Psalm 23:1
EniThingIWant, the Lord will provide.
Bowery Poetry, previously known as Bowery Poetry Club, is a non-profit located in lower manhattan. As the name suggests it is right on Bowery street, surrounded by bars, galleries and other event venues. Though they once had the space to themselves, it was renovated in 2012 and they now share it with a high-end burlesque themed restaurant. The restaurant has the place from Tuesday to Friday and Bowery Poetry Club from Sunday to Monday.
Bowery Poetry is a creative space meant to bring together artists and poets in NYC. The stage is open for all sorts of events that are meant to give poets, writers and songwriters somewhere to share their work and meet like-minded individuals. Bowery Poetry was established in 2002 by Bob Holman (Melnechuk). With a rich history of fresh talents and famous poets, this creative space has been a part of New York City’s rich art scene for almost 20 years.
One of the first things you will notice about Bowery Poetry Club when you walk in, is how elegant yet welcoming it is as a space. Poets come together to share their work with a friendly audience full of artists and art lovers. When looking at the Instagram of Bowery Poetry, before I came in as their social media manager, they typically posted pictures of people on stage and around the space. Although the images were great quality, the posts were repetitive. At times a picture of the same person, taken from slightly different angles, would be posted back to back. Other times, the posts would capture a moment where people are having fun in the space. Showing smiling, happy customers is always a good idea.
Regardless of how great the image quality was, or how well some captured the ambiance, their social media strategy was lacking. As a business, they were not using Instagram to their fullest potential. Instagram as a social media tool is meant to be aesthetically pleasing and dynamic or else you risk losing followers and attention. The point of using Instagram as a marketing strategy is to convey the meaning of your brand into videos and images that will keep your audience engaged long after they have left. Those images were doing the exact opposite. The page sadly looked more like a camera folder than an Instagram page due to the lack of diversity and the overwhelming homogeneity. The Bowery Poetry Instagram felt more like an afterthought rather than an active part of the marketing strategy.
To change this, I decided to look at the space and try to make sense of it by looking at it from the angle of what Instagram is meant to be. I also asked the Bowery Poetry team what their objective in using social media as a part of their social media strategy is. From our conversation I gathered they aimed to use it in a way that would attract the attention of future customers for both
Bowery Poetry and another platform, called Slam Find, that aims to be like Netflix for poetry performances. Now that I know their reason for integrating social media, including but not limited to Instagram, I must create an Instagram strategy that honors it.
For starters, although there was a consistent theme, there was nothing captivating about the theme chosen.
For starters, although there was a consistent theme, there was nothing captivating about the theme chosen.
For starters, although there was a consistent theme, there was nothing captivating about the theme chosen.
After deciding on what kind of image quality and style I would be using, it was time to ask myself what kind of grid/ layout/ or overall theme to employ. I made a couple mock layouts to try and brainstorm the best methods to use. After some more deliberating I finally settled on the idea of using a pattern/grid layout. I would post a video of the performers on the stage, then get their information so I can get their permission to post their work. If they say yes, I post the video and tag them. Then I would take a quote from their performance and post that as the image.
I felt a video would be best for Bowery Poetry because their goal is to attract customers to both Bowery Poetry and another video platform. Since the space invites artists of all ages to come in and share their poetry, I felt it was best to share some of what was happening in house on the platform. However, I did not post full performances, simply 60 second videos. This way, in most cases the follower would never get to hear the entire poem. In doing so, potential customers get an idea of what they might get from the space, while also being kept at the edge of their seat as they are left wanting more due to the unfinished poem. Although this style leaves the follower wanting, it gives enough to keep them engaged and cause them to want to come in to see a real show at Bowery Poetry Club
I wanted there to be an element of consistency in the page’s layout while still telling a visually engaging story. The first mock up I created involved using a video then posting an image of a quote from that video. It looked like image 1:
However, I was still not satisfied because the page looked bland. After some more brainstorming, I decided to use an app called Glitche to do visual manipulations to the quotes from the poems performed in the video. The resulting layout can be seen in image 2 The visual manipulation would vary every week, but the idea would stay consistent. I would take one word or sentence that I felt was powerful and do something to highlight it while also creating a stimulating image. Bowery Poetry aims to be a space that welcomes poets of all ages, in hopes of helping them find and build their poetic, creative voice. I loved this strategy because I felt it was doing everything a good social media strategy should do. It is visually engaging, while also showing what Bowery Poetry is all about.
EniThingIWant, the Lord will provide.
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