The assessment declaration. [I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration – https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/support-and-facilities/student-support/equitable-learning-services]
WEEK 9:
PHOTO: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sarah-demaio/wp-admin/post.php?post=39&action=edit
VIDEO: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sarah-demaio/wp-admin/post.php?post=42&action=edit
WEEK 10:
PHOTO: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sarah-demaio/wp-admin/post.php?post=44&action=edit
VIDEO: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sarah-demaio/wp-admin/post.php?post=46&action=edit
WEEK 11:
PHOTO: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sarah-demaio/wp-admin/post.php?post=48&action=edit
VIDEO: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sarah-demaio/wp-admin/post.php?post=50&action=edit
REPORT:
Throughout the past few weeks whilst frequently uploading to Instagram and writing related blog posts, it took me back to when Instagram started and no one was ‘Instafamous’ or ‘better’ than anyone else at it. It was simply just a place where you had the opportunity to upload whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. If I could recover my old Instagram account you would see a lot of grainy mirror selfies and weird captions with extremely long and unnecessary hashtags. When Instagram started up, there wasn’t as much online hate being spread around. It was a place filled with support and it was actually kind of fun. There’s a meme that I’ve seen floating around and I find it so hilariously relatable.
This one aspect of Instagram was the only thing anyone ever had to worry about. No one cared what crappy and overly obvious filter you chose to edit your photo with or what your caption was. Everyone only ever cared about hitting over 11 likes, which was easily done within minutes and that was it. There was also little to no system when it came to who was following you. I know that with the girls I was friends with and myself included, we didn’t use any privacy settings. We just let whoever follow us and view our posts.
So looking back to Instagram now, quite a lot has changed. When we think of what the present day Instagram is like, we know that there are many people out there that are paid quite a lot of money to post. Who would have ever thought that you could be paid for posting on social media. If I knew this was what the future held, I would’ve put a lot more effort into making my posts look pretty.
Companies have found Instagram to be a site for great advertising, not only through their own company account but through other people too. If a company finds someone on Instagram with a substantial amount of followers and exposure, they’re likely to real out and offer a deal. This deal most likely consists of the Instagram user posting an image of them with the companies product to then encourage followers to go out and buy the product.
When starting up an Instagram account there are a few things that need to be considered.
What should my username be? Should I have a bio? What do I want to gain from this? Do I want to eventually be paid for uploading? Do I want to be known for something? What will my focus be? Do I want to pull a Banksy on everyone and never have my face shown? Do I want to average a certain amount of likes? Who should my target audience be? Will I have multiple accounts? Should I have a colour scheme? Should I have an upload day?
Some of these questions may feel minor, however with everything combined you could either result in a ridiculously successful Instagram page or a mediocre one.
Once you have started up your account, decided upon what your focus will be and who you want to cater towards, it’s time to start taking some photos.
This is where questions relating to how you’re going to take your photos arise.
Do I want to use a phone camera? Do I want to buy an expensive professional camera? Do I want someone to take the photos for me? Do I want to edit my photos? Should I take selfies?
These questions are ways in which you are able to establish how you want your overall Instagram feed to look.
By using a professional and expensive camera you are able to take clearer photos which result in looking a lot more pleasing when scrolling through. Relating back to my blog post from week 11, I talked about using my laptop camera instead of my phone. By using a more powerful device I had a much more defined end product. Using a higher quality camera resulting in less editing to be done later on and required less work to capture the right image.
Editing in Instagram doesn’t feel all that professional, its fair to say that its an amateur level of editing. So companies such as photoshop are often used when it comes to people with a large following trying to result in the perfect picture. Even things like face tuning have become really popular as like I started in the beginning, there are a lot more people spreading online hate so we feel more inclined to make ourselves appear perfect.
Things such as captions, hashtags and location updates are all things that have a way of slightly improving the overall look of an Instagram post. These are ways in which we have the opportunity to really use Instagram as a form of documentation and remember where those photos have come from and why you’ve chosen to upload them. As I stated in my week 10 photo post, hashtags have a lot of power to expose your posts to a larger audience. Simple things like #dog have a lot more photos linked to them compared to #wowmydogisbetterthanyourdogforsure.
Instagram has become a space where people have the opportunity to start up and share their own companies. Ways in which Instagram has become beneficial foe the users has been the opportunity to share and expose their own work. Not only professional businesses, however small achievements like award winning artwork or finishing a marathon are support worthy Instagram posts.
Tagging other people within your posts has made Instagram a successful social media platform. It gives users the opportunity to share who they are with and hat they are doing with their fellow followers and allows others to comment and share on experiences together.
Sharing your Instagram among other social media platforms also gives you the opportunity to share your account with other friends and allows everyone within your social media sites to have the opportunity to view your work. This action of multi social media posting also gives people that are running a business the opportunity to really engage with all of their audiences and ensure that they have enough exposure.
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