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.
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