Social Media Mockups & Research
Word Count: 1,451
Social Media
Social media has become an important and powerful part of businesses' marketing strategies, with "over 4.74 billion people across the world" using social media (Beveridge & Lauron, 2023). It's an excellent platform for connecting with customers and promoting products or services as it "can take the form of text, audio, video, images, and communities" and "differs from so-called mainstream media in that anyone can create, comment on, and add to social media content." (Scott, 2017, p.38).
For our project, we decided we needed an Instagram account, not only because this is a popular platform among our target audience, as suggested by Beveridge & Lauron (2023), "users aged 25-34 are the biggest cohort of Instagram users", but also for a free marketing tool. As Instagram's content primarily focuses on images and videos, it is a great platform for businesses to share visually appealing products and the services they offer. Additionally, by posting reels and sharing what goes on behind the scenes, they create more customer involvement. This is built upon by sharing customer reviews they have received through features such as comments, likes, and direct messaging, building trust, loyalty, and connection with their customers.
According to Tucker "...in these times, having a business yet not having an Instagram account means being left behind" (Tucker, 2022). Instagram can also help you build brand awareness and recognition by using branded hashtags, consistent branding, and user-generated content to create a cohesive and recognisable brand. It can also be a powerful tool for driving traffic to your website and increasing sales by including links in your bio, stories, and shoppable posts, directing your audience to your website or online store.
Another tool for increasing traffic is using Instagram adverts as "advertising on Instagram is experienced as more entertaining compared to other platforms" (Voorveld, Noort, Muntinga, Bronner, 2018, p.50). This aspect seems more suited to our target audience of creative graduates. According to the 60 Second Marketer (2019), "if you want to reach the younger generation, Instagram is one of the best resources online. Gen Z might be young, but they hold significant influence over at least half of family spending". Gen Z, which consists of people born between 1997 and 2013, aged 10-26, is the majority of our target audience (21–28-year-olds), and using their "favourite social media platform" (Beveridge, C, Lauron, S. & Hootsuite, 2023) would make sense.
Therefore, having an Instagram account can benefit businesses by helping them connect with a larger audience, display their products on their profile and help with building brand awareness. I investigated a few of our competitor's social media to understand what was working for them.
Competitors
East Street Arts
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Using emojis in their social media posts, adding a sense of personality to capture their audience's attention by relating to the general jargon of the internet and how Gen Z communicates with each other online.
Using rhetorical questions, serves to boost engagement rates as their viewers will be encouraged to interact with their posts. This also creates a feeling of connection and conversation between them and their viewers.
Using a positive, friendly, and welcoming tone with a professional and informative approach.
Grid Posts
They don't use their logo on every post - which suggests they create a brand identity without relying on a logo alone.
High-quality images – creating a professional look and a feeling of confidence for their viewers.
They don't use much text and rely on images and visual elements. This is effective for social media viewers with short attention spans.
Bright vibrant colours - Bright colours create happy and positive feelings, which would be eye-catching and appealing to their audience.
Reels
- Putting up work on walls - helps the viewers feel involved and part of the process, creating a sense of community.
- People dancing at a social event - show the viewer how fun their events can be.
Jerwood Arts
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The language is very formal and this portrays that they are professional. It also makes them appear more credible.
Their posts are Informative by including dates, times and locations helping to get information out to their viewers.
Grid Posts
Bold & contrasting - making the feed look more interesting and engaging.
Vibrant - helps to make the feed more memorable and eye-catching. Also, by using a consistent colour pallet throughout their feed they create a brand identity.
Candid and posed - candid images capture genuine moments and emotions, while posed photos can be used to show specific products or events. By using a mix of candid and posed photos, a social media feed can feel more well-rounded and interesting for viewers.
Minimal Text - helps keep the post focused on the visuals and not overrun with text.
Reels
Sharing who the speakers are for their upcoming event.
A reel about launching their new bursary.
Voice memo of a talk.
Sharing a new work fund.
Snapshots from their exhibition.
Introducing new programs.
Video of someone talking about their work.
Instagram Workshop
In January I attended a workshop organised by the enterprise team at the university called 'How to Grow Your Instagram Following'. The workshop featured the founder of 'Pretty in Paper By B' called Bethan. Bethan talked about how she stopped using watermarks on her posts when social media coaches became sceptical about their effectiveness in influencing the algorithm. In addition to this, Bethan also felt that watermarks were no longer an effective way of stopping people from stealing her content due to a lot of apps that could remove watermarks easily, making it an unnecessary extra step for her. (Pretty in Paper By B, 2023, January, 18)
Bethan discussed her tips on choosing a profile photo for Instagram, explaining the choice of the photo should depend on the goal you are trying to achieve with the platform. If your aim is to increase brand loyalty or customer attention, using a photo of yourself would help to do this whereas if your goal is to increase brand awareness, using your logo would be the best choice. Bethan stated that she started with using a logo but ended up switching to a photo of herself as she noticed her audience was connecting with her brand through her personal experiences and leaving comments asking about her as an individual. (Pretty in Paper By B, 2023, January, 18)
Bethan also talked about creating a bio on Instagram, focusing on three key things - content, credibility, and call to action. Content should answer the question of why people should follow you and what you offer. Credibility can be established by highlighting your qualifications and years of experience. Call to action could be linking your mailing list or your website as this can help convert followers into customers. (Pretty in Paper By B, 2023, January, 18)
Overall, Bethan's advice was very informative and helpful, and I plan to keep these tips in mind when it comes to creating our own Instagram account.
Instagram Mock-up
Figure 7
When it came to creating my own mock-ups for our Instagram, I created the profile shown above in Figure 7. I used our brand colours and colour-coordinated the colours to the types of posts as "the first key element to consider in building a presence on IG is consistency and establishing a recognizable and relatable presence with every post" (Hutchinson, 2023).
I took influence from East Street Arts' and Jerwood Arts' Instagram bios by keeping our Instagram bio short, simple, but informative. This can capture the audience's attention and provide them with essential information about our brand.
I chose our logo as our profile photo to make it easy for followers to identify our account and brand to increase brand awareness as suggested by Bethan from the workshop. I chose to shoot the images using my Canon 5D Mark IV as this would ensure I produced high-quality images, helping to build trust with viewers as our content would be to a professional standard.
I planned to post every other day at 11am as "according to data from Sprout Social, the current best times to post on IG are Mondays at 11 am, Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10am and 2pm, and Thursdays and Fridays between 10am and 12pm" (Hutchinson, 2023). 11am falls into each of these time brackets and the consistency would mean our viewers would know when to expect our posts, helping to increase engagement and build a loyal following. I also feel that posting every other day will ensure we have enough content to post, we stay relevant and maintain engagement and, avoid posting too much as this can be overwhelming and annoying for our followers.
Overall, I am happy with how the final Instagram layout looks, shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8
Illustrations
Figure 1 - East Street Arts. (2023) Instagram Page [Screenshot by Jodie Morley].
Figure 2 - East Street Arts. (2023) Instagram Captions [Screenshot by Jodie Morley].
Figure 3 - East Street Arts. (2023) Instagram Feed [Screenshot by Jodie Morley].
Figure 4 - Jerwood Arts. (2023) Instagram Page [Screenshot by Jodie Morley].
Figure 5 - Jerwood Arts. (2023) Instagram Captions [Screenshot by Jodie Morley].
Figure 6 - Jerwood Arts. (2023) Instagram Feed [Screenshot by Jodie Morley].
Figure 7 - Morley, J. (2023) Instagram Mockup 1 [jpeg].
Figure 8 - Morley, J. (2023) Instagram Mockup 2 [jpeg].
Figure 9 - Morley, J. (2023) Instagram Mockup About Us [jpeg].
Figure 10 - Morley, J. (2023) Instagram Mockup Meet the Team [jpeg].
Figure 11 - Morley, J. (2023) Instagram Mockup Exhibition Set Up [jpeg].
Figure 12 - Morley, J. (2023) Instagram Mockup Portfolio Review [jpeg].
Figure 13 - Morley, J. (2023) Instagram Mockup Kids Workshop [jpeg].
Figure 14 - Morley, J. (2023) Instagram Mockup Knitting Workshop [jpeg].
Figure 15 - Morley, J. (2023) Instagram Mockup Exhibition [jpeg].
Figure 16 - Morley, J. (2023) Instagram Mockup Creative of the Week [jpeg].
References
Beveridge, C. & Lauron S. (2023, January 26). 160+ Social Media Statistics Marketers Need in 2023. Hootsuite. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-statistics-for-social-media-managers/#General_social_media_statistics%3Cbr%3E
Hutchinson, A. (2023). Planning for 2023: Instagram Posting Tips. Social Media Today. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2768587428?pq-origsite=summon%3Cbr%3E
Scott, D. M. (2017). The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly (6th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hud/detail.action?docID=4915575.
The 60 Second Marketer. (2019, May 13). 11 Tips on Exceptional Instagram Marketing. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2230486012/citation/7AC867D85F0743E7PQ/1?accountid=11526
Tucker, D. (2022, February 22). Instagram Tips for Brands and Businesses In 2022. https://60secondmarketer.com/2022/02/22/instagram-tips-for-brands-and-businesses-in-2022/
Voorveld, H. A. M., van Noort, G., Muntinga, D. G., & Bronner, F. (2018). Engagement with social media and social media advertising: The differentiating role of platform type. Journal of Advertising, 47(1), 38-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2017.1405754
Pretty In Paper By B. (2023, January, 18). Enterprise Workshop [Lecture Capture]. Enterprise Team. https://hudac-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/n_j_walker_hud_ac_uk/EX0k_fC2M2hJvaT7sKa-GbUBDHSjQXHbvd86Pop1-SQ_1Q