As AMT tested the waters with social media, they continued to adapt the content of their messages and build their following by providing relevant information to followers.

Here’s what they learned:

• To build your presence and following on social media, it’s important to ask your customers to “follow” you.
• Observe fan and follower activity to determine what gets the conversation going.
• Include a mix of multi-media (text, images, videos, music) to keep the content fresh and interesting.
• Utilize keywords to grab attention of those monitoring specific terms.
• Keep posts current to what’s happening now.
• Monitor industry keywords so you can quickly insert yourself into the conversation.
• Create special incentives for your social media community such as coupons, discounts or advance notice to tickets or events.
• Craft your messages so they are appropriate for each individual social network.

As AMT works to change the positioning of American Music Theatre in the marketplace and connect with music lovers in Central PA, social media offers a new communication platform to connect in real-time. “If you’re hip and with it, you’re on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter,” explains Garman. “We needed to be there, it’s a very powerful tool.”

“One of the reasons we chose to work with Scheffey on our social media platform is because you took the time to educate us on the benefits. It wasn’t just a gloss over presentation. It was quite in-depth. It was that level of thought prior to bringing us on board that helped us get where we are.”

Andy Garman
American Music Theatre

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