Works Cited

Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation. "Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater." Alvin Ailey American
Dance Theater. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. This is the homepage for Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater. Through the site users can access information about the first
and second companies, the school, community classes, events, history, and more. The
website is extremely interactive, and can take you to almost any information you could
need about Alvin Ailey. It's easy to navigate, and is full of beautiful pictures, and
engaging resources. This is a website that makes itself a destination for any sort of user
that visits.
Barrett, Brandon. Personal interview. Oct. 2015. Mr. Barrett is a teacher at Centennial High
School who has a degree in marketing from University of Maryland, and minored in
computer science. He is currently teaching Comp sci 1 classes, and marketing classes at
Centennial. Recently, I asked Mr. Barrett if he had any familiarity with using Google
Analytics, and if he would assist me in learning how to set up an account. To advise me
on how to do this, he set up an account for his own website, and talked me through some
of the components that made it work. He also showed me some of the measurements that
you can view right away after you associate your website with a Goggle Analytics
account.
Buckley, S. "Social Media and Customer Behavior Analytics for Personalized Customer
Engagements." IBM Journal 58 (2014): 2-12. Print. the author of this article, Steve
Buckley, is a research staff member in the business solutions department at IBM, and it
responsible for the coordination of IBM research division with IBM Global business
Services in the areas of business analytics and optimization. Dr. Buckley discuses in this

article how to target the social media users you want to be customers, and overviews
some strategies to gain those customers. First he suggests keyword filtering, which
allows you to extract words that relate to customers that you think would be interested in
your product. Next, he suggests filtering through promotional messages, so you don't end
up just extracting ads, but finding actual real people. He continues on to talk about how
people within close social network communications tend to behave similarly online, and
to pay attention to simmilar things. Dr. Buckley also delves into many algorithms to help
optimize your audience, by determining their interests, and using their key words.

This article by Steve Buckley, focuses on what tools can be used to optimize efficient
usage of social media, in specific, Twitter. This article is a credible source for my topic
seeing as it came from the IBM business journal, but I found that much of the
information in this article is either not wholly related to what I am focusing on, or it is
stated in an unnecessary complex way. The majority of the article just outlines ambiguous
algorythms that have very unclear variables that can't actually fully determine the results
they want, "due to its complexity". Perhaps someone with a degree in marketing would
recognize some of these algorythms, but for my purposes, they are completely
unnecessary. Additionally, currently I am not focusing on Twitter for my internship, so
the depth of information that is provided in this article is really not applicable to what I
am working on currently through other social media platforms. I do agree with some of
the points covered in the article, such as the importance of determining what post and
keywords customers like to use. But, I think I can persue that concept further through

Google Adwords, rather than Twitter, seeing as I can follow more that one of the social
media platforms that D(n)A arts uses through Google.
Catton, Pia. "Ballet Dancers Leap into Instagram, Commerce; Photo-Sharing App Has Become
the Go-to Social-Media Platform for Dancers of All Ages." Wall Street (2015): n. pag.
Print. This article discusses the boom of the dance community on Instagram. Famous
dancers have gained a huge following on this platform, and inspire many young dancers
with their posts. There is no easy way for dance companies to link to ticket sales on
Instagram, unlike on Facebook. So then dance companies are beginning to rely on their
dancers to be making posts about what they are doing on instagram, because so many
people are interested in staying updated on what is going on in the dancers' lives, which
for many followers, sparks interest in the dance companies. Instagram also allows brands
a great opportunity for sponsorship deals, and product placement with dancers, that has
never really been possible in the dance world. This use of famous dancers for ads has
been under scrutiny though, because its taking an artist who is already well known, and
just using their name for its own gain. For most dancers though, Instagram has become an
extension of their work on stage, and has made them able to share all parts of their art at
any time, which has in turn given dance much more positive online visibility.

I didn't really find that this article would be very relevant to my research, because it
mainly just stated that dancers are very present on Instagram, and that savvy companies
are jumping on the opportunity to promote themselves through dancers. I think a plus for
this article is that it is a reminder that being present in the online dance community is
important, so things such as regular posts, and relating them to popular dance topics must

be maintained. But as I continue with my research, this is probably not a source I would
go back to, unless I decided to research more into sponsorship deals.
Corrigan, Hope Bober. Personal interview. 24 Sept. 2015. Mrs. Corrigan is a Professor of
Marketing at Loyola University Maryland in downtown Baltimore. She teaches several
courses, such as Principles of Marketing, and Branding and Packaging. Mrs. Corrigan
also has practical marketing experience, such as a consulting project she did for Kinetics
Dance Theatre. I have been working with Mrs. Corrigan to learn more about how to
approach social media marketing from a more analytical perspective, and how to
organize a marketing plan. I have learned how to assemble a SWOT analysis, attract the
target audience, evaluate the external environment, and evaluate competitors.
Google. "Google Analytics." Google Analytics. Google, n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. Google
Analytics is an extremely powerful tool that allows businesses to measure nearly
everything they could want about their websites. Google Analytics can provide a very
large and detailed set of information about users of the site. This information spans from
where users are from, to how they got the the website, what they are clicking on, how
long they stay for, their average ages, and what devices they use to access the website.
companies can also discover what their most popular content is on the website, and
modify pages to meet users needs and wants, so people will stay longer on the website.
Google Analytics is a necessary part of maintaining a successful website. You can know
almost immediately when there is something wrong with your website, or if something
should be updated, and you can track exactly how users are interacting with the site, so
you can fine tune the pages. Google Analytics gives companies much needed knowledge
about themselves, and allows them to be much more agile in how they present themselves

on the web. This tool minimizes room for error in online interactions, and just so useful
for anyone wanting to gather any sort of information about their website.
Google Analytics. Brian Gavin Diamonds Sees 60% Increase in Customer Checkout with
Google Enhanced Ecommerce. N.p.: n.p., 2014. Print. This case study follows Brian
Gavin Diamonds and how this company used Google Analytics to improve sales. The
study begins by learning the problem that the jeweler was having with its online sales and
marketing. The jeweler wanted to learn more about its customers pre-checkout shopping
behavior as well as what influences them to abandon online shopping carts. By using the
Enhanced Ecommerce tool on Google Analytics, Brian Gavin Diamonds found out that
the firm had a bigger problem than it initially realized with cart abandonment. Brian
Gavin Diamonds was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales every month due to
cart abandonment. To address this issue, the company created a better flow to checkout
for customers about to make a purchase. This small process change led to a 60% increase
in customers making it to the payment page, according to the statistics recorded through
the Enhanced Ecommerce tool. Brian Gavin Diamonds also streamlined the rest of its
website to include features that were found to be the most popular among customers.
Brian Gavin Diamonds is also working to improve the connection between its website
and its social media pages.

I found this article to be very significant to the research I am doing because social
media marketing is not just about how many likes a picture recieves, but its also about
increasing sales and being able to measure results. Google Analytics is extremely
important in measuring how effective social media marketing actually is, because it can

give firms important information about customer behavior. I found this particular case
study very interesting because just getting people to the website is one thing, but having
customers actually follow through with a purchase is another. It's extremely important to
be able to measure completed transactions because as Brian Gavin Diamonds found, the
company was having a much larger issue with cart abandonment than originally thought.
This jeweler was able to measure problems with specific components of the website,
which allowed this online retailer to find effective solutions. I think Google Analytics
will also be helpful for D(n)A Arts Collective to implement because it could identify
customer behavior trends on the website and reveal strategies to optimize customer
checkout for dance workshops. Google Analytics could also help D(n)A Arts Collective
find ways to better associate its social media pages with its website, which is something I
plan to investigate further with my mentor.
- - -, comp. Obama for America Uses Google Analytics to Democratize Rapid, Data-driven
Decision Making. N.p.: Google, 2013. Print. This case study follows how the Obama
campaign in 2012 used Google Analytics to reach its existing contributors, and to
broaden its following. One of the first strategies the campaign used earlier in the process,
was using 'Real-Time' reports in Google Analytics, to see what voters were searching in
response to the presidential and vice presidential debates. The use of this tool allowed the
Obama campaign to immediately roll out search ads that related to voters most popular
questions following a debate. An example used in this report, is when Mitt Romney made
a questionably sexist comment during a debate. As soon as this happened, the Obama
campaign immediately began placing ads that linked to fact sheets outlining Obama's
views on women's equal rights. Using 'Real-Time' also allowed the campaign to see that

there was an increase in interest in its ads when it was using those relevant search terms.
Google Analytics also allowed the Obama campaign to test variables in their advertising
to see what made advocates more vocal, and what attracted more donors. It found that
following up after a signup or donation with a secondary call-to-action, was the most
effective way to build individuals support over time. Finally, in the last few months
leading up to the presidential vote, the Obama campaign shifted its focus to prompting
people to get out and vote, and finding ways to help people through that process. It
accomplished this goal by creating a voting lookup tool, which allows voters to find their
closest voting location, and their best time to go. This was extremely important for the
campaign, because they were providing a necessary service to voters, and it gave them an
opportunity to measure who was using the tool, and it gave them significant data on
voters.

I found this article to be a wealth of information when it comes to online marketing. I

think their use of 'Real-Time' to address voters concerns was so simple, and yet genius. It
made it so that they almost could have an answer to your question before you knew to ask
it. This tool also allowed them to benefit from their competitors missteps, by highlighting
the fact that Obama believes in equal rights for women, which was pretty awesome, and
sneaky. I also really liked how they tracked voter behavior not only when they first
connected with the campaign, but also followed what caused those people to become
loyal, and even more active. I also thought that it was brilliant how they introduced the
voting lookup tool, because this way they were providing a necessary resource to voters
without directly suggesting how they should vote, but still getting the right amount of

visibility they needed at that point. I thought that this case study was fantastic, and I
loved how the campaign utilized Google Analytics to meet their exact needs. I think it
goes to show how powerful social media marketing can be, and I think I would definitely
apply the strategies outlined in this case study to my project.
Graf, Daisha. "D(n)A Arts Collective." D(n)A Arts Collective. Ed. Daisha Graf. Daisha and
Alicia Graf, n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. This is D(n)A Arts Collective's website. On here is
information about faculty, the sisters (Alicia and Daisha), events, how to contact them,
and more. This is the website that I am measuring when I run Google Analytics for
D(n)A Arts Collective. Because the program does not run from a location, all interactions
that D(n)A is having with customers is through the website. Users can also view photos
from past events on the website, and quickly access D(n)A's social media pages.
Iconosquare. "Iconosquare." Iconosquare. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. Iconosquare is a tool
that allows businesses to gather information about its instagram page. Large amounts of
data are collected by this tool, such as how followers are interacting with posts, when
they are interacting with posts, what components have made posts successful in the past,
and what audience is receiving the posts. THis tool is invaluable when in comes to
managing an instagram page, because it really does set up a business for success with all
the measurements it takes, giving companies the opportunity to make their content the
best it can possibly be. The only critiques I have for this website, is that for it to
continually be updating the data its collecting, you have to visit the site pretty regularly,
or else it will take a very long time to refresh all the new data thats been recieved since
the last time you came in.

Kabani, Shama Hyder. The Zen of Social Media Marketing. Dallas: BenBella, 2012. Print. The
author of The Zen of Social Media Marketing, Shama Hyder Kabani, is the owner and
creator of the marketing firm, The Marketing Zen Group, which focuses on marketing via
social media platforms, and online resources. This book addresses many of the different
platforms that can be used to market online. First she discusses what makes a strong
website. The seven elements which she finds to be the most important are; design,
structure, content, social media integration, optimization, and maintenance. Later on in
chapter five, she states the reasons why Facebook is an important tool, which are that it
has an astounding and ever-growing number of users, many users check at least once a
day, its a good way to connect with people who are already talking about you, or are there
to find things like your business, and gives you great visibility. Just like Kabani's analysis
of how to maintain a good website, she also explains how to maintain a facebook page.
She suggests maintaining a strong public profile, seeing as that is what people first see
when they go to your page. It should show your message, and be interesting. She also
stresses the importance of creating grabbing updates, that will get followers engaged, and
commenting. Getting the conversation started on facebook, is the key to showing up in
more news feeds, and gaining more visibility. Finally, near the end of Kabani's book, in
chapter ten she has Dave Kaminski discuss the importance of having strong video
content, and how to create it. According to stats from when The Zen of Social Media
Marketing was published, videos create upwards of 80% of internet traffic. People are far
more likely to click on a video of something than read about it. He goes on to describe
the necessary parts to creating a video. Kaminski recommends various types of cameras,
but finds that it really comes down to what it is needed for to determine the quality

needed. But he does state the importance of having a camera with an external microphone
jack, so that better quality sound can be produced for the video. Next, he goes on to
discuss how to keep your audience through an entire video. Large numbers of an
audience don't stay until the end, so you have to make sure that the content will keep
them. First, Kaminski recommends that you monitor the length of your videos. As soon
as you get beyond a few minutes, viewership drastically decreases. Next, he states that
it's important to keep your video moving. Using the same shot, and covering certain
points for too long, can cause a viewer to loose interest. Finally, he stresses the
importance of keeping videos natural and real. Viewers want to feel a part of what you
are doing, because unlike TV, the internet is interactive. The viewers are a part of the
conversation.

Shama Kabani's mission of improving companies' online presence, and making online
marketing more natural for them, relates closely with what I want to accomplish with
D(n)A Arts collective. Some sections of this book that I would apply to my project,
would include, chapter two, which outlines how to improve your website, the benefits of
having a strong website, and what even defines a strong website. I would also use ideas
from chapter five, which discusses the importance of facebook. From this chapter, I
found some valuable information, such as the authors list of content ideas, but I also need
to keep in mind that some things about facebook have changed since this book was
published, and for a company of D(n)A's size, facebook quickly becomes a big expense. I
would also revisit chapter ten, which discusses video media. Videos are something that is
found to attract a lot more views than photos or text. Dave Kaminski, the author of this

chapter, and creator of webuniversity.com, shares a lot of useful information about

creating video content. He discusses necessary equipment, from cameras and
microphones, to editing and screen recording software. He also discusses how you can
get your audience to stay for a whole video, and where and how to post your videos.
Overall, I found this book to be extremely helpful, and I think that I will definitely use
some of the guidelines that our outlined throughout the book. I think that the concepts
presented are a great place to start in trying to reach a larger part of our target market.
Mack, Alicia Graf. Personal interview. 2015. Alicia Graf Mack has performed with Dance
Theatre of Harlem, Complexions contemporary Dance Company, and Alvin Ailey
American Dance theatre. Mrs. Mack has had extensive dance experience, including guest
performing for Alonzo's Lines Ballet, Beyonce, John Legend and Alicia Keys. Mrs. Mack
has also received her MA in nonprofit management from Columbia University, and has
since returned to receive their medal of excellence, and to deliver a keynote speech to
graduates of Columbia University. Mrs. Mack is the co-founder of D(n)A Arts Collective,
and so she coordinates, at teaches at every event D(n)A holds. Mrs. Mack is not only well
accomplished in her professional dance career, but also has experience in the creation and
maintenance of a small business. She is a role model for many young dancers, and will
continue to be, throughout the rest of her professional career.
Raphael, T.J. "Riding the Next Wave of Social Media." Folio June 2014: 34-37. Print. In this
article, Riding the Next Wave of Social Media, by T.J. Raphael, he discusses the social
media techniques employed by three major brands; Glamour, National Geographic, and
Seventeen. The key approach of all three, is to get the most engagement possible out of
their followers. Glamour says, that its not enough to just get likes on social media. They

need to be actively engaging followers in personal interactions that is more than just
about them consuming the information you are giving, but giving them something that
they can bring back to you, and create a dialog. Glamour has often used facebook chats,
to open the lines of communication between celebrities that are interested in a direct
connection with users, and users can candidly ask people they are interested in questions
that would be impossible to ask through a TV screen. Glamour also provides practical
services to help users, such as chats that allow them to quickly ask professionals for tips
on the way to the salon. National Geographic is internationally famous for its incredible
photography. To engage their audience, they created #NatGeoTravelPic which allows
users to submit a photo to National Geographic, which then has a chance of being posted
on their page. These contests worked very successfully for National Geographic. Another
series they have had success with, is called "Where the Locals Go" which provides
viewers with an authentic, real travel experience from locals. Seventeen Magazine, has
leapt on one of the "newer" social medias, and begun using Snapchat. One of few
publishers to start accounts, Snapchat is a way for Seventeen to send private messages to
their followers. It's quick and engaging, and keeps users excited to see more. Snapchat
can be done more spontaneously and and frequently than other social medias like
Instagram or Twitter. Snapchat has helped Seventeen greatly, in that its more
personalized, and creates a unique connection with their audience.

I found that this article is a very helpful overview of some of the largest current social
media platforms, and a few tips of what to post, to engage audiences. I really liked the
idea of conducting Facebook chats to almost livestream a conversation with viewers. I

think that if I were to apply that suggestion though, I would try it on other platforms as
well as on Facebook, since often Facebook does not send posts to D(n)A's followers any
longer. I also think that discussing how National Geographic found success on social
media is significant, because just as photography is central to their mission, dance is to
ours. And so, many of their post series are applicable to D(n)A. Finally, while their
discussion of Seventeen's use of Snapchat is very attractive to a business that is looking
to build their fan base, it requires constant upkeep by people working with the program
hands on everyday, which is not so much the case for D(n)A's purposes. In general, this
article was informative, and gave strong suggestions for posts, but it really didn't give too
much of an in depth analysis of the findings, and didn't provide any usable marketing
statistics. It really just presented a few case specific studies that are a good place to start
from when brainstorming post ideas, but will not take you much further than that.
"Simply Measured: 40% of Top Brands Implement Instagram Effectively." Close-up Media Inc.
(2012): n. pag. Digital file. This article produces data showing what companies are
successfully posting on Instagram, and how they are measuring it. It describes how the
online tool 'Simply Measured' can be used to monitor a brands' instagram account. It then
describes loosely how through Simply Measured brands can observe and collect data
about how they are connecting with audiences.

I didn't really find this article to be all that useful. Since it is a bit older than I would like,
some of the information about Instagram was very outdated. It also didn't really go into
detail about much in particular, besides a few points about the online tool 'Simply
Measured' which I don't believe is the best option out there anymore. I would probably

not use this source again, but if later on I do decide to research more analytics tools, I
could see myself further researching Simply Measured.
Toh, Michelle. "How Instagram's New Search Function Will Let You Better Plan Your Instas."
Christian Science Monitor 23 June 2015: n. pag. Print. This article discusses a new
geotagging feature on Instagram, which allows users to search for posts based on a
location you are interested in, or your own location. This is helpful for someone who is
planning on visiting a city, and wants to see quick snapshots of what is going on there.
This geotagging ability is a great way for someone to narrow down a search to just places
they are interested in seeing. The article also mentions that this feature is great for
bloggers, or companies that are providing a service in a specific location, so they are just
reaching people who are interested in that place. This feature has already been seen on
other platforms, such as Snapchat. Snapchat an option periodically for communities to
post pictures and videos to their community story, and then you get a glimpse of
everything that is happening in that particular community that day.
Although I was already familiar with some of the information discussed in this
article, I had no idea how important geotagging could be for small businesses.. This
article taught me that by geotagging where a photo was taken it could provide a search
filter for potential customers. For example, if D(n)A was hosting a workshop in New
York, I would geotag New York City Center (The theater where the September 2015
workshop was held) in the post so that if someone who is planning on visiting New York
City Center searches that location, the D(n)A photo would come up. This is extremely
important, because unlike on other platforms, Instagram does not allow you to use
hyperlinks in your description, and so geotagging removes the need for the venue to be

talking about your event (which many don't do) because whenever that venue is searched
for on Instagram, information about your event will come up with your picture that you
geotagged. I am glad that I read this article, because it not only further informed me
about something important to what I am researching that I was unclear about, but it also
was very clear and easy to understand. But even though I did learn something from this
article, I probably wouldnt go back to it much more, because it didnt really have depth
to its information.