3 Awesome Tips to ‘Up’ Your Community Theater’s Social Media Marketing Impact

Whether you’re a long-time reader of our blog or not, I’m sure you’ve realized by now that the concepts of social media and social media marketing aren’t going away any time soon. While the channels and sharing mediums are constantly evolving, the principle as a whole is definitely here to stay, so why not take advantage of this?

Up next we’ve got three awesome ideas for ‘up-ing’ your community theatre’s social media marketing strategy. These tips and tricks can be employed at any stage in your social media channel development, so don’t be shy to use these…even if your organization is just joining the social media stratosphere.

1) Invest the Time

Don’t for a second think that social media marketing doesn’t take time or planning. It does. But this shouldn’t scare you from getting started! Be realistic in the amount of time and resources that you can allot towards your community theatre’s social media management and then decide which channel (or channels) to tackle and set goals.

Pro Tip: Managing more channels means more time and resources. A good rule of thumb is to allow approximately 2 hours per week per channel for content and post planning.

2) Have a Discussion

Many organizations, companies and individuals forget that the whole point of social media is to be social! It’s so easy to fall into the rut of simply blasting your ideas out there into the social media stratosphere with the hopes that somebody, somewhere will find it…and this really isn’t the best strategy.

Pro Tips: Here are a few ways to improve your ‘social’ skills:

• Consider live-tweeting an industry-relevant event, such as a Tony Awards.
• Stay on top of industry-relevant trends or #hashtags, then comment on them.
• Personally thank users who are sharing your content and spreading the word about your upcoming shows.
• Use @replies when engaging in discussions to reach a wider audience and increase your tweet’s visibility.
• Seek out industry influencers and genuinely engage with their content.

3) Create Performing Arts ‘Celebrities’

Lou Spisto, theatre producer and arts consultant, said it perfectly in a recent article by Technorati:

“The most empowering thing about the prevailing use of social media is that it places the artist at the center of the message, and brings a community of users together with what may have been an inaccessible world.”

What does this mean? It means that you should be using your people, the people that are front and center…your artists! Craft and create these people as performing arts ‘celebrities’. Use their stories and love of the arts to reach out and engage fans. It’s all part of marketing the show.

Pro Tip: Human-interest stories are an incredibly effective way to connect with fans on an emotional level. Tap into their feelings and fuel a genuine connection between your organization and your fans.

We’ll leave you with a quote from Chip Michael, Digital Media Manager for Pacific Symphony in Orange County, about the importance of engaging your younger generation of present and future audience members:

“The younger generation spends more time on their smartphones than they do watching television, reading the newspaper or listening to the radio (combined!). Performance organizations will need to be visible on social media if they have any hope of connecting with the next generation of attendees.”