Giving a great youth orchestra program the spotlight
The Caesura Youth Orchestra (CYO) is something worth knowing about—and that’s why it turned to JRP to help spread the word.
Based in Glendale, CYO is patterned on the El Sistema model developed in Venezuela to help kids (including future superstar Gustavo Dudamel) play classical music. By providing urban youth with free musical instruments and instruction from orchestra musicians, the 501(c)(3) charitable organization creates a positive community where kids can get a break from drugs, gangs and economic disadvantages.
JRP connected the organization with volunteer Ann Donahue, Media Relations Manager for Western Growers and a seasoned expert in creating media strategy and content. Ann hit the ground running by beefing up information on CYO’s Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages—a move that quickly attracted new viewers. She then designed a visibility-focused social media strategy for the organization around three Instagram posts a week, cross-posted to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. In four months, these postings alone boosted CYO’s Instagram following by 6%. “Ann’s expertise created a lot of visibility in our community about the work we are doing,” said CYO Board President Dave Ferguson.
Ann gave Dave access to all the Canva templates she created, so he can recycle the posts or tweak them to create new ones. Next on Ann’s wish list: Encouraging the board to create engage its new online audience by re-gramming, re-tweeting and sharing the posts on their own feeds. For the Caesura Youth Orchestra, the strategy is sounding good.
Thanks to volunteer Linda Taubenreuther for writing JRP social media posts!