It's been about a month since the announcement of my #bcm114 D.A project over on Instagram @itsjamesmct and quite a lot has happened! Since publishing this blog, I have posted 3 x 30-second Instagram reels and 6 x photo landscape posts of locations around the Hunter Valley, NSW.
Each video has been performing exceptionally well for my account, reaching both my existing audience and also some new accounts from the Reels discovery page.
I have been using Hootsuite and Later to schedule all my posts and track and monitor the success of my content. Things that have really impressed me are that my posts have reached 5,900 unique Instagram accounts, and 11,000 profile impressions, and my engagement rate has shot up from 1.33% 2 months ago to 19.84%. Which is higher than most celebrities and large brands on the platform.
As I continue to progress with my D.A, I'm making my audience the core of my project. After all, without audience engagement and utility, the project wouldn't be successful nor necessary.
My recent posts have received a large amount of feedback in the form of comments, shares and reposts on stories. I have also sent out another survey link to my followers to get an understanding on how they're receiving the recent content, ask for suggestions and also gain a better understanding of how many of my followers are even seeing my instagram posts.
As i have been posting more on this account recently than before, i have up-to-date data sets and analytics to use which show my audience now compared to when i last posted on the account back in February. As a result, i have compiled a new set of engaged followers and followers who aren't engaged / ghost followers. I have distributed this survey to a group of both engaged and non-engaged accounts to ensure i'm not neglecting followers just because the instagram algorithm isn't pushing them my content.
This is the form that i have started distributing between my followers.
The responses will be extremely beneficial to understand if my audience is enjoying my content and they're responding and understanding the utility of the project. I will take all audience suggestions and ideate potential iterations of my project to better reflect the requirements of my audience.
Data pulled from TypeForm
As I have received quite a few recommendations for locations to visit and capture, the second iteration of my survey now asks my audience to provide suggestions of locations I should document on my account. This will allow me to begin a new feedback loop with fresh ideas and locations that my audience wants to see more of, instead of what i believe they want to see.
I recently re-discovered how terrible the compression for 4K video can be on social media. This became a major concern for me as i discussed in my pitch, as i'm much more focused on quality content over the quantity being released.
Although the have been somewhat compressed on instagram and lower light video looks like it was filmed on a potato, the response has been much more positive than first expected. This chart from my Hootsuite Analytics shows that my comments have been mostly positive.
The 14% negative was incorrectly flagged as negative due to key words such as quit and sick.
The comments were "this is so sick !!" and
"definitely quit your day job".
Which were both intended as compliments in this instance.
As mentioned in my pitch blog, my account had 1952 followers as of launching my first iteration of my D.A. Currently my account has 2023, which is an increase of 71 followers. Which i am extremely pleased with. I have noticed that the majority of these followers are photography and travel pages.
In line with my twitter post and as mentioned in my pitch regarding social media platforms favouring short form media, my reels have been performing better compared to my traditional posts, but not in the way you may think. My likes and comments are almost identical on my reels and photos however the reach and views are what's much higher. With my most recent reel getting over 3,124 views and my recent post getting 861 views.
