical
– Discounts, promotions (Chicago Symphony: free CD =
1,000 Facebook fans in 1 week)
• Local
– Twitter apps like NearbyTweets.com, LocalTweeps.com,
ChirpCity.com
• Multimedia and diversification
– Livestream, YouTube (NJPAC, Pennsylvania Ballet,
Anaheim Ballet)
• Mobile
– Mobile site, foursquare, QR codes (Indianapolis Symphony
Orchestra)

22. Video - Pennsylvania Ballet and
Anaheim Ballet
• YouTube channels
– Past performances
– Interviews with dancers
– Interviews with
choreographers
– Building stage sets
Over 33 million video views

23. Mobile - Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
• Boost concert ticket sales -
more than 40% of email
subscribers purchased tickets
in 2010
• Add 5,000 Facebook fans and
1,500 Twitter followers in less
than 1 year
• Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, blog,
foursquare, YouTube, email,
text messaging, iPhone and
Andriod apps
– Facebook page hypes blog
posts by orchestra members
– Mobile apps stream music,
access program notes, view
upcoming concerts, purchase
tickets

24. Implementation
• Getting help
– In-house
– Automation
– Experts and consultants
– Freelancers
– Crowdsourcing

25. Integrate, Cross-Promote, and Automate
• Old and new audiences
• No silo marketing
• Use tools
– Twitterfeed.com
– Tweetdeck.com
– Google Alerts
– Tweetmeme.com and Facebook social tools
– Socialoomph.com
– Plugins and add-ons

26. Analysis
• Quality not quantity
• Focus on trends
• Soft metrics vital
• Engagement, sentiment, and conversions
Examples of What to Track: Measure Against:
• Unique site visitors • Ticket sales
• Page views • Subscriptions
• Referrers • Purchases
• Incoming links • Click-throughs
• How visitors travel through site • Donations
• Returning visitors • Attendance
• Comments
• Followers and connections
• Retweets and @mentions
• Social shares and likes

27. Analytics Tools
• One tool isn’t enough
• Human analysis essential
Fee-based Tools Free Tools
• Radian6 • Google Analytics
• Sysomos • Google Webmaster Tools
• ScoutLabs from Lithium • Bitly
• SocialRadar from Infegy • Facebook Insights
• Brandwatch • Twitalyzer (also a paid version)
• Alterian • Grader.com
• Synthesio
• PeopleBrowser
• ViralHeat

28. For More Information
FREE Bonus Chapter
(Not in the Book)
for Conference Attendees
• Follow @susangunelius
• Tweet the following message to
get a free bonus chapter via a
special Twitter direct message:
I want to read 30-Minute Social
Media Marketing bonus chapter by
@susangunelius
http://amzn.to/30minsmm

29. Contact Susan Gunelius
Website:
www.KeySplashCreative.com Books by
Twitter: Susan Gunelius
www.Twitter.com/susangunelius
Facebook:
www.Facebook.com/susangunelius
www.Facebook.com/keysplashcreative A
LinkedIn:
www.Linkedin.com/in/susangunelius
Blog: Available through Amazon,
www.WomenOnBusiness.com Barnes & Noble, Borders, and
all online and offline book sellers
Email:
susan@keysplashcreative.com