The brief

We were required to create a live social media campaign, the purpose of this being to promote ourselves and our work. It was mandatory to choose at least two platforms, one of them being LinkedIn and the other we were able to pick ourselves. This is particularly important as being active and noticeable online is something that most successful businesses or people have achieved and is something I will definitely continue into my career. My end goal is to work for myself, so I have really enjoyed understanding what clients and industry experts look for. To add, I will use these social media accounts as a safe space which I have created for myself to network with others in the same or similar industries. I sectioned the brainstorming process for this project into two areas. The first being the client side, for example figuring out who I am trying to engage with and how to successfully increase account and post reach.

The second being the ideation process for the design elements for this project and why I made those design choices. Finally, I will anaylse the results and statistics I have gathered since making the campaign live.

Please note: the research for many topics on this page and regarding my social media campaign are mostly supported by blogs posts, they often discuss social media so I have decided to use their information. I will however use it as a guide only, I am aware that blogs are not 100% reliable.

A bit about me

To understand fully who I am as a student and what my career goals are, it is important to understand what industry I hope to be a part of. In the past I have worked for a design and build website agency and that is what put me on my current path. Whilst I was there my job title was a Web Designer, however my responsibilities included building website with WordPress. From this I learned basic HTML, CSS and improved my Adobe skills - I knew I wanted to develop all of these further. Whilst I am studying Digital Media and Development, design is something I love and I am not prepared to fully give it up when in a working environment. For this reason I want to become a frontend developer after university, as it gives me opportunities to use both development and design skills.

Once I feel as though I have enough industry experience, I plan to create my own online Design and Build firm and therefore I will be trying to connect with design and development clients, potential employers and people within both design and development industries. I will use the transferable skills learnt from creating this campaign to aid me with this in the future.

find out more

My target audience

Understanding the client:

To better know who exactly my target audience was, I listed questions about what category they might fall into, what they are looking for and how I am able to assist them. To see the full list, click on the here. The reason it was important to have a clear understanding of this was so I could consistently provide content for my desired cliental.

Who my audience is:

After thinking about those questions based on thoughts and opinions my audience might have, I can conclude that my target audience is mostly clients looking to create a business for themselves. They likely wish to have a presence online in which they can make money from. Alternatively, my audience could be people who already have an existing business but do not have a clear marketing strategy and would like to build a website for their products or services.
Some clients may be corporate companies but again, it is more likely that they will be smaller in scale. The issues that my target audience might be facing is that they are not gaining the traction that they had hoped for online. I would then offer the service of creating both a brand, through design work and a physical online platform, being a website, which they can gain sales from. Therefore, it needs to be obvious on my account that I am a front-end web developer with design skills who can help them market themselves online.

Potential employers

Given my current situation and that I am currently a student, I aim to use these accounts to be noticed by potential employers and professionals in my industry.

The platforms

As well as LinkedIn, I decided to use Instagram as I had an account with a small following meaning that my posts would start with a greater reach. Its purpose was to display any designs I may have created for projects as well as any freelance design work. According to Adobe Instagram is the first choice of 7 social media platforms to choose from.,

The main reason that LinkedIn is one of the top tier social media platforms, is because ‘its users are its customers’. This means that instead of random advertisements distracting you from your interests, like on most social media platforms, LinkedIn’s advertisements are from like-minded people who joined the site for a similar reason to yourself. This is mostly because it offers a subscription-like feature where users can pay for premier services.

Visit instagram

Inspiration for Instagram

The way in which I collected information for this project was by initially browsing through the social media platforms of people who offer similar services to me. I specifically looked at accounts related to design, development and entrepreneurship. Screenshots of the accounts and why I like them are detailed below. Additionally, researched people and corporations who have a huge social media following. Although my online presence obviously serves a vastly different purpose to the BBC, I can appreciate some of their morals and why they started doing what they do. The work on a constitutional basis called 'The Royal Charter’ and this essentially means that they provide non-biased, honest information with their main aim being to entertain alongside being informative. I plan to work loosely to this structure by posting mostly entertaining lifestyle images which portray the type of individual I am, with occasional posts pushing my services. As a whole, I plan to use the same posts for LinkedIn and Instagram but some content may be more platform specific and when that occurs I will be selective of which it gets shared on.

Development:

This account was of interest because it is a current web development agency. I like the way the posts vary between graphics and images.

Coding:

Code World show how development can be used in the real world. I like the imagery they use.

Entrepreneurship:

Carrie has created a sucessful multi-million pound digital marketing agencies and she shares tips and advice on her account.

Frontend:

Dylan shares personal content in the caption sections of his posts whilst discretely mentioning the industry.

Instagram:

Data suggests that in the UK, the best time to post on Instagram is roughly between 14:00pm to 18:00pm throughout the week and specifically 23:00pm on Saturdays and 22:00pm on Sundays.A different source implies that there are more fixed times through the day that you should post on Instagram. To view that website click here.As you can see from the link, it has a time early on in the morning, early afternoon and then later in the evening.

Visit instagram

LinkedIn:

According to one article it suggests that the best time to post to LinkedIn is usually on week days, whilst people are still at work. More specifically Tuesday to Thursday between the hours of 8:00am - 14:00pm. Another website has gathered data from multiple articles and the consensus from all of them is similar to the above, Monday - Friday, during 'standard' working hours.

Visit linkedin

Instagram:

Something that I found was particularly interesting was the use of stories. An article offers the idea that when you plan to create a aesthetic for your grid post on Instagram, post the content to your story that might not match visually.

instagram trends

LinkedIn:

I found an article on LinkedIn that discusses its trends for 2022. Trend number two was one that could be useful to my campaign. It recommends that one should ask questions or create posts which allows the user to respond in some manner, by doing this it makes them feel valued as a follower and can build relationships.

linkedin trends

Brainstorming

Visuals:
I decided that I will have a mixture of photographs, vector posts with text and line illustrations on, as well as polaroid vectors to show diversity in the types of content I post. I took inspiration from this account: StellamarLtd as I think that the way the post creates a solid identity. I will ensure that I follow through these creative choices on my portfolio website so if someone was to look at either they could recognise my brand.

Although I am studying development currently, design is hugely important to me so it is paramount that I show both of these skills as I want them both to be clear to potential employers. By doing this I am already putting myself out there in the working environment I hope to work in. With the work that is not necessarily visually pleasing, I will spend time making it so. With the brand being quite bright with the blue and pink gradient, I plan to make any images that I post black and white. Any design posts will be displayed in a 'polaroid-like' format or will include the gradient in some way.

Content ideas

I knew that I wanted to have a database of the content ready to share so I could consistently post whilst maintaining my brand/identity. I am intentionally using mostly royalty free stock images for the reason above of wanting to stay consistent. However, when I have art or images that are relevant I will post them too.
To create the topics which best reflect myself, I thought about my skills, hobbies and daily interests and facts about my industry. Next I broke these topics down and create multiple posts that I could use for all of them. I built and basic grid labelling the photo names, a rough caption of what I might post with them, or ideas that I need to photograph myself. By doing this I am able to hold myself accountable and can check off the photos that I have ready used. I developed this schedule even further by creating an excel spreadsheet that has the dates, topics, image ideas, content ideas and hastags.

• Posts have short lifespan, need to post multiple times
• Linkin.bio / linktree
• Hashtags
• Long description
• Emojis
• Story of grid post

• People doing well in industry (cool websites)
• Posts can been seen for up to a week
• Statistics within the industry
• Personal post
• Positive quotes
• Like posts yourself
• Hashtags
• Long description
• Coming soon posts
• Follow people you know/ people who inspire you/ people you want to work with
• Videos

I know that the people I am most interested in my accounts reaching are potential employers and other relevant industry influencers so my first target was:
1. Attract potential employers and/or other relevant industry influencers to like/comment or share a post of mine on both social media accounts at least once throughout the duration of this campaign, ending 18/04/22.

After having learnt the length of time that posts last on both social media accounts my next SMART target was:
2. Post on LinkedIn 2 times per week and post on Instagram 3 times per week until the end of this campaign ending 18/04/22.

I knew that I wanted to actively engage with and have people engage with accounts similar to mine so my third target was:
3.In order to connect with the community, actively comment on posts both on LinkedIn and Instagram three times a week until the end of this campaign ending 18/04/22.

With my portfolio website displaying all my work throughout my time at university it is paramount that these social media accounts gain traction to it, therefore my last target was:
4. Increase views to my portfolio website throughout the campaign.

Keeping organised

I will achieve these objectives by breaking these down into ‘campaign themes’ and deciding which themes should be more prioritized than others. The main themes that I wanted my content to be split into are: ‘who I am’ (personal), ‘my work at university’ (being a developer), ‘design’ (old and new graphic design projects) and ‘things happening within the industry’. To see how I prioritised the themes click here. Since I now knew the order of importance for each theme, I calculated the number of weeks left and how many times I needed to post weekly in order to support my smart target 2. (LinkedIn: 8 weeks x 2 posts a week) (Instagram: 8 weeks x 3 posts a week). I created a table to show this, click here.

From there it was then broken down into the number of posts that I will need for each theme. A table was created to show this. Next, I was able to create a table showing me when I need to post for each theme on X number of days. To see this table, see here. When I had the exact dates calculated, I was able to create a more detailed 'posting schedule'. This detailed on which day I should post, what theme it should be and which platform I should post to. I then started copy writing and planning out the use of hashtags. Although this detailed plan should allow me to achieve my smart targets whilst staying on top of the content I wish to post, I am aware that it will be a guide and things may change. For example I may have something particularly interesting in a project or my personal life that would be better to share. All whilst doing this I plan to post stories.

Portfolio analytics

Before I was able to analyse the data for my portfolio website for my 4th SMART target, I needed to have a way to view this data.

I used Google’s web analytics service and created a web stream. To set this up I created an account, took the Global site tag (gtag.js) and added it to the header section of my html/php pages for my portfolio website. This means that I am able to view how many times the site has been viewed, whether those views are direct or a referral and from which country they have been seen in.

Self promotion

Despite already having an Instagram and LinkedIn account, this is the first time I have run a social media campaign. In the past I had never put much time into either account for anything other than personal use. It was for this reason, I decided I wanted to better understand how to market yourself properly online. Research suggested two way to successfully promote yourself, this are listed below:
1. "Be honest and authentic". To do this I will post content regarding my personal and student life. I will be honest about my timings and how I am feeling, it will be similar to a professional diary.
2. "Be original".This is similar to point one and it emphasized the need to post personal content. I will also post details of my projects, design and development as my work will be specific to me and my skills.

Creating a brand

To avoid losing direction, I created a mood board with all my design ideas. These were predominately focused on the social media campaign rather than my portfolio. Since I already had an Instagram account, it meant that I already had a logo. Although this is not something I wanted to keep and the updated logo was for my new online identity. As you can see from the logo moodboard below, there is a clear feminine colour scheme and use of soft line and imagery. This style follows on from my website from last semester but it has been made to feel more modern.

The colours

As you can see from the board below, I developed the Initial logo many times. I started off using my initials and experimenting with different typefaces – I still want to carry out the feminine aesthetic. The colour scheme was the colour block seen next to the bottom for logos, however this did change as I updated my website.

Start of live campaign

Keyword Searches.

To find relevant accounts, making my feed more specific on both Instagram and LinkedIn, I have found people, groups and businesses by using keyword searches. A keyword search is when you begin typing your desired topic into the search bar, an auto-populated list will then appear showing that same or similar topics. You will be able to see which of those topics have the highest following. The benefit of this is that you become part of a community in which you all share similar interests. To summarise according to MailChimp, keywords on your website or social media accounts ‘let Google and other search engines know what your business is about’. These keywords then equate to the hashtags that used on my posts. To consistently attract a similar audience with hashtags. I used the same that I set at the start of the campaign. For example, '#frontenddeveloper' and '#university', I then added new ones when creating my content schedule that were specific to each post. By doing this is meant that I was sharing lifestyle posts whilst appearing in pathway specific searches.

Facebook

Although it was not one of my chosen accounts, I had already linked my Instagram and my Facebook accounts together. This is something I realised quite far on in the duration of the campaign. The statistic from Facebook will be used as something interesting with the potential to learn from but I will not measure them against my SMART targets as it was never the plan.

TARGET 1.

"Attract potential employers and/or other relevant industry influencers to like/comment or share a post of mine on both social media accounts at least once throughout the duration of this campaign, ending 18/04/22."

I have counted how many accounts have liked my posts starting after the three grid lines, as they are just to seperate content. I have received 27 likes from Web development related accounts, these could potentially be employers too. To see an example of this click here. As I have mentioned, it is important to me to be recognised in the design community so I have counted the number of design accounts who have liked my posts and that totals to 30 individual likes. I did not include design students studying with myself in these numbers. However, I did not receive many comments from either industry! I had multiple interactions with an individual who specialises in marketing and one from a programmer. To see an example of this, see here. Other comments received were from friends or family. As a whole I am pleased that I even received any likes from web developers or programmers as I did not believe I would. I thought that university projects may not be interesting to people who are not a part of it. I am also happy with the number of design accounts who liked my posts as this means although I am a developer, designers still resonate with my work. To increase the number of comments I would set aside time to actively carry out Target 3. To see where these likes fall across my Instagram feed, please click here for the table. The lines ('|') = web development/programming accounts and the hash ('#') = design accounts. The top of the table is the top of my Instagram grid feed and it follows the left to right order.

TARGET 2.

"Post on LinkedIn 2 times per week and post on Instagram 3 times per week until the end of this campaign ending 18/04/22."

I counted how many times I posted per week for Instagram, starting from the first week of the campaign (07/03/22) until the final week being, 18/04/22. To fullfil this target I should have posted 24 times, in total I posted 27 times on Instagram. I posted 6 times in the first two weeks, 3 times the following two weeks, 4 times per week for the two weeks after that and 3 times per week for the remaining two weeks. To see this data in a table format please click here. I am pleased that I achieved this and am thankful that I created a timetable and posting schedule.

TARGET 4.

"Increase views to my portfolio website throughout the campaign."

As mentioned earlier I set up Google Analytics which allowed me to physically see if I was able to increase traffic to my site. I set the date on the graph to start from 07/03/22 as the beginning of the campaign. As you can see from the image, I had an increase of 42 new users, however I am unsure of where these additional views came from. Promoting my portfolio website is something I will continue to do in the future.

TARGET 4.

"Increase views to my portfolio website throughout the campaign."

The analysis for this is the same as the my results from Instagram, see here. As well as this, I was able to increase the views to my LinkedIn profile. I was able to gain 80 views in the past 90 days, as seen in this screenshot. This is something I am happy about as more views equate to the more people I may be able to network with online.

Post reach.

I have noticed in terms of reach, that my most successful posts include images of myself/personal photos. This also the case

Comments.

Interestingly, the content type that recieved the highest number of comments overall were the vector posts. This is suprising as I thought that Instagram users would find photographs more relatable.

Follows from posts.

Disappointingly, I only gained followers from 7 of the 27 posts I shared on Instagram.

Reflection

Considering I have never ran a social media campaign before, I am pleased with how it went on Instagram.

• After viewing the insights and analytics I have learnt that personal photographs are the most successful for most insights. I posted personal content but few photographs with people in, moving forward with this campaign I will upload more of these pictures.
• I will also continue to post artwork/ stylised graphics as it allowed me to connect with desingers as well as developers.
• Additionally, I will keep posting stories on Instagram. They allowed me to share less relevant/ visually pleasing content whilst increasing impression and clicks on my profile.
• I am glad I calculated the number times I want to post and which campaign theme to prioritise and especially of my 'posting schedule', I noticed that towards the end of the campaign I stuck to it less. I also found it more difficult to think of content the busier I became. To avoid this in the future I will not allow as many spots of things that I might want to add and will create the content for those days in advance.
• The use of hashtags were successful throughout this campaign and I will use them in the same way in the future. To make them even better I could do keyword searches for specific posts, rather than just in advance.
• To increase comments and shares between myself and users, I would schedule time to go through instagram so I can actively comment and share posts from my desired audiences. This would improve my 3rd smart target.
• As a whole, I gained an increase of 24.5% since the 28/01/22 and although that is not the start date of the campaign, prior to that I was posting minimal content. This is something I am proud of and as I suggested above, to maintain growth I will introduce other ways to increase my follwoing e.g. reveals or a competition.

I have learned about how to be active on LinkedIn and for my profile to gain traction.

• During this campaign, I received views, likes and some comments/shares from people in a similar industry to myself.
• I was also able to increase the number of views to my LinkedIn profile and both of these will help me to engage and network with those who are interested in Frontend Development and types of design.
• I plan to continue sharing and posting regularly to my LinkedIn account as I believe it will aid me when looking for employment after education but moving forward I will be sure to create time to comment and interact with others. This will allow my content to be seen be more people and will help me build relationships with people in my chosen field.

For both LinkedIn and Instagram I will work on the following:

• When re-visiting my posts, I noticed that I had fewer call-to-actions on my design posts. This was not intentional but upon refection something that I did do. As I develop this campaign I will be sure to actively encourage responses and engagement on all of my posts, including design. This will be beneficial as I would still like to do some freelance grahpic design work, especially over the summer holiday.
• In order to keep track better of how posts perform dependent at different times of the day, I will add a time column to my posting schedule.

UN Sustainability goal 17

​Admittingly, I did struggle to link UN Sustainability Goal 17 to my social media campaign. From my understanding it is a way in which 'public and non-public parties work in unison to achieve a common purpose or undertake a task'. As I have a small following on my social media account, which I hope to expand, I could actively share and post content that helps to raise awareness of current global issues. By educating users I may be able to inform them on how they too are able to support leading charities and global partnerships and their causes.

For example, I shared a story encouraging users to donate to Dementia UK. A charity I believe is deserving of praise and helps some of the most vurerable members of our society. By doing this, I hoped at least one other donated or even looked into the charity and what they do. In the future, I could create more content specifically on how as a community we can collectively make a change physically as well as by donating money.

view goal 17

Time management

Although it was not one of my chosen accounts, I had already linked my Instagram and my Facebook accounts together. This is something I realised quite far on in the duration of the campaign. The statistic from Facebook will be used as something interesting with the potential to learn from but I will not measure them against my SMART targets as it was never the plan. See time management chart. (To move between projects, use toggle at the bottom of the document.) view chart