We then got some feedback regarding our social media page, this will help us in the future to make some changes to our social media page and to improve it.
Improvement’s:
This is my draft 1 of my stars Instagram page which includes 8 posts which we have arranged in a particular order including teasers, merch, a giveaway, skincare ad, behind the scenes etc. We have also included highlights to make our page interactive and engage with our target audience. The colour scheme is the same as our digipak and genre to create a sense of consistency. Below is my self assessment sheet of what went well and what could be improved.
click on table to see full document:
When creating a social media page it is important to keep organised and to know when you are going to post each post. Order is a massive thing in the media as it helps to keep audiences engaged and wanting more when teasers, snippets etc are released. So before creating our stars social media page on Instagram I made a timeline and an idea for each post including some story ideas. I want to portray my star as ordinary and extra ordinary and portray this by using posts like a skincare post etc. By portraying a star in this way it makes them more desirable and relatable to the public. We are hoping our posts will be entertaining, informative, interactive and attention catching in order for our page to be successful.
I then did some marketing research to expand my knowledge on creating a successful social media page. I used Sandbox to look at different marketing ideas and campaigns of others artists:
We looked into audience engagement within Miley Cyrus’ Instagram account and how typical conventions, AIDA, audiences uses and gratifications and star representation is used to maximise audience engagement. This will help us when creating our own social media page for our star as we now have a better understanding of the key conventions of a social media page and how to portray a positive star image which audiences will want to interact and engage with.
Looking at Miley’s social media platform, it is clear to see that it contains many of the technical conventions necessary for a successful page. As a Pop/Pop Rock artist, the bright colour scheme, elegant mise-en-scene, and marketing campaigns such as her Gucci partnership all help to convey this. For example, this page is conventional to her genre as she frequently posts performance shots, photoshoots, behind the scenes etc. These all offer a glamorous insight into her stardom and present her star image as extraordinary. However, she also displays an ordinary side of herself by sharing a humorous post with fans. This indicates that she knows her target audience well and she can create media which will appeal to their preferred reading, encouraging more engagement with her account as people can decode this and share their views. *
2. How does the SMP page encourage AIDA (Attention Interest Desire Action) through its design and content?
Miley’s instagram account encourages AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) in many ways. For example, images of her outgoing, colourful and revealing outfits immediately catch the attention of the audience. Mise-en-scene is used to create controversy and conversation surrounding Miley’s look. Then, interest is sparked as clips of her performances are available on the page, both in the form of posts, and highlights/stories. We can then learn more about who she is as a performer, and repost on different platforms. Miley’s Gucci partnership is displayed in a highlight, this may create desire as visually stunning advertisements encourage viewers to buy the perfume, benefitting both Miley and Gucci in a form of cross media convergence. And finally, Miley dedicated an entire highlight towards the promotion of her album ‘Plastic Hearts’. It included eye-catching graphics with a consistent black and pink theme, and frequent links to streaming platforms. This made the album accessible for viewers and promotes action to be taken as fans can easily download, stream, purchase the album/merchandise. *
3. How does the SMP page enable the audience’s Uses and Gratifications? …or how does provide its users with opportunities for Entertainment, Information, Personal Identity and Social Interaction – B + K
Miley’s account also enables the audience’s Uses and Gratifications, outlined by Blumer and Katz. For example, she includes sneak previews and behind the scenes shots to entertain the audience and also get them excited for her music and her cameos on various TV shows. She also uses Instagram highlight reels effectively to give her audience a call to action and promote social interaction. For example, she used links to promote her new clothing line and her latest tour dates. *Finally, she successfully used her platform to promote positive LGBTQ+ ideas and included helpful websites and Instagram accounts to inform her audience about the importance of positive LGBTQ+ messages and encourage other stars to do the same.*
4. How far is the SMP page a good example of integrated advertising and how far does it encourage it to go ‘viral’ and use ‘guerrilla’ marketing to help promote its star?
Miley uses integrated advertising to expand her audience and to successfully promote her music. For example, she did an advert with Gucci using one of her songs and the advert depicts her using the fragrance whilst lip-syncing to the song. This not only promotes the fragrance through the cross-media convergence, but it gives Miley some promotion using her song and including her in the video. This helps her to expand her audience and get more followers and listenerssupporting her as an artist. Overall, Miley only does this kind of advertising occasionally and isn’t her main source of advertising. She mainly advertised her music through over-the-top photoshoots and creative videos.*
5. How is the star represented – ordinary, extraordinary, present and absent – Dyer?
Miley represents herself as ordinary and extraordinary throughout her instagram account and has portrayed this relatable yet desirable star image to her fans. Dyer’s theory suggest that it is important for a star to be respresnted as just like us ‘ordinary’ but also represented in a way which makes them special or different to us ‘extraordinary’. These two paradoxes are important in order to maxamise audience engagement, interaction and to be able to relate to her. Miley portrays her ordinary side through the use of humour showing us these behind the scene moments of her life, posts with friends and family, which makes it feel more personal as a viewer. For example she has a post showing her on a wakeboard and falling in, this video provides entertainment for her audience and also builds this representaion that she is funny, caring, ordinary and doesn’t take herself too seriously. Miley also has a lot of posts with friends portraying her ordinary side further. For example there is a post of Miley and her friend at a new years party that shows her having fun and makes her appear desirable to fans. On her instagram the extraordinary side is also portrayed with posts of her from photoshoots, performing and on the front of magazines. The posts of Miley performing on stage makes her appear desirable, confident and shows her popularity in the world with great audiences showing up to watch her perform. She also has lots of posts posing in fashionable and current outfits displaying this extraordinary side, this clothing helps to convey the genre of her music to the audience. *
Before creating my own social media page I did some research on a artist who is represented in a way we want ours to be represented. I looked into the key conventions of a social media page which included: tabs, comments, profile picture, captions, hashtags, images etc and how they are presented. By creating this slideshow of research it will help me when making my own page as I now know the key conventions and how social media can be used as a way of marketing and promoting a star image.