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Research intention
How can we produce a social media marketing campaign that investigates how social media affects its users, and promote mental health awareness during the pandemic?
Tools For Change Instagram account:
https://www.instagram.com/toolsforchange/
Research intention
How can we produce a social media marketing campaign that investigates how social media affects its users, and promote mental health awareness during the pandemic?
During week 11, I had time to reflect on our research to produce mental health and family resources for our account. A concept I wanted to explore in depth is how mental health is discussed online, across several social media platforms. I noticed while engaging with other accounts on Instagram that there are a vast community of accounts dedicated to posting mental health resources. Ironically, they exist alongside the influencer and beauty community which is quite large on Instagram. Users of Instagram can engage with both types of content. Age demographic could certainly be a factor with engagement as younger audiences tend to look up to influencer figures, and posts concerning mental health don’t often appear every day on the timeline unless the user is a part of the mental health community. One method of distribution of mental health posts that is often seen is posts being shared on the stories of personal accounts (especially now that mental health awareness is a concern due to the pandemic). While authoring my story and carousel posts, I kept in mind potential ways to engage this younger audience through design and copywriting choices. This is reflected in our insights, which show we met our target age demographic (16-30):
Fig 1. Our age and gender engagement. Fig 2. Our story engagement for the last 30 days, which incorporates these design elements.
My understanding of social media has also grown during week 12. Our social media strategy for this week involves distributing mental health resources for international and LGBTQIA+ students in Australia. To expand our strategy beyond Instagram, I created a linktree website page with mental health resources for those who need them, targeting young people of all ages and genders. This is accessible through our Instagram bio and is part of our initiative to improve Australia’s mental health.
Fig. 3 Tools For Change Linktree website
Overall, this marketing campaign has taught me the importance of collaboration in publishing social media work. Communication has helped the team meet deadlines, produce effective posts, and create a friendly space for work to take place. I’ve learnt that peer feedback is important in developing concepts further, as it demonstrates what does and doesn’t work within a project. The importance of branding was also reinforced for me, as illustrated by Peck in his book Think Before You Engage: 100 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Social Media Marketing Campaign: “The avatar, your marketing message, and your general content are also a big part of how you brand yourself online. By establishing a solid and cohesive online strategy that aligns with your general marketing plan, you’ll ensure that what you do online to establish your brand matches what you’re doing offline” (Peck, 2011, p. 34). We believe our understanding of social media strategy and research-based approach has produced significant growth on our account within the last few weeks.
Fig. 4 Tools For Change follower growth. Fig 5. Tools For Change Instagram account.
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