Case Study

Beyond Promotion: Growing an Audience Through Visual Storytelling

Bok Tower Gardens | Social Media Strategy

The Opportunity

At Bok Tower Gardens, I led the organization's social media strategy, from planning and content creation to daily publishing and interacting with followers. The challenge was to maintain a consistent presence while creating content that would engage longtime followers and reach new people, all while sharing what make the Gardens such a special place.

The Approach

I posted every day, but I didn't want every post to feel like an advertisement. Events, promotions, and other announcements were important at times, but I wanted the majority of our content to give people something interesting, beautiful, or useful to engage with. And when promotion was necessary, it was still executed with the same visual style as the other posts.

I focused on high quality photography and video, along with stories that could spark curiosity, evoke emotion, or help people discover something new. Working with staff across all departments helped me find stories and perspectives that might otherwise go unnoticed. I also engaged directly with followers through comments and messages, making social media a conversation rather than just a place to publish content.

The Results

• 225% increase in organic Facebook reach during my first year

• 100% increase in organic Instagram reach during my first year

• More than 25,000 Facebook followers added over my tenure

The Takeaway

At Bok Tower Gardens, I found that consistently sharing high quality content people genuinely wanted to see was a much better way to grow an audience than taking a more promotion-focused approach, as shown through the significant increase in organic reach from before I started to after my first year.

Portfolio

Symphony on the Sandhill (writing sample)