The Social Media Genius Of Hamilton

Hamilton, the popular Broadway musical, is successful with its audience by engaging them in the theater and on social media, they do this by breaking the 25% rule on their social media platforms.

The 25% rule is about diversifying the types of posts that a brand publishes on social media. It says that there should be posts about the business itself, fun facts about the industry, relevant news about the brand or the trade, and a call to action. Most businesses will adhere to this formula.

One of the reasons that most companies follow this is because marketing companies explain it and the benefits of the rule to them. It was my job as a social media marketer to create these types of posts and assure the client that it would help them in the long run. And as a content creator, it was the formula I followed for a long time.

However, Hamilton's social media pages prove that the rule can be broken successfully. They center their posts around the show, particularly the traveling tour, and almost all of them share something to do with the musical itself.

Most of the posts are about behind the scenes at the musical. These statuses garner thousands of likes, shares, and comments. A likely reason is that the show's marketers have narrowed in on the audience and what they want to see rather than pushing followers to buy something. 

What does Hamilton do right? The answer comes down to not selling.

Lack of Fun Facts

One of the easiest and most popular types of post is fun facts. These little tidbits always get a lot of love. People will share them, especially if they are rare and mostly unknown bits of information. This is one of the most organic ways to get a brand's name out to the public.

Hamilton does not have any fun facts on their page. It would be easy for them to share some information about the titular character or any of the people who appear in the musical.

One of the reasons why they chose to forgo this segment of social media posts could be that there is a finite number of fun facts. No matter how many tidbits the show's marketers have at their disposal, eventually all of them will be used.

While reusing them might seem like a good idea, it is not. There are diminishing returns on using the same posts time and again. With less engagement, it runs the chances of the platform not pushing the other posts that are published on the page.

Another reason that the marketer's might be forgoing using fun facts is that Facebook and most other platforms are pushing for more video content. While it might seem easy to have a performer stand in front of the camera to say a few lines, there are concerns over contracts to be considered. Since it would be considered promotion, more money may need to be paid to the actor and the return on investment may not be worth it.

However, paying a performer to elaborate on the business itself would be worth the investment.

Bounty Of Business Interest

One type of post that Hamilton does really well is talking about the business. Their official pages are filled with content from behind the scenes of the show in various theaters. They also showcase actors who are joining the production, either on Broadway or the tour company.

One recent post was a picture of the actress playing Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds in the London production. The caption is "It's everybody's favorite little sis, Peggy!" And they leave it at that. It got hundreds of likes, multiple shares, and a conversation was started.

While this is not their most successful post, it illustrates the brilliance of the marketing behind the show. They were able to zero in on what the audience wanted and have cultivated the formula that allows them to garner the attention they want without flooding the feeds of their followers.

Instead, people are treated to seeing and learning things about the show. They can have a discussion about their favorite character or song. In some posts, there are debates about who played a role the best. And all the marketers had to do was have someone film a little something behind the scenes or use a performer's picture.

One of the reasons this works is because it doesn't feel like Hamilton's marketers are trying to sell the show. Rather, they want to invite people in on the journey, they wish to share some secrets of the show with their followers.

A page that feels like it's selling constantly is one that won't get a lot of attention.

Low CTA Bar

The Hamilton pages do very few obvious calls to actions. While the goal is to sell tickets to the various productions, they don't go out of their way to push too hard to get people to buy tickets or other products they offer.

In fact, a post talking about the Roblox update that includes characters from the show focuses more on the video play than pushing sales. There is a call to action, but in such a gentle way that it almost feels like an extension of their other posts about the business.

Many content creators and smaller companies focus solely on selling their product. Likely because they don't have the marketing budget or time to do different types of posts. However, this strategy turns people off and does little to boost sales.

One reason is that the call to action is too pushy, let alone multiple posts about the same product in a short amount of time. People want to feel valued and like they are part of the process. Too many posts trying to sell to them has the opposite effect.

Marketers for Hamilton understand the need to sell the show, but also that people may get turned off by incessant posts asking them to buy. This knowledge helped them shape the way the pages are utilized.

They keep everything centered around the show they are marketing for and nothing else.

Industry Out

Conventional thinking would be that a musical posting about Broadway or the theater industry would be a no-brainer. Marketers have a lot of information available to them and an audience that is eager to engage with the content shared. But those who handle the social media for Hamilton seem to disagree.

On their pages, there are no links or anything about the industry. The reason for this isn't clear, but one reason might be that the marketers are shying away from promoting other shows. Since Broadway relies on tourists to boost sales of musicals and plays, a large portion of that customer base only sees one production.

It would make sense to try to convince people to see the show they are promoting.

Another reason is that some fans of Broadway look to argue about many things. Most platforms will stop pushing a pages posts if each time they put something up, there are negative encounters or a lot of rule violations.

By focusing on Hamilton, they are largely able to avoid the negativity that plagues other pages.

Avoiding posts about Broadway also allows them to share more about the towns that the touring company are in. There are posts about the London production, mostly introducing people to the cast and showing some of the stage.

The marketers know what their fans want.

Social Keys

What Hamilton fans want is more of their favorite show. They want to see what's happening behind the scenes and the people playing the roles. Most understand that there is some selling involved, but the marketers smartly avoid over doing it.

The people behind the social media accounts for the show were smart enough to avoid the 25% rule. They zeroed in on the types of posts that were going to work well for this particular brand and made sure to run with it.

That is a lesson that content creators and small businesses should learn. It's good to know what a rule is and even adhere to it if it works for them. However, it is also imperative to be flexible with what is posted on the social media pages.

They should represent the person or brand, not a theory put forth by professionals that are not connected to their customer base. The rules should be viewed as a guideline more than something that is set in stone.

Something the Hamilton team clearly knew. They are a great example of how to make social media work for the company.