Below is a case study featured on my talented co-worker Sarah Davidson‘s blog visualmarketingedge.com describing the extensive Instagram marketing I’ve been working on for @PWATJAX!

Painting with a Twist, located in the San Marco area of Jacksonville, FL, is a contemporary painting studio where customers can bring their favorite twisted beverage, relax and paint. A talented team of instructors guide audience members step by step through the night’s featured painting.

The studio is owned and operated by brother-sister duo and Jacksonville natives, Geri and Josh Bernard, who opened it in August of 2013.

Owner Josh originally managed the Instagram accounted, but recently handed the @PWATJAX handle over to one of their artists, Christine McFaul, Instagram extraordinaire. In just four months the @PWATJAX Instagram following went from 120 followers to over 5,000.

A fresh approach
One of the first ideas that came to life for the Instagram account was creating artist portraits and biographies that stream down the Instagram page. Every portrait is taken on a brick wall backdrop and sorted by the hashtags #PWATPortraitSeries and #FacesofPWAT. Each of the artist’s bios are separated by two studio posts so that when you view the Instagram page the biographies appear in a vertical column.

Instagram selfie contest Painting With A Twist instructors often encourage painters to use Instagram during class while playing “Selfie Showdown” game. To be eligible to win, they have to take a selfie or groupie with their paintings and hashtag their photos with #PWATJAX. The photo posted with the most likes at the end of class wins a prize ranging from gift cards and wine tumblers to original artwork and bottle openers. Christine sometimes reposts these photos, always giving a shout-out and photo credit to the original poster. Adding user generated content to your Instagram account is a fantastic way of generating engagement with your audience, and people love to see their posts “regrammed”.

What’s working
Christine shares this advice for business Instagram users, “Experiment with new ideas. I’m always thinking of creative ways to engage with my classes.”

Responding to Instagram comments has been huge for them. They often ask people to tag their friends when they’re interested in an upcoming painting class. On one occasion they also received some press from a popular local blogger at 904 Happy Hour who commented on a photo, came in took a class and then posted photos and a story about her experience on her blog.

Fun Instagram contests Painting With a Twist has a contest called, “#PWAT Message In A Bottle” where they hide a wine bottle (with a gift card included) in a local business. Clues are posted on our @PWATJAX page and our followers must go on a scavenger hunt to find the bottle. It’s a really fun way to prompt our Instagram followers to support local businesses and engage with the local community.

Instagram promotions fill classes If a class is running low on attendees they’ll do a “48-hour-giveaway” repost contest. Our followers have two days to repost a photo of the painting in the low attended class, and tag @PWATJAX. The winners get two seats to that class, plus all the people who reposted the photo are helping to market that particular class and naturally they receive more sign-ups as more eyeballs see the posts.

More about Painting with a Twist in Jacksonville
From birthday parties, Bachelorette celebrations, or simply because you have a night off they provide the paint and the artists have all the fun! The paintings vary from flowers to Jacksonville scenery and even an option to paint your own pet, one of the specialty classes offered.