Content
Final Results (Assignment #4)
Making Sense of Social Media
Click here for a PDF of the Social Strategy
Click here for the link to the Instagram Account
Click here for a video on how the strategy was deployed on Instagram
Post 2 (Assignment #4)
Making Sense of Social Media
Coming out of this assignment, the importance of social media and its impact on registered target audiences has been made abundantly clear to me. Ultimately, everything on social media is put out there to be seen, and the way businesses or companies use different platforms plays a major part in how audiences connect and respond to what they see. Having the accessibility to the SENSIS data played a major part of this understanding throughout my social strategy, as that data creates a solid foundation to the keys areas and demographic that certain platforms need to target. For example, originally my social strategy targeting those ages 18-24 was meant to be carried out through Youtube, however, due to the SENSIS data, it provided me with key information that indicated Instagram was not only more popular, but much more frequently checked in that age bracket I was targeted. It became clear how this data is so important in the online marketing world, especially at this point in time when everything is essentially online, due to the Covid-19 restrictions (the key foundation of my strategy). Evidentially, it’s clear how important this data is to businesses trying to navigate their way through such a flooded industry, and ultimately reaching their target audience. During this study, I started to realise how important it was to break down a target audience before diving right into the strategy. Working alongside the SENSIS data, analysing a narrow target audience works best, and doing less ultimately provided as doing more, in terms of reach on the given platform. This became incredibly clear to me after hearing Trevor Young speak about targeting a niche, instead of being too broad in a subject. This was a key finding of my assignment 4 as it ultimately lead me to stay true to my theme of the isolation period, one in which was new to everyone, and one that I could at least give advice on without needing credentials in regards to the guidelines offered. From there, my research ventured into understanding how audiences read social media, realising that it is an evolving piece of society that continues to offer new things. This was evident, in my strategy particularly, through the Covid-19 restrictions easing towards the end of designing Assignment 4. This created a slight limitation to my strategy as I wasn’t getting as much of a reaction from my audience as what I first got when I created assignment two, which was released right in the heart of when the isolation was announced. Looking forward, if I were to create another assignment with this same social strategy, an important factor would be how I could develop the strategy to evolve with the changing society, which I found to be the key to actively reaching a target audience. What I also noticed in A4 compared to A2 was that it is really difficult gaining a large following in a short amount of time when you decide to branch out and have a business/ idea that is not directly linked back to you or your image that is known to your friends, colleagues or acquaintances. This project has allowed me to discover that it takes time to build a connection with your target audience, where you need to be constant in your uploads, producing the best content possible and always looking for a way where your audience can have their own input. Ultimately, this project as a whole has definitely made me look at social media different, now knowing that everything businesses do on that platform is done for a calculated reason to reach their audience. Having gained this understanding, patterns have started to emerge through what i see on social media and how it relates back to my interests and previous searches. In conclusion, everything someone does on social media is marketed back to them through algorithms, the more you see the things you desire, the higher chance you are to invest in those things.
Post 1 (Assignment #4)
Making Sense of Social Media
In the conclusion of Assignment two, my main findings were that 1) That people (in my target audience) were being mentally affected by the isolation period and 2) That they appreciated and benefited from positive strategies in place on social media. Using these two main points as my groundwork for evolving my assignment, I wanted to focus on implementing direct help through my social strategy by utilising instagram and its entirety of features that the platform offers. These focus points were also mentioned through the feedback during the Assignment three presentations, with Fan Yang suggesting I open up my idea, from instagram stories, to instagram posts and evolve the work from my private account onto a public account dedicated to the cause. To meet this piece of advice, I decided to create a whole new instagram account for the assignment [surviving_covid_19_isolation] and used both its posting and story features to expand the content I put out to my Target audience. Will Clarke was the one to suggest I create a direct helpline, through professional online sources, that can be used by my audience and ultimately provide the professional help I am not qualified to offer. I also took this advice and made a series of disclaimers that would allow people who desperately need help to be taken directly to professional help sites. Both these suggestions triggered an immediate response in my planning and from there I started investigating how other health related accounts use instagram for their cause. I discovered a number of things that reinforced my social strategy. Colour, played a large part in how these other causes represent themselves on social media, using bright colours to engage and make their audience feel comfortable in that online environment. My strategy already being a vibrant blue, signifying calmness and serenity, was one that i decided to stick by and continue to use to evolve my project. Other colours are then used, continuing to offer a sense of belonging that is safe and respected. Apart from the aesthetics of the strategy, I also knew creating a public account on Instagram would automatically open up my public audience and perhaps draw in people from outside my target audience. Evidently for instagram accounts, this is a good thing for the account to get more traffic and better still, my account surrounding health benefits could be used for a wider purpose than first expected. However, once again aligning with the SENSIS data, i decided to still direct my social strategy to those aged 18-26. Once again, this was because this age group (according to the SENSIS data) are those who are checking their phones multiple times a day (23.4%) and interacting with instagram the most frequently in those time periods. Based on the findings on Assignment two, with males being the dominating sex on my profile, I still set out to target both males and females more frequently, through the use of reaching out to female followers opening up that diversity bracket. I did this through following a range of similar health accounts, especially those with a similar target audience as mine. Ultimately, by utilising instagrams features of posts, stories and direct links, i was able to create an interactive account, with positive intentions surrounding it, that was used to help benefit those struggling through the Covid-19 Isolation period. Linking this back to my overarching question, it has become evident to me, through this project, that social media can be a place to benefit those in need, and provides a massive part in how people access resources in this day and age.
Final Results (Assignment #2)
‘Making Sense of Social Media’
Click here for a pdf document of the strategy outside of Instagram
Click here for a video on how the strategy was deployed to my followers on instagram
Post 4 (Assignment #2)
‘Making Sense of Social Media’
Post 4) Conclusion: result of experiment/ responses
(Drafted 14/04/2020)
I posted my social strategy on the 12th of April and began to receive responses straight away from my followers on Instagram. My social strategy consisted of 19 instagram stories, in which 14 of those were the content of the strategy (the positive mental health strategies), whilst 5 were questions, posed at the end of the strategy to get a direct response on whether or not I had an impact. Today (14/02/2020) I gathered the responses and data and have established these results. In contrary to the SENSIS data, my instagram poll established that 80% of my results can from males, whilst 20% were female. I posed a question, ‘have you felt mentally fatigued during isolation?’, in which 82% answered ‘Yes’. Everyone, on the other hand, answered ‘Yes’ when being questioned if my strategy had helped them in any type of way. The next two questions were quite interesting, as 100% of people wanted to see more of these positive strategies online, but only 82% of people saying they would listen to the strategies if they came from a social influencer. I found this particular interesting as it compliments the SENSIS data that states 61.2% of businesses find it effective using social influencers. In additional to these data figures, I also received some direct comments from my target audience. James, a 21 year old male, said: “[It’s] so hard to stay motivated for everything, from eating and sleeping, to studying and being active”. James also responded ‘Yes’ to the strategy helping him and wanting to see more of these deployed throughout social media. I also received another response from Jaimee, a 20 year old female, who responded ‘Yes’ to feeling mentally fatigued during isolation, because: “[she] is finding it difficult to maintain a regular routine as [she] would if [she] were physically attending classes on campus. Without having a proper routine in place [she] is staying up later and sleeping in longer which is causing [her] to feel mental fatigued during the day!”. These responses, directly coming from my social strategy, reinforces my over aching question that people are being mentally affected by isolation during this time, and that with the correct positive strategies in place on social media, that people can definitely benefit from them.
*All results and data located here in post 5) Social strategy and results
Post 3 (Assignment #2)
‘Making Sense of Social Media’
Post 3) Researching platform and most effective material on it (images? video? Looking at inspiration etc). How will these materials engage the TA?
(Drafted 10/04/2020)
After spending some time purposely scrolling on instagram to investigate the best type of material on there, I quickly began to realise that photos and short videos were the most direct and engaging. After wondering why I came to this conclusion pretty quickly, I realised that it was because I have been using the app since it only had images, and so the purpose for the app naturally felt like a place to view images. I quickly linked this to my target audience, as they too, have mostly likely been using the app since its origins and so I decided to stick with its original purpose and plan to develop a series of stills for the platform. An inspiration I came across was an account called ‘QuotesbyChristie’. This account posts daily positive quotes about all things, but I was mostly intrigued by the colours of the post, very bright and eye catching, something I definitely want to work into my project. Another inspiration surfing the platform was ‘Headspace’, once again using colours to reinforce positive messages and habits. Both of these accounts served similar messages to the one that I will be posing, surrounding mental health on social media. I also realised in my search that there was a slight gap in the platform surrounding how isolation is affecting mental health, so I believe this could reflect in my responses by my target audience. In terms of my social strategy, I plan to create a series of posts (images) where I guide my target audience through tips and advice on positive mental strategies to stay mentally healthy during isolation. I plan on making five target areas; Eating, Exercise, Sleep, Meditation and Positive reinforcement, and then using those to establish a possible routine for the audience to follow. Dealing with things such as health, fitness and wellbeing, I am aware that i’m not an expert, and so I plan on using guidance from expert sources to establish my presentation as a guide, that intends to help, but may vary from person to person.
Post 2 (Assignment #2)
‘Making Sense of Social Media’
Post 2) Choosing platform and Target Audience. Why?
(Drafted 08/04/2020)
In my research, I have come to the conclusion of using Instagram as my desired platform, over Youtube. The main reasoning for this is that I am able to directly choose the target audience I want to focus on, and therefor get more direct and navigated responses from them. In saying this, I have also decided that my target audience is going to be those in adolescence, particularly those between the ages of 18 – 26. I have chosen this age group because I believe, in this period of isolation, that they are the ones most consumed in social media and more specifically Instagram. This is evident in the SENSIS data that states 23.4% of people in this age bracket are checking their social media presence ‘several times a day’. My reasoning of this target audience is continually reinforced by the SENSIS data, with 301 (30.1%) responses stating that they are amongst that age bracket. The SENSIS data also helped me identify that I could maintain a gender neutral target audience with the results of males and females online is mostly similar (49.9% Males, 50.1% Females). These direct figures will help in my ability to pose questions to the audience and get responses back that are not only in direct correlation to my social strategy, but also to my overarching question that I will be posing: Is the mental health of adolescence decreasing due to the Covid-19 isolation period? And is social media aiding to benefit or neglect that?
Post 1 (Assignment #2)
‘Making Sense of Social Media’
Post 1) Research into an idea / platform.
(Drafted 31/03/2020)
For assignment two, I want to develop a foundation of research and evidence for further use in assignment three or four, later on in the semester. I have a clear idea about the concept I want to explore, that being, mental health on social media, and more specifically how people are coping in isolation, away from regular routines. However, I am still in planning stages on which platform I want to investigate. In assignment 1, I stated how I was fascinated by youtube and how I wanted to dive in and investigate more into that platform. My idea for a YouTube social strategy would be to make small 2-3 minute videos explaining a positive tip to stay healthy minded in isolation. I think of them as morning reminder videos, short and direct, without consuming too much of someones time, but yet encouraging them that these healthy tips are also short and easy to do. However, i’m also aware that this may not reach a direct target audience that I’m yet to choose, as youtube is harder to build a following/ response from, compared to other platforms. This is where I also have the idea to use instagram as my platform. If I chose instagram, I would move away from video content and more towards pictures, as I believe they work best on the platform (i’ll have to research this though). I would then be able to get a more direct response from the target audience of adolescence, which is the majority of my following. Instagram also has options of polls and direct messaging, which I could utilise to get responses from a variety of different people. In the next coming days, I plan on investigating both youtube and instagram more to establish a platform that will best suit my social strategy to be deployed.