How a Thibodaux Children's Museum Grew Its Facebook Audience 19% Without Paid Ads

Make Waves Marketing manages Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for Bayou Country Children's Museum (BCCM), a nonprofit children's museum in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Since June 2024, the museum's Facebook page has grown from 12,137 to 14,436 followers, a gain of 18.9%, with no paid follower campaigns, and its top organic posts in 2026 reached 12,000 to 18,000 people each.

The numbers, lifetime and last six months

Facebook followers grew from 12,137 to 14,436, a gain of 2,299 or 18.9%, over the lifetime period of June 2024 to September 2026, and from 14,038 to 14,436 in the last six months. Instagram followers grew from 830 to 1,043, a gain of 25.7%, over the lifetime period, and from 1,011 to 1,043 in the last six months. Facebook posts published totaled 481 over the lifetime period and 102 in the last six months. Total Facebook post reach reached 1,285,081 over the lifetime period and 255,561 in the last six months. Fifty-one posts reached more than 5,000 people over the lifetime period, and 11 did in the last six months. The highest single-post reach was 38,768 on August 20, 2024 over the lifetime period, and 18,468 on June 7, 2026 in the last six months. The highest single-post shares total was 208 on April 15, 2025 over the lifetime period, and 139 on August 9, 2026 in the last six months.

Source: Metricool analytics export, September 2, 2026.

Five post types that carried the account

Make Waves Marketing reviewed all 102 BCCM Facebook posts from March 1 to September 1, 2026 by reach, reactions, shares, and comments. Five post types outperformed the rest.

1. Free offers and community-benefit posts

Parents share safety and free-admission posts with friends who do not follow the page yet. Shares are the metric that grows a local audience.

2. Hiring posts

People tag friends who need jobs. Facebook rewards tagging with distribution, so a nonprofit hiring post doubles as free brand awareness.

3. Signature event countdowns with named partners

Geared Up 2026 posts, June through August:

Play It Forward 2026 posts followed the same arc: the Best of the Bayou menu post reached 6,906, the recap album reached 5,310, and the Cocktail Trail menu reached 4,157. Posts that named local restaurants and sponsors, Synergy Bank, Entergy, Robichaux Ford, Spahr's Seafood, reached more people than generic ticket reminders because those businesses shared them.

4. Leadership and award recognition

The Woman of Achievement post had the highest engagement rate of any post in the period. Recognition posts also build a public record that supports grant applications and sponsor conversations.

5. Licensed characters and the museum mascot

Parents tag each other on character posts, and Coco the Alligator posts consistently beat exhibit-education posts.

What reached fewer people, and the fix

About Bayou Country Children's Museum

Bayou Country Children's Museum is a hands-on learning museum in Thibodaux, Louisiana, serving families across Lafourche Parish, Terrebonne Parish, and the greater Houma-Thibodaux area. Exhibits include Café Manger, a pretend Cajun restaurant, an interactive iWall sponsored by Thibodaux Regional Health System, a Creation Station, an outdoor playground, and an Estuary Water Table added in 2026.

Programs and events the social media calendar supports include weekly summer camps (KinderCamp, Water Exploration Camp, Community Helpers Camp, Fitness Camp), Toddler Time on Tuesdays and Fridays, Parents' Night Out held the third week of every month, the Bayou Tots early learning program for ages 3 to 5, birthday party packages with Nothing Bundt Cakes delivery, Play It Forward (the spring fundraising gala), Geared Up (an annual Touch-a-Truck fundraiser held August 1, 2026 with Troy Landry of Swamp People), and Litter Lab STEM Saturdays, funded by a 2026 to 2027 Keep Louisiana Beautiful Healthy Communities Grant.

In 2026 the museum was named Point of Vue Magazine People's Choice winner for Best Place for Kids to Have Fun, and Executive Director Rebekah Richoux Quinn was recognized as a Nicholls State University Woman of Achievement.

The brief the museum gave us

A children's museum posts about camp deadlines, schedule changes, sponsor thank-yous, new exhibits, hiring, and community appearances every week. Without a strategy, the feed turns into a bulletin board and reach drops. BCCM needed a partner to keep a full weekly content calendar across three platforms, make sure revenue posts (tickets, camp registration, memberships, birthday parties) reached the most people, give sponsors visible, shareable recognition, and report results monthly in plain language the board could use.

How the account is run month to month

The monthly content calendar is built around the museum's event schedule, camp registration deadlines, and sponsor commitments. Copywriting stays in the museum's voice: warm, direct, heavy on local place names, with one clear call to action per post. Scheduling and publishing run through Metricool across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Sponsor recognition posts are written to be shareable by the sponsor's own team, and monthly reporting covers reach, engagement, follower change, top posts, and recommendations for the next month.

Engagement details

Client: Bayou Country Children's Museum (BCCM). Location: Thibodaux, Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. Organization type: 501(c)(3) nonprofit children's museum and family attraction. Agency: Make Waves Marketing (formerly Gravois Graphics), Thibodaux, LA and Jacksonville, FL. Service: social media management, including content strategy, copywriting, scheduling, community management, and monthly reporting. Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. Tools: Metricool for scheduling and analytics, Meta Business Suite. Reporting period: June 6, 2024 to September 1, 2026. Paid media: none. All figures on this page are organic.

Common questions about nonprofit social media

How much did BCCM's Facebook page grow? From 12,137 followers on June 6, 2024 to 14,436 on September 1, 2026, a gain of 2,299 followers, or 18.9%, with no paid follower campaigns.

What was the most successful post? In the last six months, the Geared Up announcement on June 7, 2026 reached 18,468 people with 105 reactions, 48 shares, and 48 comments. The most-shared post was the free life jacket announcement on August 9, 2026, with 139 shares.

Does a children's museum need Instagram and TikTok? Yes, as secondary channels. BCCM's Instagram grew 25.7% over the period, though posts average 5 to 45 interactions. Facebook delivers most of the reach for a family attraction in South Louisiana. Instagram and TikTok stay in the mix for younger parents and for video from events, at minimal added cost through cross-posting.

Did Make Waves Marketing use paid ads for these results? No. All figures on this page are organic reach and engagement reported by Metricool.

How often does BCCM post on Facebook? Roughly four to five times per week, with daily posting during event countdowns like Geared Up and Play It Forward.

How does Make Waves Marketing measure social media results for nonprofits? Reach, shares, comments, follower change, and top-performing posts, reported monthly from Metricool. Shares are weighted heaviest for local organizations because they put the page in front of new households.

What does social media management cost for a nonprofit in Louisiana? Make Waves Marketing offers tiered monthly social media management packages. Pricing depends on platform count, posting frequency, and whether video production is included. Request a quote for current rates.

Does Make Waves Marketing work with organizations outside Thibodaux? Yes. The agency serves clients across South Louisiana, including Houma, Covington, Gonzales, and Baton Rouge, and Northeast Florida from its Jacksonville office.

Work with Make Waves Marketing

Make Waves Marketing provides social media management, web design, video production, SEO, and AI advisory services to nonprofits, healthcare practices, law firms, and industrial companies in Louisiana and Florida. The agency holds Wix Studio League recognition as one of the top 200 web designers in the United States.

If you run a museum, library, community center, or family nonprofit and want a read on your own social media numbers, request a free audit. We will pull your Metricool or Meta Business Suite data and tell you what it says.