Amid her busy life as the Director of Social Media at Playbill, Texas Theatre and Dance alumna Felicia Fitzpatrick (B.A. 2014) found time to answer our questions about her daily duties, the state of social media in American theatre and her time at UT.
- What is the average workday/workweek like for the Director of Social Media at Playbill?
The exciting thing about social media is that no two days are the same! As a social media team of two, it can be a challenge—social media never sleeps, so it always feels like there’s something else I can do, tweet or plan. On a daily basis, I supervise the distribution of our editorial content from Playbill.com on our major social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Stories. Then there are the weekly tasks I execute, like co-hosting our Instagram Live series, curating our Spotify playlists and analyzing our social data to write up the social media report.
From there, I like to break down my days into low-tide and high-tide days. A low-tide day is when I can sit at my computer and focus on bigger picture strategy. Maybe it’s creating branded content for a Broadway show, organizing campaigns for an advertising client, or planning coverage for a high-profile event like The Tony Awards or BroadwayCon. A high-tide day is when I’m sending off a social plan to a client, snapping Boomerangs at an industry event in the Theatre District, running back to my desk to tweet breaking news and then preparing equipment for an opening night red carpet. It’s a rush!
- We hear all the time about the need for working artists to think (or rethink) of themselves as entrepreneurs. How did your education at The University of Texas at Austin provide you with these skills? Similarly, are there opportunities you would advise students to take advantage of right now?
Arriving at UT as a freshman, I was overwhelmed by the amount of opportunities offered to students, but they’re actually so helpful in gaining skills needed in the “real world” that you wouldn’t necessarily learn in the classroom—or in the studio. You have to dive in headfirst! Yes, your classes are a huge part of shaping you into the artist you want to be, but seeking out other ways to get involved in the larger UT ecosystem can also mold you. Freshman year I was selected for the Longhorn Confidential blog, where I was able to find and polish my writing voice. After gaining confidence from that experience, I joined Her Campus Texas as a contributing writer and moved through the ranks to become Editor-in-Chief my senior year. I was also a part of Hook ‘em Arts, which was a student organization focused on arts marketing for Texas Performing Arts. Looking back on it, there were clear building blocks that gave me the skills and mindset for being the social media director of Playbill.
I would also definitely make the most of the workshops and talkbacks offered by the department! During my time there we had visits from Meryl Streep, Gene Kelly’s niece, performers from The Book of Mormon, Wicked, The Lion King and so many more. They were all so generous about answering questions and sharing advice. The theatrical community beyond UT is just as tight as is it as at Winship, and most people are so willing to give guidance to the next generation because they remember what it was like when they were just starting out. Use those moments to ask questions about auditions, about creating a theatre company, about how to prepare yourself for the business side of the arts.
- For students in school and/or for those just setting foot in the professional world, what do you find are effective guidelines for yourself about generating and maintaining your content on social media? What are some traps you see people fall into?
The biggest mistake I see people make on social media is trying to be something they’re not. We all talk about how social media is a curated look at everyone’s life, and a friend of mine has a really great phrase about it: “you’re comparing your cutting room floor to everyone else’s highlight reel.” So you can often feel pressure to present something that isn’t true to you to match digital expectations. Push for authenticity. At this point, there is definitely someone who has similar interests and wants to connect with you. Follow like-minded accounts and begin interacting with them. You’ll be able to build a community of people who want to hear what you have to say.
- When you’re browsing, what makes you stop and say “that’s good media strategy”?
Specificity. There’s so much noise on social media these days, where brands are trying to target EVERY user. But if you pay attention, brands that create specific content based off of a shared experience, reference or inside joke, feel so relatable. Mean Girls on Broadway, Cosmopolitan and Netflix are really great at this!
- Your podcast Call and Response focuses on the intersections of blackness and the performing arts. What do you see as the critical tasks for activism in the performing arts both on the ground and on social media? How can students be better activists both in and just out of school?
Now is the time for artists. Performing arts gives us a platform to speak out in truth and manifest possibilities. In Dr. Omi Jones’s class on African American theatre history class I took freshman year, we studied Victor Turner’s theory of how social drama influence stage drama and vice versa, in figure eight. We discussed how the theatre is the intersection of that figure eight—a liminal space where we can find new solutions to existing problems. Now more than ever, artists need to dream, to imagine and to create in that liminal space. In the theatre, we experience stories as a collective, where we can see reality reflected as well as learn about a new perspective—and all of them lead to us practicing radical empathy. Activism these days does not have to be just attending a protest or a physical demonstration. Choreograph a dance, write a monologue, pick up the digital pen. Use your own skills to find the activism that’s right for you.
