folkFEST 2025

Tools & Skills
Social Media Strategy
Paid advertising
Graphic Design
Canva

folkFEST was a festival run by northern Appalachia collaborative, f olkLAB. Set at the historic Homestead Pump House in Homestead, PA, the festival was devoted to celebrating the people and culture that make Northern Appalachia what it is: beautiful, resilient, profound, and genuine.

I was contracted by folkLAB to handle social media promotion around a month out from the festival. After a discovery meeting with co-founders Abigail and Sara, I wrote up a brief marketing plan and got to work. See the posts on Instagram here.

Campaign Highlights:

_{+200% follower count increase (+778 followers)

+295% account reach (32% from ads)
+130% in profile activity

+111% in average post views (662 ︎︎︎ 1398)
4.4% conversion rate}

For the event graphic itself, I sought to incorporating imagery of the forests of Southwest PA, which seemed to bounce back after the great logging boom of the late 19th century. I began with looking through Pennsylvania State Archives Geological Survey collection for documentation, especially in Allegheny, Bedford and Westmoreland counties.

An aerial view of the forests of Westmoreland County, c. 1939.

A view of the forests of Bedford County, PA. c.1936

A view of the mountains of Bedford, PA from the Bedford Hotel, c.1930

I then used Canva and Adobe Photoshop to edit the photos and create the graphics for social media, email, and print promotion, displayed below. I chose to create three versions to use for A/B/C testing, and for collaborators to be able to select which adheres to their branding best.

Leading up to the event, I did A/B testing on the graphics before selecting the one that garnered the most engagement for the $100, 10-day run. This paid social resulted in an overall rise of 567 followers, on top of 18,750 impressions and a 4.4% conversion rate.

Meanwhile, I curated a list of Appalachian folktunes, which I used for static posts, as well as a copy bank (as a rough start to post language). A selection of my social media graphics and videos are included below. If you click on each, you will be led to the post itself.