Alpine Arts Center is a beloved art center in the Vail Valley community. A favorite attraction of both tourists and locals alike, the energy in our studio is bright, friendly and creative. Our social media presence reflected none of that.
As the resident media expert, I stepped in to revamp our brand on social and give us that voice we were desperately missing. I noticed that 99% of our posts were purely promotional, asking followers to sign up for a class while providing little value proposition for their time engaging with our page.
I knew I would be stepping into a marketing role after my time teaching kids summer camps, so I first started creating Instagram Reels on a whim one Sunday at the studio. They started gathering more likes than our regular posts, and knowing that the Instagram algorithm has been favoring Reels of late, I knew we had stumbled upon something.
I then completed a thorough audit of our Facebook and Instagram pages. Looking through 90 days of data (June 1-Labor Day Weekend), I was able to find a few key posts that did much better than our standard format, which was some sort of cute statement about the project for whatever class, then when it was, and to call us for registration. Now, we are following a storytelling-first approach, valuing entertainment and artistic merit to help inspire customers to come create with us.
I also created an extensive glossary of social media terms to educate our staff members on the basics of professional social media marketing, as well as an extensive posting guide for our operations manual.
I’m a firm believer in the idea that any action a potential customer has to take should be as simple as possible, so I knew a phone call surely wasn’t working. I created a Linktree with links to upcoming classes, our website, our newsletter sign-up and other key links on our website.
Overall, we’ve seen increased engagement numbers and one of my Reels about our signature Aspen vases hit some momentum and boosted our reach by +245% compared to the previous two weeks. Community members have already expressed to our owner that they love the new social media strategy and that they enjoy seeing our posts, which is a huge source of pride for me.