A4 Post One: Putting Make the Stop into Action
Upon completing assignment two, I had accomplished creating the foundation for my Instagram page. Whereby, in consideration of my overall question for this studio (how can social media become a more honest, open and encouraging place?), I developed a mission to spread positivity across the social media scape with hope that it will challenge and adjust the way in which 13-24 year olds engage with social media. Therefore, moving forward I have begun finalising how exactly I want to achieve this by asking the following:
What will my posting schedule be and why?
In accordance with the purpose of my account, posting once per day will be necessary. The account’s operation will in some ways work to be disruptive in nature. If people are to change their ways of engaging with social media, then they need to be reminded each day in order to build such a habit. What I hope to see is people becoming so used to being prompted to complete an act of kindness, that they implement it into their time on social media without needing a prompt from the account. Thus indicating that I have successfully adjusted how someone engages with social media for the better.
What time should I post to reach my target audience?
At this stage I have not yet begun the daily posts therefore, I have not gained any insight into what time would best reach my audience. I do, however, plan to test posting at 6pm. For now I am focusing on what may work best for the Australian time zone despite my audience being the general demographic of 13-24 years old.
What do I want to communicate through my content?
As I am posting daily, I want my content to be short and to the point. The aim of this is to capture the attention of people scrolling in a short amount of time without needing their attention for too long; substantiating that an act of kindness is time efficient but has large effects.
Furthermore as I have focused my attention on Instagram for this assignment I want to ensure that I have fully considered the affordances of Instagram. This has led to my growing interest in AR. AR is becoming a staple in the lives of millenials. From Snapchat to Instagram, filters offer ‘a small piece of cultural relevance’ (Heathman 2020, para. 8). They’re trendy with big brands such as Nando’s joining in by creating a “What Nando’s spice level are you?” filter. This growing phenomenon is driven by shareability; ‘right now, it is arguably one of the most effective and efficient ways to generate hype through mass-shareability’ (Smith 2020, para. 18). Thus, I am curious to see if making a filter will assist in increasing the reach of my account.
Overall, I shall use the above to shape my final assignment. Time to go spread some positivity!
References:
Heathman, A 2020, ‘How Instagram’s AR filters became the new route to internet stardom’, Evening Standard, 23 January, viewed 11 May 2020, <https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/instagram-filters-disney-2020-resolutions-trend-where-next-a4342366.html>.
Smith, J 2020, ‘Instagram Filters: Why are they so popular and what does it mean for brands?’, The Drum, 6 February, viewed 11 May 2020, <https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2020/02/06/instagram-filters-why-are-they-so-popular-and-what-does-it-mean-brands>.