Below is a walkthrough I screen recorded of my social media page.
Component 3
Critical reflection Essay
Social Media Page Draft 3
Below is my social media page draft 3
My social media page is now only missing the album announcement post. I have kept the colour pallet fairly neutral and calm which signifies (De Saussure) my artists ordinary star image and indie genre. Her posts are very representative of her target brand image, for example the collaboration with Hello Fresh suggests she cares about her health and has an interest in healthy eating. I have also made ure to include more interactive posts for fans to help keep them engaged on her page. This includes unscramble the word, which is a teaser as the name is one of the track list names from her upcoming album. I also made a fan bingo which will encourage people to post about it and share their bingo cards, all in hopes of getting noticed by Livya. Her ordinary star image (Dyer) is also shown through her outfits. The clothes she wears are very casual and not high fashion or expensive which infers she is down to earth and relatable, increasing her likeability as fans can feel understood by her.
The final post will be her album announcement, which I have been building up to through stories and posts. This has been done in order to create a buzz and widen her fandom (Jenkins) and listeners for the album – increasing its success.
Here is feedback we received from our teacher, please click on the image below to watch the video.
Conventions Check-In
My social media page now has 40 posts, including stories and highlights. Synergy has been successful achieved through a collaboration with HelloFresh which reflects my artists star image. I have further marketed my artists upcoming album through interactive fan competitions which feel exclusive and exciting. These interactive posts also fulfil the audiences need for entertainment (Blumler & Katz) which will give them a more fun and happy experience on the social media page, making it likely they will return. I have intentionally not included any signs of an extraordinary star image as I want my artist to be relatable and down to earth. Having an extraordinary star image makes the artist feel more out of reach and restricts the connection fans can feel with them.
Skills Screen Shots
When creating the design for the unscramble the word post I added some little graphics of birds, seaweed and a boat. I had to learn how to firstly find these images and then import them to the design without the background. For this post I used an ocean theme which subtly hints to the images inside of my artists new album CD. It will be a fun little easter egg that her fans can find and create theories about, encouraging them to share their opinions on-line (word-of-mouth marketing).
I also created a listening party ticket which took up 3 posts on the page, forming one image of the ticket. I watched a YouTube video on how to do this and get the image perfectly lined up between the posts, so it appeared to be one continuous post. It was quite time consuming to figure out and took some tweaking to get a good final result. But it was very with it as it is visually interesting and helps make the page stand out more and feel more unique to viewers, making it more memorable.
Digipak Draft 3
Below is my draft 3 of my digipak. This has been printed and put into a CD case.
I have changed the middle pane photos to be more representative of the album name ‘UnderCurrents’. It feels a lot more suitable and visually interesting to look at. I also played around with the colouring of the image to make it more dark and moody – signifying (De Saussure) the album will be emotional and reflective. It matches the colouring of the front and back pane which makes the whole CD feel together and in unison. The spine colour has also been changed to a darker purple which colour scheme better and is conventional of Indie album colours. This will make the CD more recognizable as Indie and consumers looking when it is on a shop shelf. The amount of font ant text is very minimal as I feel the images speak for themselves and added any more text would make it overwhelming and less appealing.
I’m very happy with how this draft has ended up and I don’t think there is much to be changed before submitting the final draft. I think it is very conventional and representative of the indie genre. My artists key brand descriptors have been met (relatable, kind, caring etc) through the bedrooms setting, minimal makeup and track list names. The only thing I would possibly change would be the colour of the track list names to white in order to make them stand out more. Also, I will experiment with putting them all in capitals to be more bold and convey confidence. Meaning is also encoded (Hall) through the images of the ocean which suggest confidence, individuality and intense emotions which is typical of Indie music. My teacher
We asked some of our classmates to look at our digipak and put a tally in the genre they think it is.
Out of the 14 people we asked, 12 chose the correct genre. This suggests the the CD is representative of an Indie genre to an audience. This feedback is very helpful as it is nice to hear from others and get an outside perspective. Two people put pop which is understandable however I feel as the colour pallet is more moody and neutral compared to pop which is bright and colourful.
Conventions Checklist
The only thing I needed to do from draft 1 was make the images/graphics better. The original was a little bland and didn’t really have any relation to the album name ‘undercurrents’. So I went and took some photos of the ocean as that is more representative. It is one single image that takes up both of the middle panes. This is not typical/ unconventional of Indie CD’s but is intentional as it is unique and will help make the CD stand out from all the others. It provides us with a unique selling point. The image is very high quality which will farther suggest the CD is professionally done and representative of a CD format. I followed the blueprint (Altman) of indie genre CD’s for everything else In order to ensure that my genre is correctly interpreted and I get a preferred reading (Hall).
Skills
One of the skills I learnt during the creation of this draft was how to add filters and change the colours/ tones of an image. The original image I used was very bright and blue which did not fit in with the neutral and relaxed colour pallet. I watched a YouTube tutorial and darkened the colours in the image to make it more moody, neutral and representative of the indie genre. For this image I also added on a filter to make the water look slightly greyish purple. This feels more feminine which will help promote the key brand descriptors of feminine, confident and calm.
Social Media Page Draft 2
Below is draft 2 of my social media page.
There are now much more posts that show behind the scenes. I have also now posted the first teaser of the music video in format of a 2 second clip from the music video. I have added more highlights and stories such as Q&A, events, merch and outfits of the day. This helps make the page more conventional and representative of a social media page. It also encodes (Hall) that my artist is successful and up to date with what is trendy such as outfits of the day stories. Signifying (De Saussure) meaning within my posts has been done through the colour scheme, costume and makeup which are all representative of the indie genre. This also represents her as more youthful and relatable which are some of my key brand descriptors. My audiences psychographics are dedication to an active and healthy lifestyle, a caring and compassionate outlook, and an interest in driving change and engaging with global issues such as climate change. I have already done a charity post which targets how my audience will engage with global issues.
However I have yet to post anything about a healthy and active lifestyle which is something I need to make sure I do. This could be done through a what I eat in a day, or maybe a exercise routine that her fans can do too. this is all to help target her audience and create a social media page they enjoy viewing and interacting with.
Convention Check In
I have successfully achieved more conventions since draft 1 such as more reels, stories, teasers and Q&A. I posted a short 2 second clip of the music video as a teaser, this will build up excitement and anticipation for more information. My artist has posted stories such as outfit of the day and interactive Q&A posts in which fans can ask her questions. This fulfils the audiences need for entertainment (Blumler & Katz) and will increase engagement. I have also made sure to convey more key brand descriptors such as relatability, kindness and confidence through a paparazzi post and polls in the comments under her posts. My artist is also consistently replying and engaging with fans in her comments as this will create a desire amongst her fans to receive a reply.
For my next draft I definitely want to have more posts, hopefully around 20-30. I also need to ensure I include synergy, marketing stunts and some more reels. I do not want to announce the album name just yet as I want to wait and let tension/ curiosity build amongst my audience so that when I do say the album name it will be a big deal and receive more attention. This also encourages social interaction (Blumler & Katz) because people will talk to each other about the teaser and come up with theorised or try to discover any extra information that they can.
Skills Check In
I used photoshop on an image of Jimmy Fallon (Interviewer) to edit my artist in, in order to make it appear like they are meeting each other. This is a behind the scenes shot which I wanted to make it look like was shot by paparazzi. We took some photos of my artist walking which I edited in. It was quite time consuming to do but helped me develop my photoshop skills and I now know what to do if I choose to do more photoshopped images.
I also had to change the colouring and shadows of the images to try make it look as realistic as possible. The original image I took of my artist was quite dark so I had to make the image of Jimmy Fallon darker too in order to make it look more fitting and less noticeable. I watched a YouTube video tutorial of how to change the colouring which was extremely helpful.
Digipak Draft 2
Below is the second draft of my digipak.
Reflection
This is my second digipak draft which now has all panes. I wanted the images to feel very minimalistic and relaxed so I decide to use an image of a cup of coffee for the middle panes as it has connotations of relaxation and reflection. I mirrored the images to make them more visually interesting; this also helps ensure the colour scheme is maintained and representative of an indie genre. I changed the colour on the spine to a greyish blue, which matches the artists jeans. This creates a sense of unity and cohesiveness within all aspects of the digipak. It also signifies (De Saussure) stability and balance which will aid in representing our artists star image (Dyer) as thoughtful and relatable.
Below is a screencastify of feedback from my teacher
Targets for improvement
- Tweak photos, filters, colours in photoshop to give more clarity or even grain
- Use same ‘Livya’ font on back
- Rotate left spine
- Imagery is flat – try make more interesting in photoshop
- Include some kind of current or wave/ water in design
Skills Screen Shots
Above are some examples of skills I have learnt during the creation of my second draft. I created my artist a specific little logo (left image) which is a star that appears hand drawn. I created this on photoshop and added it onto the design. This will be a symbol that is easily recognizable and will help build our artists fame and brand. On the top image I increased both the saturation and brightness of the shot as the original was very dark and felt more punk or rock. Increasing the brightness and saturation has made the image much more representative of the indie genre. The bottom image is of the inner panes. I mirrored the image on both sides to make it feel more interesting and deliberate. It has a sense of calmness and relaxation which we wanted to emphasise so used the same image on both panes.
Conventions Checklist
This second draft now has four panes so that convention can be ticked off. We have also now found a signature font for the album name and artist name which feel representative of the indie genre. The album name is ‘undercurrents’ which has links to the ocean/sea, this suggests freedom and individuality which are some of our artists key brand descriptors. I have put ‘images/graphics’ as orange because I want to play around with graphics more and be more experimental. I feel as our panes look a little uninteresting and could have a splash of colour or something more visually appealing in order to entertain our audience (Blumler & Katz).
Buzz – Social Media Page Feedback
We had some professional creatives come into school and they reviewed our social media page draft 1, below is some of their feedback.
Things done well:
- Good relatable star image – especially with the charity post
- Good colour scheme
- Engaging posts and cross media convergence – very representative of a real artists social media page
- Spotify wrapped is good idea
- Fan art Friday will be a good post to engage fans and create a connection
Things to improve:
- Expand our content to reach our target audiences parents and siblings to grow fandom. This is because the parents will be looking what to get their children for birthdays Christmas etc and we should aim to target this.
- Post more interactive content e.g questionnaires and polls
- More brand collaborations to increase reach to audience. E.g Wicked (the movie) did collaborations with McDonalds, Primark, butterkist popcorn etc.
Receiving input from a professional was extremely exciting and valuable. The creative we talked to specialised in social media so was extremely knowledgeable about it. She shared how social media is the best and most common way an artist markets and promotes their brand. We were suggested things I had not even considered during our discussion, such as catering some posts to my target audiences’ parents in order to sell them clothes and products for their children. She also said we could lean into an even younger audience, who want to copy their older sister and listen/ follow Livya on her social media. Increasing the range of content and reach to audiences would help establish larger fandoms (Jenkins) who want to actively participate in liking, commenting, and competing on posts such as Fan Art Friday. She really liked our Spotify wrapped post as that is very trendy and common for young artists to do. It gives a personal insight into my artists life which audiences will love. The creative also complimented the fan interactions through the comments and how relatable I made my star.
I believe the most important key brand descriptor for my artist is relatable. We want her star image (Dyer) to feel comforting to audiences and they can feel seen by her. She won’t ever be in full glam makeup or expensive outfits which is how most of her audience will also be. To hear that this is being successfully conveyed from a professional is really encouraging and helpful as I know I’m on the right track. I received some great new ideas which I’m definitely going to make sure I do in upcoming posts on the social media page. This is all in hopes to entertain the audience (Blumler & Katz) and give them a artist they can relate and connect with.
Social Media Page Draft 1
Below is our draft 1 of our social media page.
So far we have done five posts on our social media page. We have done a charity post, merch release, Spotify wrapped, collaboration with Nintendo and a behind the scenes nature photoshoot. We have fulfilled our audiences need for all uses and gratifications (Blumler & Katz). The climate change charity post fulfils the need for information and also represents our artists star image (Dyer) as caring and down to earth. The behind the scenes shoot will be entertaining for the audience as it gives an exclusive look into our artists personal life, making the audience feel closer and increasing their engagement. The merchandise release post will encourage personal identity as fans can now publicly show their support for Livya and express that they are a fan. Our cross media convergence post (collaboration with Nintendo) fulfils the audiences need for social interaction as Mario kart is typically a multiplayer game. This post also makes our social media page more representative of a conventional social media page because cross media convergence is something most artists do and then promote with a post. Posting our artists Spotify wrapped helps create a sense of relatability for her and her audience – something they can bond over. This is all in an effort to promote our artist and encourage people to join her fandom (Jenkins). We have also added in a bio, profile picture and highlights to further make her social media page more conventional. Having a profile picture will make her account more easily found which will boost fan interactions. Our bio is hinting at new music coming. This will kepp people coming back to the page to look for updates, all whilst creating a buzz as people are curious when more information will be given.
Convention Check In
Above is a convention check in I have filled out in relation to our social media page. Green are things we feel we have done successfully, amber is getting there and red isn’t at all. We purposefully are not having an extraordinary star image as that is not conventional of a Indie artists. They are down to earth and ordinary. We are gradually increasing the amount of posts, stories and BTS and therefore comments. We are going to do a few more posts before announcing the album name as we want to our artist to feel more established and active on social media to signify (De Saussure) that she is successful. We are planning to film a ‘day in the life’ reel which will fulfil the audiences need for entertainment. We also will do a Q&A because audiences are much more participatory (Shirky) and we want to encourage this interaction.
Skills Screenshots
For our social media page we had to design and create all the posts. On photoshop, (image on the left) we created Livyas logo and put it onto t-shirts. We had to watch a YouTube tutorial to learn how to do this and it is very useful as it makes our star look more established and professional. We plan to use it in more posts and reinforce that this is her signature font/ logo that we want associated with her. This will help build up her brand so it is more recognizable. On the right image (Nintendo collaboration) we imported all the images seen and had to choose a font. We found a font online that looks very representative of a video game, so we used it. We then had an issue of the font looking boring because it was all black. So I played around with the colours in order to make it more visually engaging and appealing instead of one bland block of text.
Timeline & Marketing Ideas
Below is my proposed timeline for the social media posts on our social media page (SMP) leading up to our album release – and then music video. 
We created a visual timeline of all our social media post ideas, and what order we want them to go in. The very last post will be our music video. With these posts, we want to ensure that we fulfil the audiences need for entertainment, information, social interaction & personal identity (Blumler & Katz). This will make our page much more interesting and successful in attracting and maintaining an audience. We also want to positively represent our artists star image (Dyer). We will do this through interviews, fan interactions and charity events. These posts will help infer she is kind, caring and friendly which we help build her fandom (Jenkins). We also want to expand her audience, this will be done through collaborations with brands and magazines such as Elle and pandora. Our artist will also make a post about releasing her own merch, this will fulfil the audiences need for developing their personal identity and allow them to publicly express their love and support for our artist. The need for information will be filles through show dates, tour dates, links to buy merch or brand collaboration products and teasers. This is all done to build up for and create excitement/ anticipation surrounding the eventual album and music video release. Excitement will create a buzz and allow for word of mouth marketing to take place as friends discuss it and share it with each other.
This timeline has now helped us better understand the order of the posts and what the posts will be about. We have a structure to follow that can easily be referred back to if I need to be reminded. Having a visual layout will just be easier in terms of planning and creating these posts. We also know that the order and subject of the posts could possibly change depending on our research and what we find is conventional for indie artist social media pages. But having this initial base idea will help is so much with planning and building up our social media page around these main 12 posts. We want to signify (De Saussure) that our artist is worth being supported and is going to release a great album & music video, so the audience don’t want to miss out.
Digipak Draft 1
Below is our Digipak draft 1 (front & back pane) and self – evaluation.
Creating this first draft now provides us with a much better understanding of what we want our final product to look like. It has also given us a layout we like and fonts we like. The track list going around our artist on the back pane is something we want to keep for future drafts as it is interesting and fun. We like the placement of the album and artist name, along with the placement of the copyright and barcode. For our next draft we need to ensure we fill in the spine and change the colour, also we need to try populate the front pane much more. We really like the vibe and overall feel of the images (relaxed, confident and reflective).
Targets for Improvement
- Add album name onto spine
- Populate the front pane a little more – feels empty
- Change spine colour
After finishing our first draft we realised we did not add the album name onto the spine, or make it a better colour. The black feels muddy and does not go with our images. It would be better if it was a neutral beige, brown or Gray. Having the album name on the spine makes it easier to find when on a shelf or in a shop lined up to many other Cd’s. This is vital to ensure our CD is successful and stands out to consumers. Also, upon reflection we feel as the front cover image is empty. We will try to add some more text or aspects into the image to make it more appealing and engaging. Simple album covers are conventional of indie artists, but we want to challenge this in order to make our artist stand out and be the ‘same but different‘.
Conventions Checklist
Above is our skills checklist we filled out after finishing draft 1. Everything in the green are things we felt we have confidently done, orange is half way there and red is unsuccessful/ not included. Our spine is the biggest issue as we forgot to do it, however this can be an easy fix for draft 2. We need to change the colour and add the album name. We want to aim to try use some other fonts for our artist name, so she can have a signature font that she is known for. We have yet to do four panes as draft one consists of only the front and back pane. We want to make the images/ graphics more interesting and to signify (De Saussure) she is useful and well established in the music industry. A visual interesting cover will also help fulfil our audiences need for entertainment (Blumler & Katz). I feel as I have successfully made the cover and back pane representative of the indie genre – through neutral colours, her relaxed body language and minimal make up. The barcode and copyright have both been included on the back pane, they are what will make our CD more reflective of a real, professional made, one.
Skills Checklist
- removing objects from images
- Playing with fonts and font sizes
We watched some YouTube tutorials and learnt how to remove the remote seen in the background of the image on he left. We edited it out and it is now our cover image. It took some time to learn but was very worth it as the remote could create confusion and draw attention away from our star. We took our time to find a good bold font that encodes (Hall) confidence and sophistication. This is an unconventional feature we have used, as it not typically seen on indie album covers. This will enable us to stand out and be more unique.