Creative York – Social Media Strategy

Creative York, a non-profit arts organization in downtown York, Pennsylvania focused on inspiring the community through arts education, gallery experiences and outreach programs, reached out to GRIT in the fall of 2019 for help enhancing their social media presence. Their social media goals were to increase awareness of their organization, improve engagement among customers and boost class registration through multiple social media platforms.

GRIT created a strategic social media marketing plan, monthly content calendars and visual assets that would help the brand achieve its goals. Focusing efforts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, GRIT developed content that included tags, hashtags and valuable information to help expand reach and improve engagement rates. Additionally, a focus was placed on local artists and through virtual artist studio tours and artist spotlights, followers were able to learn more about the arts community in York, PA. This content performed well with one YouTube video reaching close to 800 views.

GRIT also used Creative York’s social media platforms to leverage earned media coverage. In July 2020, Creative York launched a free art kit program in partnership with the York County Food Bank so children could explore their creativity from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. After posting a call out on Facebook encouraging families to stop and pick up an art kit, social media engagement steeply increased. The post achieved 137 shares, 186 reactions and 21 comments, earning a total engagement rate of 688.83. Because the single post raised so much awareness of the free art kit program, ABC27 News contacted Creative York for a live interview.

It is also important to note that during Give Local York in 2020, Creative York doubled their donations from the previous year due to the brand’s social media efforts. By posting to social media every hour with fun facts about the organization and information on how donations would be used to achieve the organization’s mission, GRIT was able to exceed Creative York’s giving expectations. Social media has played a critical role in helping Creative York not only achieving their business objectives, but also stay connected to their members, students, artists, and friends during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Throughout the past 12 months, the brand has seen a steady increase in the number of followers (over 600 new followers in total across platforms) and better engagement rates on every social media channel.