Since the Project Presentation a month ago, my digital artefact has explored ways to increase engagement and gain new followers.

To catch you up; My Digital Artefacts fuses both digital art and film together to share with the audiences films that they may have never seen, or would just enjoy. I feel that not many people have have had the great movie experiences that I grew up with. My goal has been to promote some incredible films through digital art, and hope that it may grasp the attention of people who may have never seen these films before.

I created an Instagram page to share my work because it is a huge social media platform that will allow me to connect with different people from so many different communities. Thanks to new updates, Instagram also lets me engage with my audience through comments, polls, and questions on my story. It is relevant to the users because it’s easy to access and share.

My process to create my content has stayed the same. Analyse popularity of current and old films, find one I’d enjoy creating, then use Paint S to create my works. I add a quote from the film that is relatable and relevant. I then post them on Instagram.

My current focus is building my online presence and focusing on engagement with my audience. I am doing this to build a strong group of followers that genuinely like my posts. This is important because strong engagement means more people sharing my work = new followers. No follow/unfollow method or buying followers.

Progress:

• 141 new followers
• Increase in profile visits
• Use of an Engagement Group
• Use of Story Highlights to share other work and ask questions.

Here is my Instagram page growth since the ideating phase:

Testing my prototype with users:

Posts:

• I started posting every second day (3-4 times a week)
• I would constantly engage with my audience through the use of engagement groups, responding to comments etc.
• I have learnt that posting content is 80% what they want and 20% what you want to post. So although previously in my Pitch presentation we discussed me focusing solely on ‘romantic comedies’, I don’t think that it is effective enough when it comes to maintaining the audience I currently have. Instead I focus more on a broader ‘genre’ – Chick Flicks
• What I have decided to do instead is constantly ask questions to my audience and ask what they want.

Stories:

In my stories I use the question box to ask for movie suggestions as well as polls.

• The answers have currently been a little conflicting, so for the future I will be asking different kinds of questions to find a better response.

 

What I have learnt based on my Instagram Insights:

 

Impressions:

• My most seen posts are mainly ‘chick flicks’
• Romantic films are popular
• People like films that they know and love.

Engagement:

• Engagement groups are incredibly helpful
• Relatable quotes are the most liked
• Popular films

Location:

• mostly NSW based

Age:

• 18-24
• These people resonate more with films from the 2000s

Gender:

• Predominantly female

Followers:

• I will get better engagement on Tuesday and Friday evenings because that is when my followers are more active

Additions to my Page:

Edits:

Additionally, I have started making edits for my followers. I tested this out to see if it was successful by posting them onto my story and asking my followers if they wanted one. I tried this out because I have been focusing on engagement, and I thought what would be better engagement than making art for them. I post them on my story so it doesn’t mess with the concept and purpose of my page as I still want the focus to be on my film art. The only problem to this would be that it takes up a lot more of my time and sometimes I can fall behind. However, the results have been incredibly positive. I have received many messages asking for an edit and a lot of my followers have been sharing my works as well

Commissions:

Recently, small businesses have asked me to create logos and edits for them, which is something I have never done before but has been a dream of mine. Being paid for my art is definitely something I hope to continuously achieve as my digital artefact develops further.

Has my concept changed?

I would say that my concept has changed but has also stayed the same. My sole focus with my films is now on ‘chick flicks’ as well as supplying content that my followers want. E.g. if most of my followers want to see a certain movie, I will share that with them. I now add personal edits into my highlights, which has strengthened my page but is not the sole focus of it. However, I am still focusing on sharing my love of film in the form of art. People have come up to me and told me they watched a certain film because it was on my page. This positive feedback

 The future:

I will continue to post 3-4 times a week, and explore other ways to possibly gain followers faster, such as using different hashtags, or asking pages to share my work. Hopefully I can get more commissioned work, as I continue to make edits for individuals and small businesses.

By Rachel Weisz

Twitter: @rachelmayweisz

Instagram: @rwfreckled