Social Media Campaign
Brief: To develop and grow a social media presense to promote your design projects.
Project Overview:
For this project, I was required to use social media in order to display my design work. I was required to do the relevent research to justify my choice of social media and also analyse the outcome of my project. I chose to use Instagram for this project, however I also created a LinkedIn account.
I would like to work in some sort of graphic design or illustration based role after I finish University.
My main goal for this project was to promote my work to as many people as possible, to gain some kind of presence in the industry. For example, by using social media to receive commissions for freelance projects, which could eventually help me to gain the experience and skill required to earn a design role in a larger business. My target audience is anyone with an interest in design, whether that is professionals, peers, those needing design work done for them, or even those who just enjoy seeing my work. My portfolio is very mixed, featuring a variety of different mediums and styles, meaning there is quite a broad potential audience. My audience can be reached by utilising the Instagram algorithm.
Research:
Social Media and Graphic Design:
https://platt.edu/blog/relationship-graphic-design-social-media/
Social media managers look at engagement figures and aim to increase these- well designed content is likely to do this.
Graphic Design is becoming more important for social media as more interactive content is being demanded and a huge number of posts are being uploaded daily, meaning the design needs to catch the attention of users.
As well as using social media for client work, graphic designers need to use it to promote themselves, network and improve their skills.
Graphic Designers use different social media platforms for different purposes:
Whilst Facebook and Behance are often used for networking, Pinterest and Instagram tend to be used to find inspiration and showcase work in the form of an online portfolio.
Instagram:
I have chosen to mainly use Instagram for this project as it is the social media which I am the most familiar with. It is a popular social media platform for young people (18-24), who my work is most likely to appeal to. I also think it is the most relevant in terms of distributing creative content.
The Instagram Algorithm
https://later.com/blog/how-instagram-algorithm-works/
The Instagram Algorithm uses 6 main factors to influence what posts appear in your feed:
1.Interest:
Your instagram feed is based off accounts and types of post that you have liked previously. The most important types of engagement impacting feed ranking are comments, likes, reshares, and video views.
2.Relationship:
Instagram tries to work out who is close to you so it can prioritise posts from these people. This is based on whose posts you like, who you direct message, people you search for and people you know in real life.
3.Timeliness:
nstagram wants you to see the latest, most interesting posts. There is a higher chance of engagement if you post at times when your followers are active.
4.Frequency:
How often you check instagram affects what appears. The more you scroll through instagram, the more chronological your feed will be as instagram tries to show you the best posts since your last visit. If you check instagram less often, your feed will be sorted into what instagram thinks you will like, rather than chronologically.
5.Following:
If you follow a lot of accounts, you may not see posts from all of them.
6.Usage:
The more time you spend on instagram, the more posts you're going to see. You may run out of new posts therefore instagram suggests content for you on your feed.
Developing My Platform:
Username: @maiamcgheedesign- is simple and establishes who I am and what I do.
Profile Picture- use of my logo to further reinforce my brand identity.
Bio- Outlines who I am and what I do.
Website Link- allows people to easily access my portoflio if they are interested in seeing more of my work.
Story Highlights- gives an overview of what I have been up to recently.
Branding:
Logo Variations:
The two different styles of ‘M’ represent my initials (MM) as well as my varied design style. The contrast between the handwritten and more blocky font reflects my capabilities with both digital and more traditional forms of design. I initially drew this logo by hand, which adds a more personal touch, which reinforces my brands values. I have used the colours blue and grey as I wanted to establish my brand as professional and reliable, which these colours represent. I also like both of these colours.
Colour:
Despite using specific shades of blue and grey for my logo, I have decided not to have a set colour scheme for my social media content. This is because the work I produce is usually so varied, in terms of the form (e.g. illustration, branding, UI design, animation etc) and style. I therefore didn't want to be restricted by having to use specific colours, and instead wanted to be able to use whatever colours best suit whichever project I am working on. The colours which I do commonly use however tend to be fairly similar, and compliment each other nicely on my Instagram feed.
Use of Hashtags:
I included hashtags in my posts, in attempt to increase the audience reach. By using relevant hashtags, those who search them are likely to be interested in my posts and therefore interact with them.
Content:
I decided to post a variety of different pieces of work to my Instagram page to demonstrate my wide skillset (e.g. illustration, animation, AR, branding etc..). I tended to order my posts by alternating between university projects and personal projects for each upload.
Project Outcome: Instagram Insights
I was most active on my instagram account in march. My instagram insights are therefore significantly different to more recently (may). Since I was posting more, I was reaching more accounts and therfore gaining more interactions. This is because my content was pushed out more by the Instagram algorithm. This project therefore demonstrates that the more you post, the more successful your account will be.
March 2021 Insights:
As you can see, there is a significant increase in activity when I began posting more frequently in March. The most common form of interaction with my posts were likes. These came from both accounts which do and do not follow me (mainly from my followers). This suggests that the algorithm was pushing my posts onto the explore page, or people were searching the hashtags which I used.
April-May 2021 Insights:
Here you can see the impact of what happened when I began posting less frequently. I only posted twice in this period therefore, my account was reached by less people.
Current Insights (11/05/2021):
As soon as I began posting again, the content interaction statistics increased significantly.
Audience Interaction: Comments
One of the ways in which the audience interacted with my content was by commenting on posts. This is a good way for me to gather feedback on my work, to help me improve, as well as identify what people want to see on my feed.
LinkedIn:
I also created a LinkedIn profile during this project, as I found that it would be a useful way of networking and finding future clients to work with. I am yet to post anything, however I have created a profile and began making connections!
Project Outcome:
By conducting research on the Instagram algorithm, I was able to identify the best ways of increasing the reach and engagement of my posts. For example, by using hashtags and posting at times when my audience were the most active, I was able to increase engagement. I was therefore able to gain around 15-30 likes on each post. What I have noticed is that the most interaction comes from accounts which follow me (e.g. accounts who don't follow me don't tend to leave comments), therefore I need to research ways of encouraging different accounts to engage with my content.
Things to do in the future:
-Invest money into promoting posts as this has proven to be successful in increasing the audience reach for other projects (e.g. Forghetti Client Project).
-Post more frequently to see what impact it has on my accounts growth.
-Plan my posts and schedule them in advance e.g. using Hootsuite.
-Expand to other social media platforms (I have already created a linkedin account, however am yet to post anything on it).
Click to see my Instagram profile!
Social Media Campaign
Brief: To develop and grow a social media presense to promote your design projects.
Project Overview:
For this project, I was required to use social media in order to display my design work. I was required to do the relevent research to justify my choice of social media and also analyse the outcome of my project. I chose to use Instagram for this project, however I also created a LinkedIn account.
I would like to work in some sort of graphic design or illustration based role after I finish University. My main goal for this project was to promote my work to as many people as possible, to gain some kind of presence in the industry. For example, by using social media to receive commissions for freelance projects, which could eventually help me to gain the experience and skill required to earn a design role in a larger business. My target audience is anyone with an interest in design, whether that is professionals, peers, those needing design work done for them, or even those who just enjoy seeing my work. My portfolio is very mixed, featuring a variety of different mediums and styles, meaning there is quite a broad potential audience. My audience can be reached by utilising the Instagram algorithm.
Research:
Social Media and Graphic Design:
https://platt.edu/blog/relationship-graphic-design-social-media/
Social media managers look at engagement figures and aim to increase these- well designed content is likely to do this.
Graphic Design is becoming more important for social media as more interactive content is being demanded and a huge number of posts are being uploaded daily, meaning the design needs to catch the attention of users.
As well as using social media for client work, graphic designers need to use it to promote themselves, network and improve their skills.
Graphic Designers use different social media platforms for different purposes:
Whilst Facebook and Behance are often used for networking, Pinterest and Instagram tend to be used to find inspiration and showcase work in the form of an online portfolio.
Instagram:
I have chosen to mainly use Instagram for this project as it is the social media which I am the most familiar with. It is a popular social media platform for young people (18-24), who my work is most likely to appeal to. I also think it is the most relevant in terms of distributing creative content.
The Instagram Algorithm
https://later.com/blog/how-instagram-algorithm-works/
The Instagram Algorithm uses 6 main factors to influence what posts appear in your feed:
1.Interest:
Your instagram feed is based off accounts and types of post that you have liked previously. The most important types of engagement impacting feed ranking are comments, likes, reshares, and video views.
2.Relationship:
Instagram tries to work out who is close to you so it can prioritise posts from these people. This is based on whose posts you like, who you direct message, people you search for and people you know in real life.
3.Timeliness:
nstagram wants you to see the latest, most interesting posts. There is a higher chance of engagement if you post at times when your followers are active.
4.Frequency:
How often you check instagram affects what appears. The more you scroll through instagram, the more chronological your feed will be as instagram tries to show you the best posts since your last visit. If you check instagram less often, your feed will be sorted into what instagram thinks you will like, rather than chronologically.
5.Following:
If you follow a lot of accounts, you may not see posts from all of them.
6.Usage:
The more time you spend on instagram, the more posts you're going to see. You may run out of new posts therefore instagram suggests content for you on your feed.
Developing My Platform:
Username: @maiamcgheedesign- is simple and establishes who I am and what I do.
Profile Picture- use of my logo to further reinforce my brand identity.
Bio- Outlines who I am and what I do.
Website Link- allows people to easily access my portoflio if they are interested in seeing more of my work.
Story Highlights- gives an overview of what I have been up to recently.
Branding:
Logo Variations:
The two different styles of ‘M’ represent my initials (MM) as well as my varied design style. The contrast between the handwritten and more blocky font reflects my capabilities with both digital and more traditional forms of design. I initially drew this logo by hand, which adds a more personal touch, which reinforces my brands values. I have used the colours blue and grey as I wanted to establish my brand as professional and reliable, which these colours represent. I also like both of these colours.
Colour:
Despite using specific shades of blue and grey for my logo, I have decided not to have a set colour scheme for my social media content. This is because the work I produce is usually so varied, in terms of the form (e.g. illustration, branding, UI design, animation etc) and style. I therefore didn't want to be restricted by having to use specific colours, and instead wanted to be able to use whatever colours best suit whichever project I am working on. The colours which I do commonly use however tend to be fairly similar, and compliment each other nicely on my Instagram feed.
Use of Hashtags:
I included hashtags in my posts, in attempt to increase the audience reach. By using relevant hashtags, those who search them are likely to be interested in my posts and therefore interact with them.
Content:
I decided to post a variety of different pieces of work to my Instagram page to demonstrate my wide skillset (e.g. illustration, animation, AR, branding etc..). I tended to order my posts by alternating between university projects and personal projects for each upload.
Project Outcome: Instagram Insights
I was most active on my instagram account in march. My instagram insights are therefore significantly different to more recently (may). Since I was posting more, I was reaching more accounts and therfore gaining more interactions. This is because my content was pushed out more by the Instagram algorithm. This project therefore demonstrates that the more you post, the more successful your account will be.
March 2021 Insights:
As you can see, there is a significant increase in activity when I began posting more frequently in March. The most common form of interaction with my posts were likes. These came from both accounts which do and do not follow me (mainly from my followers). This suggests that the algorithm was pushing my posts onto the explore page, or people were searching the hashtags which I used.
April-May 2021 Insights:
Here you can see the impact of what happened when I began posting less frequently. I only posted twice in this period therefore, my account was reached by less people.
Current Insights (11/05/2021):
As soon as I began posting again, the content interaction statistics increased significantly.
Audience Interaction: Comments
One of the ways in which the audience interacted with my content was by commenting on posts. This is a good way for me to gather feedback on my work, to help me improve, as well as identify what people want to see on my feed.
LinkedIn:
I also created a LinkedIn profile during this project, as I found that it would be a useful way of networking and finding future clients to work with. I am yet to post anything, however I have created a profile and began making connections!
Project Outcome:
By conducting research on the Instagram algorithm, I was able to identify the best ways of increasing the reach and engagement of my posts. For example, by using hashtags and posting at times when my audience were the most active, I was able to increase engagement. I was therefore able to gain around 15-30 likes on each post. What I have noticed is that the most interaction comes from accounts which follow me (e.g. accounts who don't follow me don't tend to leave comments), therefore I need to research ways of encouraging different accounts to engage with my content.
Things to do in the future:
-Invest money into promoting posts as this has proven to be successful in increasing the audience reach for other projects (e.g. Forghetti Client Project).
-Post more frequently to see what impact it has on my accounts growth.
-Plan my posts and schedule them in advance e.g. using Hootsuite.
-Expand to other social media platforms (I have already created a linkedin account, however am yet to post anything on it).
Click to see my Instagram profile!