Circus Bella's Marketing Intern
Picture taken by Kyran while filming Calvin
I remember when I first started working at Circus Bella. As someone who struggles with anxiety, I was a bit anxious about meeting the whole cast. I was terrified of the idea that what I was doing was a little bit out of my comfort zone but I knew I needed the extra push and gain the experience that I needed. My anxiety got so bad to the point where I was thinking of quitting because I couldn’t fathom the idea of me speaking to so many people but thankfully I did not quit. My mom, one of my biggest hype women, encouraged me not to quit so easily. Some tasks that seem easy to most people are extremely difficult for me to do such as walking up to people, or making conversations.
Click the image to see the final results!
As of May 2024, I will be graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. I cannot believe that I am going to be the first in my family to have ever completed college. I come from a family of immigrants who didn’t have access to proper education so this is a very huge accomplishment for me. I think after I graduate from college and will pursue a career in the music industry thanks to mentorship programs such as Grammy U, She Is The Music, and MusicFoward who have guided me and connected me with aspiring music industry professionals who assured me that this is the right industry for me. Usually, when I tell people I would like to work in the music industry they assume I want to be a singer, but this is not the case for me. I would like to work in marketing, touring, A&R, or something of that nature. I am still exploring what exactly I want to do and lead the rest to fate.
This past year I was allowed to work at Circus Bella for their winter show, Kaleidoscope. Working at a Circus was such a unique experience for me. I saw how the event was planned out to how performers rehearse. If I had the chance to describe Circus Bella's Kaleidoscope shows, I would describe it as a show that bursts with humor and excitement, with a modern twist. Circus Bella's Kaleidoscope featured talented performers such as aerialists, acrobats, jugglers, and more. If you ever have the opportunity to attend a Circus Bella show I guarantee that you will have the time of your life because so did I. It will leave you utterly shocked because of how good the show is.
Some of my daily tasks included creating content for all our social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. I brainstormed new content ideas, promoted our events, and researched current trends. When I post on social media I want the audience to connect with the performers on a personal level so I made sure to post funny dancing videos, relatable content, and heartwarming videos.
When selecting what photos to post, I made sure posts were eye-catching. It was important for me to capture the specific colors that Circus Bella represents. Usually when you think of Circuses you imagine bright, vibrant colors so I made sure that when I was posting the color scheme matched with the colors that Circus Bella represents such as yellow, red, etc.
Marketing concepts on these platforms such as choosing to use powerful hashtags and conducting online giveaways also strengthened my efforts. Certain hashtags allowed me to reach a broader audience, specifically those that live in the Bay Area such as #thingstodoinsf #nonprofitsofthebay #sanfrancisco. This ensured that most of these ads were specifically targeting Bay Area residents.
When I contacted giveaways. I did everything from designing the post and drafting the caption to choosing the winners. I was able to do this by inserting everyone who had submitted an entry to typing in in a wheel chooser. It was a bit time-consuming typing out each entry onto the website but it was all worth it because it was such an exciting task because I was also seeing the enthusiasm people had to be attending Kaleidoscope 2023. It was truly a rewarding experience.
I was able to meet all the cast. Clowns Jaime Coventry, Natasha Kaluza, and Calvin Kai Ku create their hilarious skits. Elise, the contortionist, who’s very sweet by the way, is a very flexible performer. There are aerialists like Veronica Blair, who is also a great dancer, and Dwoira who shines high above the audience on a hoop. Kyran Walton is a very awesome person aka the hand balancer who helped me a lot with creating awesome content for the CB page. Ori who does the rola bola. Toni Cannon does the Chinese Pole
If you've seen our videos on our Circus Bella page you will know what I’m talking about. Ori does a unique act called the “Rola Bola” and very talented jugglers such as Kirk Marshal, Julie Marsh, and Jefferson Freire. Fun fact: If you didn’t know EVERYONE at Circus Bella knows how to juggle. Some can even FOOT JUGGLE. So I decided to give juggling a try, which I am still learning.
At rehearsals what I did was try to record as much content as possible from all different angles, people need to know that no matter where you're sitting EVERY angle is a good view when you're at Circus Bella. I wish I could’ve attended more rehearsals but because of my school schedule, I was only able to attend a few of them.
What was shocking to me was that many people even attended our shows multiple times.
Now for show days, I had a few responsibilities which was consistently putting out content across all our social media pages as well as coming up with new content ideas that will help generate ticket sales. Here’s a fun little story: One of the guests upon entering the tent had told us that they saw all the cool stories posted on Instagram and that was what led him to buy a ticket to Circus Bella Kaleidoscope. Posting as many stories with the right hashtag paid off and helped us with ticket sales.
Here’s a little fun accomplishment that happened during my time at Circus Bella, our TikTok page gained over 1,000 followers within 3 weeks, and 23,000 views on Instagram. Throughout my internship, many people came up to me and complimented me saying I was doing a very good job on the social media pages which made me feel extra proud.
Overall, I am very happy with all the engagement that Circus Bella has gained. This internship was very rewarding. Shout out to Abigail Munn who has been the greatest mentor I’ve ever had. I truly would not have been given all these cool opportunities if it wasn’t for her.