Meagan Manning, Ph D

I have over 15 years of experience working in media, higher education, radio, and customer relations management. My current home, The Aviary Studio, is a creative hub focused on empowering and educating rural musicians during the process of recording and distribution. We serve musicians that don’t fit into the traditional recording models due to gender, race, age, or income through flexible rates and an Emerging Artist Fund that helps intentional, young artists cover recording costs. As Associate Director and Branding Communications Specialist, I crafted engaging social media messaging on Facebook and Instagram, cross promoted events through relevant Facebook groups and event calendars, spearheaded all internal communications, and built and maintained the website. Our initial marketing efforts culminated last summer in a successful $35,000 Kickstarter campaign. A unique outreach model I helped design maximized the resources of our small staff and extremely limited budget. Using extended networks, highly targeted social media marketing content, data analytics and trends, direct marketing communications, email marketing, and cross-promoting with influencers, we exceeded our goal in just 30 days. We attribute our Kickstarter success to an intentionally crafted, accessible story effectively marketed to the right audience.