MS Alumni #4: Debs Storey – Lakeside Arts Centre
MediaSnackers Alumni
(GBR) The MediaSnackers Alumni are a growing number of past clients that could just disappear into the ether if we didn’t catch up with them. We decided to hunt down and grill them to find out what difference their training had made in the way they work professionally and personally. This months thoughts and insights are from Debs Story:
What’s your role, who you work for, and what sort of things do you do?
My name is Debs Storey and I am the Marketing Assistant at Lakeside Arts Centre.
I Support the Marketing Manager in every aspect of Marketing for our year round programme of events. This includes; visual arts, drama, dance, comedy, music and our annual festivals—Chinese New Year celebrations, the International Children’s Theatre and Dance Festival, and LUSTRE—the Midlands premier contemporary craft makers’ market. I am solely responsible for our website and online presence.
Its been a week or so since you have been drenched in the MediaSnackers ‘way’, what did you learn from the experience?
Where do I start!? I am very excited about new media/social media and evolving technologies, particularly in relation to the opportunities they provide within a marketing context. My first experience with MediaSnackers was attending a breakout session at the Arts Marketing Association Annual Conference 2008 led by DK. It was so inspiring to see all these tools we could be utilising demonstrated live before our eyes by a very enthusiastic DK. I went straight back to the office and started using Animoto and Issuu and investigated the possibility of a blog.
Having had a taster of what is ‘out there’ I attended a day course run by MediaSnackers (Mark and DK) to gain a hands on and deeper understanding of these tools. I have since set up a blog on Blogger, joined Flickr, YouTube and Twitter, embedded Googlemaps/street, and developed our Facebook account. I am also contributing to a cultural Wiki and WordPress blog and have set up RSS Google Alerts to stream information regarding Lakeside Arts Centre to my email. This is a massive development in Lakeside’s online presence and in my personal development. I have been completely converted from technophobe to techno—geek and I believe the enthusiasm of the MediaSnackers team has inspired this.
How have other members of the team/organisation, that didn’t attend the course, received your new techniques?
When I return from the MediaSnackers courses I’m absolutely buzzing from the new things I have learnt—I can’t wait to tell the whole office! Colleagues can see that I am very excited about the new tools I am using and they in turn are thrilled at the results.
What has been the biggest and easiest change to make in the way that you work?
This is hard to answer with just one thing—there have been many big and easy developments. I think it has to be learning how to use and embed YouTube footage into our website. This has opened up endless opportunities.
Has there been any difficulty in implementing these new approaches?
Some of the tools I have been shown how to use have taken me a while to get to grips with, such as the different types of blogs. However—all it needs is a little time and experimentation, which is why I always set up blogs in my own name to test things out first.
What future projects do you have planned which utilise social media?
I have many plans for the future but they will take some development first. The most attainable in the short term is to create a group of ambassadors on Facebook.
Thank you for your time, Debs Storey.
