Movie Magic: Meet IMAX’s Social Media Coordinator

Lemonade at the Movies: Meet Josh Diaz, IMAX Social Media Coordinator

As IMAX’s social media agency, Lemonade designs and executes the entertainment giant’s social media strategy, promoting the latest releases and engaging fans about their favorite topics while maintaining the brand’s distinct voice.

At Lemonade, the man behind all this magic is social media coordinator Josh Diaz, who has been responsible for IMAX’s social media management for each and every release, movies ranging from Jurassic World Dominion and Dr. Strange 2 to Josh’s favorite recent hit, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.

That title (Everything, Everywhere, All At Once) actually goes a long way in describing Josh’s day-to-day work, where he manages all of IMAX’s social media channels, including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. He’s the one you’re talking to when you Tweet at IMAX!

Josh acts as both community member and manager, working to discover and engage fan excitement, while also ensuring that when he speaks in IMAX’s voice, the conversations are clear, informative, engaging, and—above all else—authentic. 

When Making Global Brands Approachable, Authenticity is Paramount

Indeed, Josh’s biggest social media advice, particularly for people managing global brands’ interactions with their consumers and fans, is to just be authentic. Yes, many brands have, over the last several years, come to toe the line between witty and caustic (talking about you, Wendy’s), but this is a tough needle to thread in the long term. 

As Josh explains, “Authenticity is more important than being witty. Everybody wants to be witty, but that makes it feel forced and unnatural. Being authentic is key.”

Said another way, followers and fans can tell when something is forced or unnatural and will recoil. Instead of trying to fit the brand’s tone into current trends, Josh works to find its natural, authentic voice and stay within it. 

For IMAX, that authentic voice is one of excitement, anticipation, and passionate fandom. People are already excited about the movies (which, again, are among the biggest movies in the world), and Josh works everyday to tap into and feed that excitement in engaging and authentic ways.

Easier said than done, right?  The question remains: How do you keep one of the biggest entertainment brands in the world authentically approachable? For Josh, the answer is surprisingly simple: “I approach it with the same excitement and passion any fan would.” 

If he already loves the movie, great, his job doesn’t get much easier—he already knows how to engage fans of that movie because he already is one himself. But if he hasn’t already seen the movie he is soon to be promoting, he watches it. If he isn’t a fan even after watching it (hey, it happens!), he immerses himself in the fandom—visiting YouTube channels, fan forums, and social media platforms.

“Every movie has its audience and its hardcore fanatics, and they are already excited about it and having conversations. I just need to tap into that,” Josh says. 

On Twitter, You Play for Keeps

And where do the best of these conversations happen? For Josh, the answer is simple: “Twitter! I love Twitter.” 

He enjoys the instant feedback, the rapidly evolving conversations, the way memes can go from zero to infamous in a split second. “You can talk to everybody instantly. It is very free-flowing and it’s easy to search and find your community,” Josh says. 

Of course, Twitter is not for the timid as clapbacks and cancellations can be swift and subsuming. Particularly over the last few years, the platform has become increasingly combative, owing to political polarization, the pandemic, and a whole host of other reasons.

This means that, for all of its rewards, it is a dangerous place for a social media coordinator, who can tweet with the best intentions only to have it misunderstood or entirely miss the mark. 

But Josh likes playing for keeps and enjoys the challenge. 

“Even a wholesome reply needs to be seen through every possible negative angle before hitting publish. It is a trapeze where you land on a tightrope.”

But it feels so good when you stick the landing. 

Josh recalls a particularly rewarding back and forth with a fan on Twitter who had seen Top Gun: Maverick no less than a dozen times in IMAX. By the end of the interaction Josh, on the IMAX Twitter account, had given him his own call sign. 

“That’s the kind of moment you are looking for. That person was obviously already very excited about Top Gun because he saw it a dozen times, but I was able to feed and feed off of that excitement in a genuine way."

Any fans watching that interaction unfold would see IMAX not only as a world class theatre, but as a conduit for fan’s passion and excitement.

Concluding with an Early Memory of Into the Deep

Though IMAX has become synonymous with the most exciting blockbusters of the year, Josh’s most memorable IMAX experience was not a tentpole Hollywood film but rather an educational oceanic documentary from years ago called Into the Deep. 

“That was a different era for IMAX, when they had a lot of those immersive educational experiences, and it was a different era for me too—I was in sixth grade!  We took a field trip to the local IMAX theater. It was so big and clear, it felt like I was diving into the ocean. Just such  a WOW moment. I’ll never forget that.”

This was way back in the early 2000s, well before social media marketing took off, so there was, unfortunately, no social media coordinator like Josh at the time to capitalize on his excitement. 

But nowadays, Josh is always on the lookout for these types of experiences, the kinds he can engage and amplify through authentic and genuine social media management on IMAX’s behalf.

He really does everything, everywhere, all at once.