The aim of this thesis is to explore the habits of the cultural sector professionals when it comes to promoting their programme via social media (Facebook and Instagram) and to investigate the ways in which posts on social media can be used to entice the audiences to visit cinemas and theatres, which has not yet been thoroughly explored in Croatia. With regards to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, defining the differences in sustaining the programme as well as promoting it before and during the crisis has become of great relevance for this research. In the title of this paper the thesis the author uses the term performance arts as an umbrella term for theatre and film, i.e. the conducted analysis includes three institutions primarily focused on theatre (plays) and three institutions focused on film (film projections). The research consists of two methods: content analysis and in-depth interviews. The content analysis consists of the six culture institutions’ presence on two social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram) in the period from the beginning of September to the end of November 2020 (the autumn season). Another method, the in-depth interview, included six experts representatives of the institutions and the majority of interviews took place live in a face-to-face conversation, with audio recording, which later was transcribed. The results have shown that digital marketing is today’s most important form of advertising for all cultural institutions as well as their audiences. Furthermore, findings have shown that global pandemic brought considerable changes in the way audiences are encouraged and invited to come and enjoy in cultural contents; there is a more spontaneous and faster way in communicating with the general public and therefore, in a more personalized way. Still, main conclusions of the research suggest that there is a lot more financial and structural support needed to the digital marketing of cultural institutions and that institutions that participated in the research, although in the period of crisis, are orientating on positive sides of business when communicating with the users.