Description of Project:
In this project, I created an online niche page about 3D printing on Instagram. I made a new Instagram account, gathered and credited content from all over the Instagram, and posted content consistently for months on a bi-daily basis. A theme page is an Instagram page about a certain niche with its content being re-posted content from other sources in that niche.
Purpose of Project:
The purpose of this project was to grow an online connection to an engineering market. I had just started another Instagram account about my engineering projects and I obviously wanted to grow its following. The way I thought of doing that was through an Instagram theme page. For years, I have been consuming YouTube content on digital marketing (including a lot of Instagram). This is partly the reason why I leaned in that direction. What’s unfortunate is that I got the page to 1,000 followers in a little over a week until the account got banned from Instagram. It was completely out of the blue. I had strictly followed Instagram guidelines, no bought followers, no fake accounts, etc. I started doing research on getting my account back and why Instagram may had banned me. I learned that Instagram sometimes makes mistakes in who they choose to ban from their platform. Although it was unfortunate, I learned skills and information that I can translate to my next Instagram account building endeavors.
Challenges:
The main challenges with this project were analyzing what content performs the best and consistently posting twice a day. There are so many factors that determine if a post goes viral or not, its a ton to keep track of. Maximizing post engagement is ultimately what “going viral” means. But, as I said, there are likes, shares, saves, comments, time of posting, so many ways of measuring the performance of a post. But after posting twice a day for weeks at a time, you see certain posts performing better than others and its common for it to be contrary to your predictions.
My process:
In order to tell whether a post will perform well or not I looked at how many likes a post would get and at what time it was posted. I would then look to see the competition with the post (in other words, what other accounts are reposting). And over time, I have developed a feel for what posts go viral and not. The issue with posting consistently and frequently just means to make a habit out of it. A concrete example of this is that I would post when I woke up and when I would eat lunch. This is an example of a habit established by connecting the action to pre-existing habits or routines.
