My approach to creating social media entailed a key focus on authenticity and engagement. In the initial stages of the creating process I heavily focused on what I thought the target audience would resonate with. To do this I had to break down and understand the brands goals and what audience I would be marketing towards. I understood that the target audience for my social media account had an interest in the digital world and social media specifically. With this insight I found a creative vision that entailed visuals and symbols that related to smart phone/technology usage, for example the home screen of a mobile phone and a device mouse symbol. In terms of authenticity, I wanted to continue the colour scheme of the brand using muted blue/navy/grey tones, aligning with the brands identity. In saying this, the addition of the colour orange was thought out to visually stand out to the audience (this colour has been known to symbolise enthusiasm) (McLean, 2023), in hopes to excite the audience about the podcast.
I used my graphic making skills and knowledge to create media that would appeal to the audience. Simple tactics I utilised included the use of minimal but effective text, to ensure the content is easily consumed by the audience. Other factors considered included readability, ensuring that fonts used were clear and the colour choices were easily contrasted.
In the media that I have created I was able to successfully achieve my goals of being authentic to the brand and prioritise engagement. The social media content that I created aliened with the brand’s goals and remained consistent with previous posts In terms of content, visuals and colouring. This means the feed is all coherent making the account overall visually appealing and aesthetic. I prioritised engagement by enhancing readability, using large fonts and key words to trigger interest in viewers.
However I believe next time I could further elevate engagement levels, using hashtags in the captions. This would assist me in reaching a larger audience and contribute to online communities, finding other users with similar interests and niches. In addition to this, I feel as though another weakness of these posts was the lack of audience interaction. In future, to enhance audience engagement I could include a question in the caption to provide an opportunity for conversation and input in the comment section. This would assist my brand in developing a relationship with their audience, increasing the potential for business outcomes.
Throughout the process of making this media, I learnt how to create an animation/short video to create more visual stimulation for the audience rather than continuously posting pictures and infographics. This is a skill that I will be utilising again in the future. Another factor that I learnt when making/posting this media was the importance of timing of posts.
After posting on social media I was able to look into the analytics of the account, seeing what times my content was commonly viewed at. This insight was helpful as I was able to determine a time to post the media to enhance the engagement. This feature was not something I was familiar with on Instagram prior to this assignment. When making the media for the podcast I learnt how to increase the audio sound to strengthen the quality, I also learnt how to fade the music in and out so that it doesn’t appear in a harsh manner.
In future I see myself continuing to develop my media making skills and knowledge. Investigating the analytics of the account and audience engagement is a skill that I will utilise throughout my future endeavours in social media. I hope to continue to learn about target audiences and find new ways to appeal to different varieties of viewers.
References
McLean, S. (2023, August 21). The Color Orange: Essential Color Theory, Symbolism and Design Application. Dunn-Edwards Paints. https://www.dunnedwards.com/pros/blog/the-color-orange-essential-color-theory-symbolism-and-design-application/
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