Case Study: Growing Brave New Workshop’s Social Media

Summary: With an extremely limited budget for marketing, the Brave New Workshop has to rely heavily on social media to promote shows and events. By adding more content and using a social media calendar, engagement rose significantly, as website visits.

Issue: With a limited budget, it was crucial for the BNW to find inexpensive, efficient ways of reaching and engaging its audience. BNW’s social media presence was lacking, despite a wealth of available content and a correlation between the demographics of Facebook users and those of the theatre’s core audience. Updates were sporadic and often sales-y. Content posted was not tailored for each particular platform (Facebook & Twitter). No Instagram account had been started.

Action plan: First, it was crucial to establish a consistent schedule of social media posts. I devised a calendar detailing which posts would go where, and when. I used a mix of questions, funny observations, pictures, and promotional posts to keep the look fresh and to minimize the “white noise” of constant sales pitches. I added pictures of shows and rehearsals, as well as news about the actors and theatre outside of the shows themselves. We had members of the cast execute an Instagram takeover to give fans behind-the-scenes access. We also promote a specific hashtag for each production that fans can use to tag their own content and interact with the cast.

Results: Since I took over the social media and digital marketing initiatives in September of 2012, we’ve seen a 5% growth every quarter in our Facebook page likes and engagement[1], and a 106% increase in Twitter followers since January of 2013[2]. Over the last year, our website has seen a 22% rise in social referrals to our website (48% of that being new visitors), and 3x as many social referrals heading to our Buy Tickets page[3]. I founded the theatre’s Instagram account in September 2013, and since then we have gained 265 followers to date, with an overall engagement rate of 2.72%[4].

Ongoing action: During the same time period as the increase in social activity, the theatre has seen an overall attendance increase of nearly 10%. While this should be attributed to a number of factors, the rise in social engagement and promotion should certainly be considered an influence. The BNW is now working on developing a robust video strategy to complement the other social channels in our organization.

[1] Facebook Insights for facebook.com/BraveNewWorkshop

[2] Twitter Analytics for twitter.com/BNWImprov

[3] Google Analytics for theatre.bravenewworkshop.com

[4] Iconosquare for Instagram.com/BNWImprov