Content & Strategy

I

The starting point

In the roles I've taken on, the existing conditions were usually just good enough, or passable, and never great or optimized. They were by the time I left.

The first thing I do is set the baseline: the analytics from before I started, kept as the number everything else is measured against. A result is the ratio between that baseline and where the numbers stand later, which is why each figure on this page is stated that way.

II

The scorecard

I use many points of analytics and roll them into scores that say what is working and what is not. Each score is read against the baseline.

Attention

What is viewed, and for how long.

Action

What happens after the content is viewed: a call to action clicked, a signup started.

Outcome

Tickets sold, where there are tickets. Donations made.

Each read against the analytics from before I started.

Retire

What the score shows is not working.

Try

The next test, picked from what the score shows is missing.

Keep

What the score shows is working, given a regular slot.

III

Worked examples

Two roles where I can show the numbers, and the organizations I have worked with.

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

MarComms Content Manager, April 2023 to March 2025

Led the development and execution of multi-platform content campaigns that increased audience engagement by 125% and drove lead conversions by 75%.

Managed a complex digital and print content calendar and oversaw the production of nearly 500K magazine publications, coordinating internal stakeholders and external vendors from planning through final delivery.
Prepared weekly and monthly reports on social engagement and content performance, using analytics to identify trends and recommend campaign optimizations.
Partnered with executive leadership, artistic staff, and subject-matter experts to translate complex programming and institutional priorities into clear, compelling public-facing communications.

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Content Strategist & Grants Manager, April 2020 to May 2023

Led digital content strategy and audience campaigns that translated complex scientific research into accessible web, social, video, and stakeholder communications, increasing visitor retention by 200% and engagement by 180%.

Used analytics, A/B testing, strategic messaging, and audience insights to improve campaign performance and support high-value institutional and fundraising objectives.
Managed a $20M portfolio of federal and private grants and independently managed project financials for seven research labs, tracking expenditures, forecasting needs, and reporting to senior leadership.
Coordinated deadline-intensive work across principal investigators, research teams, institutional stakeholders, and external partners, creating repeatable workflows for complex multi-stakeholder projects.

Organizations I've worked with

Across client work through my consultancy, strategies have contributed to average client revenue growth of 15% year-over-year.

IV

The idea

Three concepts that work best together.

Structure the feed

Someone landing on the profile should understand what the institution offers and be able to choose their own path, the way a YouTube channel's playlists let them.

Turn wins into series

When something works, like a behind-the-scenes staff video, name it, brand it, and give it a regular slot so it builds an audience instead of fading after one or two posts.

Plan by story, not by platform

Decide what's worth telling, then shape it for each channel from one shared source, so marketing, digital, and communications build on each other's work.

V

Five content pillars

Each pillar has a job, a place in the week, and a number that tells us whether it's working.

On Stage

What's coming up and why it matters: weekly previews, artist moments, live moments from the hall, and post-performance audience reaction commentaries.

RhythmMondays and Fridays

MeasureLink clicks and ticket conversions, alongside paid reporting

Offstage

The people who make the hall run: docents, ushers, stagehands, archivists, piano technicians, box office staff, admin teams.

RhythmWednesdays, as a named series

MeasureShares, saves, and comments

The Hall

History and archives, the building itself, tours, and the shop.

RhythmThursdays, rotating; tours and shop once a month each

MeasureSaves and reach beyond current followers

First Listen

Ways in for people new to the music: what to listen for, short explainers, and "if you like this, try that."

RhythmTuesdays

MeasureFollower growth, video completion, first-time buyers where trackable

Beyond the Hall

Education and social impact, community performances, and institutional milestones and initiatives.

RhythmTwo to four times a month

MeasureEngagement and support for development goals

VI

A dependable rhythm

The point isn't to establish rigidity. It's that the audience, and colleagues sending internal requests, know what to expect.

MondayOn StageThis week on stage

TuesdayFirst ListenOne piece, one thing to listen for

WednesdayOffstageThe next episode in the series

ThursdayThe HallArchives, the building, tours, or the shop

FridayOn StageThis weekend, plus live from the hall

SaturdayOpenLive moments, news, and TikTok winners

SundayOpenLive moments, news, and TikTok winners

Week 1Tour of the month The Hall

Week 2From the shop, plus an education story Beyond the Hall

Week 3Archive deep dive The Hall

Week 4Second Beyond the Hall story, plus more as the calendar allows, then the monthly pillar review with the team

Roughly one post in three stays unscheduled, so there's always room for the unexpected. The rhythm is a default, but not set in stone.

VII

Instagram, Front of House

Instagram is where people decide whether an institution is for them. The profile should orient them quickly and let them choose what to explore.

9:41

yourvenue

—posts

—followers

—following

Your Venue
Sharing the transformative power of music.
On Stage this week: xxxx, xxxxx, xxxxx
Tap a highlight to explore.
yourvenue.org

FollowMessageTickets

Start here

There's more than one way in

On StageThe flagship production, four nights only

Offstage, the seriesMeet the people who run the hall

This weekOpening Night: a visiting orchestra

First ListenOne piece in 60 seconds

Offstage No. 4A morning with the piano technician

From the archivesThe first season's program

First ListenWhat should I listen for? Start here before the production

Beyond the HallInside an education workshop

On StageA season-long symphony series

Tour of the monthBackstage at the main auditorium

Offstage No. 3The box office at 9 a.m.

From the shopGifts for the person who has every recording

First ListenIf you like film scores, try a symphony

Beyond the HallCommunity: music in every neighborhood

Try it: tap a highlight in the phone to see how one pillar reads across the grid.

Three pinned posts do the orienting

A "start here" post explains the series and the weekly rhythm, then the season's biggest moment, then the flagship series. First-time visitors get context before they scroll.

Highlights become the menu

One highlight per pillar, each holding that pillar's stories, so people can choose their own path. (In the app, highlights hold stories rather than filtering the grid. Here, tapping one also shows how a single pillar looks across the feed.)

Title cards make series recognizable

A consistent series name, episode number, and visual cue on every cover means someone scrolling can spot "another Offstage" at a glance, which is what turns a strong post into a reason to follow.

The bio states the rhythm

The bio is always a snapshot of the upcoming performances, because the schedule is part of the institution's brand. The x's stand in for the artists, and the line changes weekly.

VIII

TikTok, Practice Rooms

TikTok shows content to people who don't follow you yet, which makes it the cheapest place to try things. Each test has a question behind it, and the winners move to Instagram to join a series.

9:41

Your Venue

@yourvenue

—Following

—Followers

—Likes

FollowMessage

Live music, every week. New here? Start with a playlist.

First Listen12 videos

Flagship countdown6 videos

Offstage9 videos

The flagship in 60 seconds—

Moved to InstagramText-on-screen hook beat talking head. Now a First Listen reel.

POV: your first night at the hall—

TestingDoes first-person POV reach people new to the hall?

A guide's favorite secret about the hall—

Moved to InstagramHigh saves and shares. Became the Offstage series.

Guess the composer in three notes—

TestingDo comment games build repeat viewers?

Stage changeover, sped up—

Moved to InstagramStrong completion. Added to Offstage.

Opening Night style, outside the hall—

RetiredLow completion. Trend didn't fit the audience.

The moment to listen for—

TestingDoes a 2-second hook from the music beat a spoken intro?

Archive photo, then and now—

TestingCan archives travel beyond current followers?

What an usher hears from the back row—

TestingSecond Offstage format: voiceover vs. on camera.

Testing Moved to Instagram Retired

Every video answers a question

Hook styles, formats, lengths, and trends get tried here first. The test notes are internal; the audience just sees the videos.

Winners move up

When a test clearly beats its usual numbers, it moves to Instagram as a branded series and gets a slot in the weekly rhythm. That is how a series like Offstage starts.

Playlists keep it navigable anyway

TikTok's profile playlists give the less structured feed the same kind of entry points, so a new viewer who likes one video can find the next.

IX

Wins become series

When something works, it should be built on. This is a simple, repeatable way to do that.

Notice it
A post clearly beats its pillar's usual saves, shares, or completion.
Name it
Give it a series title and a cover template so people recognize the next episode.
Give it a slot
Put it in the weekly rhythm so the audience knows when to come back.
Build a queue
Line up the next five or six episodes so the series never depends on a slow week.
Review it monthly
Keep it, change the format, or retire it, based on the numbers.

Then the cycle starts again with the next win.

X

One story across all channels

Planning by story rather than by platform, applied to one of the season's biggest moments. One approved source, shaped for each place people will meet it.

One flagship production, planned as a single story.

A multi-night production with a guest conductor and a visiting ensemble.

1Night one

2Night two

3Night three

4Night four

Website articleFirst Listen

A first-timer's guide to the production

Written to answer the questions people actually ask search engines and AI assistants, which is where SEO and AEO meet.

YouTube, long formOn Stage

A conversation with the cast

Coordinated with PR and Artistic, then cut down for every other channel.

Instagram reelFirst Listen

The flagship in 60 seconds

Built from the version that won on TikTok.

Instagram carouselOn Stage

Four nights, one map

A visual map of the cycle: who's who, and what happens each night.

Instagram storiesOn Stage

Countdown and Q&A

A countdown sticker in the final weeks and questions answered by the team.

TikTokFirst Listen

Two tested hooks

Find the angle that reaches new people before investing in the polished version.

Digital signageOn Stage

A lobby countdown

Reaches the people already in the building, who are the likeliest to come back.

Audio guide appFirst Listen

A listening guide for each night

Audio companions to listen with before each night, or between them.

Marketing emailShared

One synopsis and image set

Handed to marketing from the same source, so email and social tell the same story.

XI

Paid social, with a budget behind it

Paid works best when marketing, the agency, and the content team each know what they own. Here's how the system above feeds paid, and how I support the team and the agency without blurring who owns what.

Marketing

Owns the budget and each campaign's goals.

Agency partner

Buys, targets, and recommends where to optimize.

Digital content team

Writes, designs, and produces the ads.

My role

Turns recommendations into a production plan, keeps new creative ready before it's needed, and brings evidence to budget conversations.

Organic proves it, paid scales it

Test
New hooks and formats run organically first, mostly on TikTok, where they cost nothing to try.
Prove
A post that clearly beats its usual numbers becomes a paid candidate.
Promote
Run the proven post as an ad, or as a partnership ad from an artist's or creator's account, which reads less like an ad.
Refresh
Watch for fatigue and swap in the next proven piece before results drop.

Paying to test is the expensive way to learn. Organic testing means more of the budget goes behind creative that has already worked.

A one-page brief for the weekly agency meeting

Creative actions for the week (illustrative numbers)
Campaign	What the numbers say	Creative response	Owner
Flagship production, single tickets	Frequency above 4, click-through down 30% over two weeks	Creative fatigue. Swap in the "flagship in 60 seconds" reel, the organic winner.	Ad writer and video
Subscription series, packages	Cost per purchase well under target	Recommend more budget to marketing, with two new variants ready to go.	My role
Chamber series, new buyers	Static ads cost about twice as much per purchase as video	Move to 9:16 video and brief two hooks from First Listen.	Ad writer
Family concerts	Creator-style cut outperforming the polished version on click-through	Brief a creator for two more cuts in the same style.	My role, with a creator

The point of the brief is that the meeting ends with production assignments, not just observations.

Judging each ad by its job

Sell tickets

Cost per purchase and return on ad spend.

Most On Stage campaigns

Build awareness

Reach, cost per thousand impressions, and how much of the video people watch.

Tentpoles like the flagship production, early in the campaign

Grow new audiences

Cost per first-time buyer where trackable, and new email sign-ups.

First Listen and Offstage creative

Where my paid experience comes from

Most of my paid work has been as a consultant, where I run small creative tests before scaling spend, use creator-style content sourced through partner platforms, and push to cut ad types the data shows aren't working. At the Danforth Center, I recommended moving spend away from ads that weren't being seen and toward formats that were.

The same habits apply everywhere: read the numbers every week, treat the agency as a partner, and keep the creative pipeline far enough ahead that the team never has to scramble when a campaign needs something new.

XII

A single source for every story

Where there's a source of truth for programming information but none for content, marketing, digital, and communications each write about the same performances, and no one can see the whole picture.

Where content comes from today

Digital content team Marketing copy Communications and PR Programming database dates, casting, repertoire, spellings Performance reports platform and agency

Shared content library

Every piece, from first draft to published, in one place and tagged the same way.

Strategy context

The season plan, monthly and weekly priority matrices, and anything leadership has set that can't move.

The assistant

Before answering, it finds the relevant entries in the library and the strategy context, then answers only from those, citing each one. That retrieval step is what keeps answers grounded in the institution's own information instead of the model's general knowledge.

"What do we have on the flagship production, published or scheduled, between now and opening night?"

One question replaces checking three departments' folders. It also catches duplicate work and empty months while there's still time to act.

Flagship production coverage, run-up to opening night (illustrative)

Piece	Team	Status
Season announcement copy	Communications	Published
Subscription email	Marketing	Published
First-timer's guide article	Digital	In progress
Synopsis for program and web	Marketing	In progress
Synopsis for carousel	Digital	In progress
The flagship in 60 seconds	Digital	Scheduled, Jan

Possible duplicate: two synopses are in progress. Suggest one shared master version.

Gap: nothing scheduled for November or December.

"Development wants a tribute post to a longtime supporter this week. Where does it fit?"

The score shows the reasoning behind a timing recommendation, using priorities set by leadership, not one person's opinion. The team still makes the call.

Request score (illustrative)

74/100

A strong story in a crowded week. Recommend the week of October 19, as a carousel with a website feature.

Fit with season priorities90

Room in this week's plan35

Fit for the channel and audience80

Time-sensitivity60

Why not this week: Opening Night and two major on-sale pushes already fill the plan. Moving it gives the tribute room to be seen.

"How did last month's posts split across pillars, compared with our goal of reaching new audiences?"

A quick check that the mix of content actually serves the goal.

Pillar mix, last 30 days vs. target (illustrative)

ActualTarget

On Stage

38% / 30%

The Hall

32% / 20%

Offstage

12% / 20%

First Listen

8% / 20%

Beyond the Hall

10% / 10%

Suggestion: move two archive posts a week to First Listen and Offstage, the pillars built for new audiences.

Built in phases

One libraryAgree on the tags and move current work into one shared space. Useful on its own, with no AI involved.
Ask the libraryCoverage questions and duplicate checks across departments.
Scores and auditsRequest scoring and pillar checks, always reviewed by the team.

Keeping the information protected

The library lives in storage the institution controls, and access follows existing permissions, so people only see what they already could.

For each question, only the few relevant entries are sent to the model, under enterprise terms that rule out training on the institution's data.

It could start inside tools already approved, for example an assistant pointed at a shared SharePoint library in Microsoft 365, before deciding whether anything more is needed.

Why I'm confident I can build it

At the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Arts Vision was our single source for program information, and I fed analytics back into it so future planning had history to draw from. That's the same idea, applied to content.

In my consulting work, I design and build AI-assisted workflows that keep project context in one place, automate the repetitive checks, and leave the important decisions with people. This would bring those two experiences together, introduced carefully and in phases, with each step proving useful before the next one starts.

XIII

Starting anywhere

Listening first. Everything above gets shaped by the team, their priorities, and what the numbers show.

First 30 days

Meet the team and partners in marketing, PR, artistic planning, and development. Join the weekly agency meeting and learn the active campaigns. Audit a quarter of posts by pillar and performance to set the baseline.

Days 30 to 60

Agree on pillars, series names, and the weekly rhythm with the team. Launch the first two branded series and a shared TikTok test log.

Days 60 to 90

Stand up the shared library with the team and IT. Run the first monthly pillar review and adjust.

The starting point

The scorecard

Attention

Action

Outcome

Worked examples

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Organizations I've worked with

The idea

Structure the feed

Turn wins into series

Plan by story, not by platform

Five content pillars

On Stage

Offstage

The Hall

First Listen

Beyond the Hall

A dependable rhythm

Instagram, Front of House

Three pinned posts do the orienting

Highlights become the menu

Title cards make series recognizable

The bio states the rhythm

TikTok, Practice Rooms

Every video answers a question

Winners move up

Playlists keep it navigable anyway

Wins become series

Notice it

Name it

Give it a slot

Build a queue

Review it monthly

One story across all channels

One flagship production, planned as a single story.

A first-timer's guide to the production

A conversation with the cast

The flagship in 60 seconds

Four nights, one map

Countdown and Q&A

Two tested hooks

A lobby countdown

A listening guide for each night

One synopsis and image set

Paid social, with a budget behind it

Organic proves it, paid scales it

Test

Prove

Promote

Refresh

A one-page brief for the weekly agency meeting

Judging each ad by its job

Where my paid experience comes from

A single source for every story

Shared content library

Strategy context

The assistant

Flagship production coverage, run-up to opening night (illustrative)

Request score (illustrative)

Pillar mix, last 30 days vs. target (illustrative)

Built in phases

Keeping the information protected

Why I'm confident I can build it

Starting anywhere

Work with me