The second task for week 3 was to create a viral image on Instagram. Given the limited number of followers I have on Instagram and a basic understanding of the Instagram algorithms for promoting images I decided experiment with a different strategy.
My approach was to post a series of different images using the same hashtag that had a limited number of existing posts. Second element of my strategy was to post the images based on a marketing strategy that could be adopted by a major brand. A glass of water is associated with the charity WaterAid or raising a glass of water that alcohol could be viewed a sobriety pledge such as ‘Stay sober in October.’
I selected the hashtag #raisetheglass and rephotograph a glass of water in each image I post with the hashtag. Then to increase the chance of non-followers seeing my posts I decided to include the following popular hashtags #yourtown or #yourwork, plus include the landmark buildings with their respective tag in the post.
Based on ways to engage with followers during the creation of new work I recorded a behind the scenes image.
I then started to shoot images for the campaign. Posting new images over a few days.
To increase coverage for my campaign I cross posted on Twitter and Facebook. Overall the stray resulted in a dozen likes per post across the different platforms and images taken in locations with active social media teams resulted in additional traffic.
Reviewing this week’s results shower that my strategy was reasonably successful in generating likes however the subject matter might not appeal to a large number of Instagram followers to make an image go viral possibly because I did not follow the 7 Cs for viral campaigns.
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