Playful, punchy and professional, Shay Bang is the life of the social media party when she’s putting the exclamation point in Bang!
With a seamless and engagement-driving blend of paysite scene teases, fan interactions and those notoriously naughty boob drop clips, the NSFW excitement on Bang.com’s Twitter hypes up followers and stars with giddy abandon.
Outside of social media management, I assist with elements of production, project management, site design and our robust influencer program.
Then, when you factor in her multi-faceted juggling of the company blog, Instagram presence, YouTube channel, Reddit forums and Bang Babe love, not to mention her behind-the-scenes coordination with the content pipeline for endless sexy fun and a driven marketing team, it’s a wonder she pulls off the operation with such flair.
To glean insight into the method to the madness of Bang’s channel marketing manager, as well as how she interfaces with her team, XBIZ sat down with the Woman of the Month for this interview.
XBIZ: Tell us about your professional background prior to adult.
Shay: Prior to my career path in adult, I was a professionally sponsored long-distance runner. I competed for both the cross country and track and field teams for a Division I collegiate program, while majoring in finance. I was the editor-in-chief of my college yearbook, and I was responsible for hiring and managing the staff, while ensuring our body copy and design deadlines were met.
I moved to the East Coast after college to pursue my dreams of qualifying for the Olympic Marathon Trials. While training, I wanted to continue to challenge and grow my professional pursuits; I was employed as a program assistant for an organization just outside of D.C.
XBIZ: What led you to join this industry and how did you end up working for Bang?
Shay: I moved back to my native San Diego following my contract’s end and was in search of a new challenge. I fell upon an opening for an online marketing assistant position in the jobs section on Craigslist. The role was evergreen and sounded like the perfect opportunity to enter into an exciting and growing company. At the very end of the job posting there was a disclaimer that read “Must Be Comfortable With Sensitive Information.” The hiring manager let me know more about Bang and the nature of the content, and I knew I was ready to dive in head-first! 4.5 years later and I am happier than ever.
XBIZ: Describe how your job role has evolved over the years.
Shay: Our marketing team at Bang is lean and efficient, with three individuals comprising our division. I originally began with the entry-level task of creating an organizational structure for the year’s-worth of licensed and original porn scenes we had on hard drives in a file cabinet. My role has since flourished as I was given the opportunity to work as a manager on our organic social media efforts. I really dove into the major players in the industry and gained my footing and moved up the ranks. “Shay Bang” was born around one year into my tenure, and I was able to create a voice for myself amongst the social media manager industry legends.
I am lucky now to have taken on a leadership role to manage our lean team and the breadth of social media efforts on our channels. Between building out our Bang Babe program, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, blog, etc., I have enjoyed owning the responsibility for our end-to-end channel management. I love the opportunity Bang has given me to wear many hats and grow as a professional.
XBIZ: What is your approach to searching for and organizing content to post via social media?
Shay: It’s essential within my workflow to remain extremely organized with content, especially at the volume we work with! We work with our “Original Production” calendar as a schedule to tease and hype up our weekly releases. On the days that we don’t release new content, I curate a suite of posts covering punchy content that I’ve sourced myself. I have a large vault of clips and pics that I have stored up from years of posting that I pull from when I have a gap to fill. I use a variety of tools to organize, queue and manage our content calendar.
XBIZ: How do you go about scheduling posts on a weekly basis, while also being responsive online to followers and the community?
Shay: Bang releases a handful of brand-new Original Productions every week and I use a full suite of photos and video creatives to tease and promote new content. I follow this cadence to stay organized and the release calendar serves as a posting schedule structure. I balance my workday between engaging and posting on social, while also monitoring progress of our team projects. Being present and engaging on social is the key to creating live conversation and ensuring channel growth; if you tweet at me, I’ll tweet back! I am a spunky, creative and rambunctious redhead! Shay Bang is my professional identity, and when it comes to playing my role, I love to engage with fellow industry colleagues, performers and fans.
XBIZ: Based on your analytics, what sorts of posts seem most effective overall for engagement across different platforms?
Shay: When the task of analyzing and monitoring performance analytics is on the table, I am a total geek. I love a well-organized and designed spreadsheet. We use detailed reporting procedures to view metrics on our social channels and compare how different content is received. Studying these metrics allows us to test, tweak and test more ideas!
For Twitter specifically, video content is essential. Short snippets of eye-catching and electrifying content works best. Content that makes the users’ endless scroll of Twitter come to an immediate halt, especially.
For Instagram, we’ve added video content into our posting schedule and have seen an uptick in engagement. Visually stunning story content is a must; it’s all about creating conversation with frequent updates. Stories are the intricate daily posts that leave everyone wanting more.
XBIZ: Tell us what other elements of marketing you’re involved with at the company, and how you interface with colleagues behind the scenes to create punchy content.
Shay: My touchpoints within our marketing division are plentiful; I am so thankful to be on a team that allows me to continuously grow and learn. Outside of social media management, I assist with elements of production, project management, site design and our robust influencer program. I manage our offshore team to create stunning visuals and clips to highlight our weekly releases. I ideate our quarterly holiday promos to secure new Bang customers too. Behind the scenes, I brainstorm unique marketing pushes for production and scene ideas to create flashy content. We work with a diligent process from idea to execution to ensure we are putting out top-notchy quality.
XBIZ: Which of your marketing campaigns over the past year were most effective in accomplishing the goals you set to achieve?
Shay: 2020 brought incredibly difficult circumstances to the world and our industry. Bang managed to pivot during these dark times as a team and exercise our creativity and resourcefulness to keep pushing the limits. Our Bang Babe ambassador program began back in 2017, as a way for us to promote an exclusive star each month. As our Bang Babe family has grown, this marketing campaign has really leveled up within the last year. We have been able to secure some of the hottest models to shoot and collaborate with, while adding to our repertoire of promotional avenues! I’ve executed some amazing Reddit AMAs and added a new behind the scenes project that has exceeded expectations all around. Our Bang Babe family is a special group of models that we hold very dear to our hearts!
XBIZ: In a nutshell, what are the pros and cons of each marketing platform you use?
Shay: Managing social media for an adult industry brand is a constant uphill battle. The major channels that Bang is present on are Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, our blog and Reddit. We must abide by spoken (and often times unspoken) terms of service (TOS) guidelines with each platform. TOS between each one is extremely unique. Twitter is by far the most accepting of NSFW content. I appreciate how Twitter allows us to showcase witty and interesting copy with engaging video content. Instagram … oh, Instagram … don’t even get me started on IG. This has been by far the most difficult platform to work with, as with each passing day we try not to violate community guidelines. We are overly cautious and obey the rules, while remaining vigilant when any changes occur. Sometimes it’s defeating to feel like we aren’t wanted on the platform, but overall, we do the best we can to share our SFW content.
Across the board, we’ve increased the value we place on generating SFW content for distribution on Instagram, our YouTube channel and our blog platform. Our YouTube channel is a repository for SFW snippets of scenes, exclusive behind the scenes interviews and our Reddit AMA videos. I also write twice weekly short form pieces for our SFW blog, one format being “20 Questions” interviews with the industry’s hottest stars. Each platform is unique in content strategy and comes with their associated pros/cons. Our team’s end goal on each social network is to purvey the Bang brand!
XBIZ: What are your biggest goals for 2021, personally and professionally?
Shay: Personally, I recently took up the sport of golf a few years ago as I tapered off of my professional running regime. On the weekends you can find me on the golf course! I am looking forward to lowering my stroke score and playing some exciting new courses. I am also a big food and wine fan. I love to travel, and I aspire to explore new places once it is safe to do so. I also turn 30 years old in July, let’s go!
Professionally, in 2021, I want to continuously seek out new professional challenges and really push the envelope. I want to seek out industry connections and share ideas to grow and keep learning. I am a firm believer in avoiding complacency. I want to challenge my leadership growth and consistently move up into further senior roles on the team. I am excited for the year ahead and determined to achieve the high-growth goals we have set for our social team!
Each month, industry news media organization XBIZ spotlights the career accomplishments and outstanding contributions of Women in Adult. WIA profiles offer an intimate look at the professional lives of the industry's most influential female executives.
