Do you have a mural, or other piece of public art going up in your town?
Here is how to promote a new mural on social media, with lots of repurposing ideas to help you create more content in less time, even if you are a “Mighty Team of Only One or Two” people…
1) Make a Time-Lapse Video
First you are going to create some anchor content. Step One is to make a time-lapse video of the creation of the mural, or at least a section of it, while it is in progress.
Make both horizontal and vertical versions, because different formats work better on different social media platforms.
Post the horizontal version of the video on your YouTube Channel. Use descriptive keywords in the video title, description, and tags.
2) Write a Blog Post
Here is your second piece of anchor content – Step Two is to write a blog post on your website about the mural.
Make sure you link to the artist’s website, to help their online visibility and authority. Link internally to your own content as well, perhaps to a previous blog post you’ve done about public art in your town, or a post you’ve written about the most Instagrammable places, which probably includes some murals.
Embed the time-lapse YouTube video mentioned above into your new blog post.
Once you’ve published the post, go back to YouTube and add the blog post link to the description box for your video. Now, if someone Googles about murals in your area, and finds the video in search before they find your blog post, they can click through the link in the video description and learn more about it.
3) Your Facebook Page
Share your blog post link as a post on your brand or organization’s Facebook Page. Make sure you tag the artist’s Facebook Page, if they have one.
A few days later, or maybe the following week, upload the horizontal version of the time-lapse video to your Page as a new post. Those who missed the blog post link, or didn’t click through, may see the video in their News Feed.
Do not use the YouTube link. The Facebook algorithm likes “native” video shared to only their platform, not content from other platforms (unless it is from Instagram, which Meta owns along with Facebook.)
No, the algorithm is not smart enough to know that your video has been shared elsewhere.
4) Instagram
Take a snippet of the vertical version of the time-lapse video, add music that fits, and post as an Instagram Reel. Tag the artist’s Instagram account, if they have one.
Include hashtags like #PublicArt #PublicSpaces #murals #mural #MuralPainting #muralismo (or murals/public art in any other language used by your visitors) #StreetArt #placemaking
Bonus – get your tourism, Main Street/downtown, or economic development partners to share your Reel to their Instagram Stories, to get more eyeballs on it from different audiences.
View this post on Instagram
5) Twitter
Share your blog post link as a tweet. Tag the artist’s Twitter account, if they have one. Include two to four of the hashtags listed above for IG, but don’t clutter the tweet too much. Consider using #TravelTuesday if you tweet about it on a Tuesday.
Share more than once, at different times on different days, to catch different audiences.
A few days later, or maybe the following week, upload a snippet of the horizontal version of the time-lapse mural video as a tweet. Those who missed the tweet with the blog post link may see the video in their Twitter feed.
6) Pinterest
Make a couple of Pins on Pinterest using the best vertical photos taken during the mural project. Link each Pin back to your blog post about the mural.
Remember that Pinterest is more of an inspiration search engine, especially for travel, than it is a social network. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and keywords matter in your titles and descriptions.
7) TikTok
Take a snippet of the vertical version of the time-lapse video, add music that fits, and post on TikTok.
I’m still working to figure out TikTok for tourism marketing. If you are, too, take a look at this TwoSix Digital blog post about destination marketing and TikTok.
8) LinkedIn
I like LinkedIn. People are there to get down to business; it IS the biggest social business network in the world, after all. Why organizations devote a ton of effort to their Facebook Page, and ignore their LinkedIn Page, is a mystery to me.
Anyway, share that blog post about the mural as a post on your LinkedIn Page.
Then, you guessed it, a week or two later – because LinkedIn is stickier and content lasts longer – upload a short version of your horizontal time-lapse mural video as another post to your LI Page.
I used to see excellent engagement for video on LinkedIn. That’s dropped off some, but it’s always a good idea to mix up your media on social – link posts, text-only posts, video, images, audio. Different people like to absorb information in different ways.
Can you think of other ideas to promote a new mural on social media? Give me a shout about it, down in the comments.
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