My Professional Story

[For a quick run down of Dani's professional accolades and experience, please visit her LinkedIn profile or see her VisualCV].

Dani Burns is a social web strategist, whose passion is to cultivate conversations and build community. Throughout her professional career, Dani has…

Studied language and media at a top university.

In 2006, Dani graduated with honors from Syracuse University with a Bachelor’s degree in English & Textual Studies.  She was initially drawn to SU’s English program because she wanted to learn more about the human experience as told through various artforms.  While at Syracuse, Dani studied literature, memoir, and film, as well as language and semantics (quickly becoming a self-proclaimed “word nerd”).  Dani’s experience at the university ignited an interested in online media and communication that would later become her full-time pursuit.

Helped to launch a leadership development consulting business.

Dani began her career as a Program Manager for Coleman Lew & Associates, Inc., a retained executive search firm headquartered in Charlotte, NC.  While at Coleman Lew, Dani helped to launch the Leadership Development Resources program and was responsible for program branding, proposal writing, and managing all project logistics and client accounts.  She studied Industrial Organizational Psychology with the firm’s Partner and learned more about the “people side” of business.

Used social media and customer engagement to build a community.

At Customshop, an independent, locally owned restaurant in Charlotte, NC, Dani saw an opportunity to manage the marketing and public relations for a great company with a slight reputation management problem.  As the restaurant’s Community Director, Dani set up social media profiles in order to tell the restaurant’s story and to respond to customer comments and reviews  online.  Customshop’s community soon began to grow and Dani experienced first hand the powerful effect of social media engagement on business.