One result I have noticed from the implementation of hashtags as I did not originally use them on my first couple of posts is that I began to gain more followers showing that they indeed did expand my impact on Instagram therefore, I kept including them in my posts trying to add as many related ones as I could.

Development

Personal shoutouts
In order to apply these methods that I have researched, I decided it necessary to shoutout my professional Instagram account using my personal account to grow a base number of followers (these being family and friends) making it that slight bit easier to be picked up by Instagram’s algorithm.
Additional shoutouts were made between the platforms as some followers might not be aware of my presence on Instagram if they found my page on LinkedIn and vice versa. This included my Instagram, LinkedIn and Website making sure followers got access to all the content I was posting and also increases my following making it easier to be noticed by their appropriate algorithms (Instagram and Linkedin).

Searching out connections
One method I have used to build my social media presence is through engaging with other peoples posts, joining appropriate professional groups, following relevant individuals and companies that might be of interest plus with a relevance to my work as it allows their follows to recognise my work and account therefore being more likely to engage and follow with my account. Leading on from this, following these accounts allows their posts to be shown on my feed, letting me repost their work where appropriate in a hopes that their follows get recommended my page and additionally the possibility of my work being reposted in return for a more direct presence in their “for you pages” / Feeds.

Highs and lows of my project
When creating my social media accounts I wanted to make them personal to me and my work to show individuals who I am as a person and as a designer however, I was unsure of what to post though, after brainstorming and researching what other accounts post I created a rough plan of ideas that I could use and follow. Doing so allowed me to produce my posts on Canva as this seemed the most suited design software for me as the adobe products was not financially viable and additionally I am unaware of how to use them. One aspect I wanted to try include within all my posts to make it centred to me, this was done through the use of my branding colours which I organically created for my personal portfolio website the main one being #283845 a shade of blue that I took a liking to as I believed it to look professional.

One of the highs I have had during this project is once I posted my thoughts around the “unlandmark” campaign (Watson, I. 2024) the studio responsible for the campaign that I had tagged actually liked my post which made me feel successful as I was getting responses from those I wanted to get the attention of and shows that I am becoming more discoverable. Which leads me on to some more highs such as the progress from when I started and my posts only receiving 3 likes on Instagram going up to 10+ on my newer posts. Additionally on LinkedIn, with my networking and posts being produced, I had an recruitment consultant for 3d visualisation add me therefore I chose to message them for advice getting into the industry however they was unable to provide me with any support.

Some lows I have found are that I struggled with frequency, consistency and quality, in order to be seen best by the social media algorithms, it recommends that users post consistently and frequently on the same time everyday or every other day (), I was unable to do this due to the fact that I did not have enough content planned out to post and also with some of the work I was posting I could be uploading everyday if it was work to do with my project as that was posted at milestones. As mentioned before I also wasn’t happy with the quality of the posts I was making as I was using my branding colours to create my posts but I felt like each of them were very plain and simplistic as I had no real knowledge on well though out graphic design to then be implemented into my posts to make them more eye catching and appealing as I could understand some of my post designs were a bit plain.

Although I managed to produce an effective plan of posts in order to build my social media pages, I found the content wasn’t specifically what I wanted to post. I would have like to post more designs and modeling content as this is more relevant to my work, however I found this hard as I didn’t have enough content of that sort to post which I was working on.

Analytics

Social media insights

Statistics as of 12/05/2024

Over the past 90 days I have managed to make effective progress in creating and growing my social media accounts. On Instagram I have managed to gain 48 followers in total, with my content reach steadily increasing with a consistent pattern of follower growth and a noticeable number of non-followers who see my content and choose not to follow, especially within the last month. As I have been increasing my reach the engagement with my content has increased consistently. Additionally profile visits have consistently been growing over time, indicating that my profile is additionally improving its reach. Based on these statistics, I will want to consider methods to retain my followers and convert non-followers into followers, such as improving my content quality, engaging , and optimizing my profile to encourage more follows and interactions.

As for my LinkedIn it has additionally had positive performance from its content, with a steady increases in impressions. This indicates that my content is being seen by a growing audience. Additionally the unique views suggests that my content is not only being seen but also attracting attention from a wider audience, especially in the shorter time frames. Meanwhile with my Linkedin’s engagement there seems to be a positive overall trend with an increase in engagement over the shorter time frames. However, there was a slight dip in engagement over the 14-day period despite an increase in impressions.

Posts

Instagram

LinkedIn

Conclusion

In conclusion, through this assignment I have been working hard to produce appropriate and effective content that will be noticed by the social media algorithms and the correct target audiences, At the beginning of my posting I found that they were not very effective only making it to a handful of people who had followed me, these being close family and friends. After applying the researched methods of expanding my social media presence, I began to notice a slow but gradual increase in activity around my page ranging between likes and follows or visits to my account which I see as critical as it shows that the process I have been following for these platforms and although some may not choose to engage. It shows that more people are getting the possibility to interact than previously and that my accounts will continue to grow over time presuming the accounts are maintained. After finishing this assignment I have come to the conclusion that in will continue to post to my social media in order to grow my account however I don’t believe I will be able to post every other day to meet the algorithms recommended posting amount though I will be continuing to post with as many hashtags I can which are relevant additionally I will be aiming to update my post designs in order to make them more interesting for people to view with the hope of posting more 3d content and designs as that’s what people find the most interesting and relevant to my content.

Links below to my LinkedIn and Instagram profiles