Member Highlight: Franklin Park Conservatory

Interview with Alana Manwaring, Marketing and PR Associate 

APGA: How are you engaging your visitors via social media? 

FPC: We view social media as a way to enhance and enrich an existing patron’s experience with the Conservatory. We provide a mix of useful, timely updates on Conservatory events, exclusive or behind-the-scenes information, and fun, spontaneous content that makes us an interesting organization to follow.

APGA: In addition to the initiatives you mentioned above, can you tell us a bit more about the various channels of social media that you currently employ? 

FPC: We are active on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and TripAdvisor.

APGA: What are your strategies for success?

FPC: We use a consistent voice that is friendly and conversational, not too wordy or overly promotional, to encourage an open, interactive atmosphere.  Also, keeping a content calendar helps us stay on track with timely messages but allows room for spontaneity.  

APGA: What do you consider a 'win' in social media? 

FPC: Wins are interactions. We want our followers to share/retweet/repin our posts. Seeing that a post has been shared over a dozen times means our message has reached exponentially more people and has the credibility of being recommended.

APGA: What have you learned from something you tried in social media that didn't work?

FPC: With Facebook, posts that don’t include images or a link rarely get a lot of interaction, probably because they get overlooked in a follower’s news feed.