CKP's marketer Angela Santillo
NIN ANDREWS
First, I just want to thank you for trying to help us out. I, for one, could sure use some help on the marketing side of life.
ANGELA SANTILLO
Thanks so much! I’m happy to be working with CavanKerry. It’s been great so far.
NA
How did you happen to come to CKP?
AS
I met Teresa Carson in grad school at Sarah Lawrence College. She’s great, the best. She was a big part of my grad school career both as a friend and a fellow artist. Before I attended grad school, I was a producer for a small theater in San Francisco and also a marketing associate for a theater in upstate New York. She knows I have marketing experience, especially when it comes to social media. As CKP started talking about having a larger online presence, she called me up to see if I was interested. The rest is history.
NA
What is your background? I think I heard you are an actress?
AS
Yes, I am an actress and playwright. I also teach drama and have a lot of producing experience. I guess the easiest thing to say is that I am a theater artist, it covers just about everything. I am obsessed with telling stories, important stories that help and hurt and make us think and look like dreams. Actually, when I first started writing, all I wrote was poetry. But then I randomly decided to write a play and I felt like a spectacular mad scientist, so I started writing primarily for the stage.
I moved from Los Angeles to start my theater career in San Francisco and now I am in New York City. I just had a show I wrote close in February and I am getting ready to perform a show in San Francisco this summer, so things are moving right along.
You can check out more about my theater ventures on my personal website.
NA
What do you hope to accomplish at CKP?
AS
An online presence that is interesting and engaging. That sounds so dry, I know. But I think what is great about social media is that organizations can show their personality and they can interact in a way that really informs as well as entertains. I hope that as we progress with our marketing plan people look forward to seeing our posts, articles, and newsletters. I hope we start to have more dialogue with people that follow our various sites and that we can feature more information about the poetry world as a way to connect with other organizations and share information.
NA
Can you talk a little bit about marketing, maybe give us all some tips?
AS
Oh man. Okay…first love what you are talking about. Passion translates into everything and your excitement will make people take notice. Second, know your audience and what you want to achieve. Every marketing plan has a mission and a target. Third, don’t underestimate the power of words and images. A great visual is stellar and but less is more when it comes to words. No one likes seeing long emails or blurbs.
That is all really technical…I suppose my own taste in marketing is that it should be bold. Dare to be goofy or serious, have character! To me, marketing is all about creating a character (see I have theater in my DNA), and that is what separates a competent marketing plan from a fantastic one.
NA
Will we meet you at CKP events or at AWP in Boston?
AS
Perhaps. CKP is one of my many jobs and my theater schedule seems to run my life. There is a common theater joke that the standard response to anything non-theater related is, “I can’t, I have rehearsal.” So if there is an event and I don’t have rehearsal, maybe!
NA
Are there any changes at CKP or upcoming events that you would like to alert us to?
AS
Well, there have been a lot of changes so far. We now have a blog, we are on Twitter as well as Facebook.
Right now the website features information and articles about CKP writers and events. We are going to start featuring more content from “around the web” and other small presses. I’m excited about that, the chance to not only create a dialogue about CKP but also the poetry world at-large. So stay tuned for that!
NA
How can we help you?
AS
I love hearing what other people think and also getting ideas for new postings. So if you see something interesting or if you have any ideas, shoot me an email at angela@cavankerrypress.org.
Besides that…keep reading and keep writing. The world needs stories.
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