Purpose and Objectives
As a communications and marketing student, I want to gain the most skills so that I can feel confident when applying to jobs and internships One of those skills I want to learn is social media. My social media averyyreads is an account where I read books and share my reviews, as well as post lifestyle content. The main goal of the averyyreads brand was to build a social media presence that demonstrates my skills, creativity, and ability to drive engagement and conversions. This can serve as an asset for securing future roles in social media marketing.
Some of the skills I wanted to learn and focus on were creating engaging content, curating photos on feed, using data to improve bran strategies, building a community on instagram, and planning content effectively.
The Project
Running social media helped me learn multiple skills. Video editing, content planning, photography, analytics, etc. I wanted to stay organized and have different tasks for each week.
Week 1-3 Develop a content calendar and start posting consistently
Week 3-5 Focus on engagement strategies and growing follower count
Week 5-8 Track analytics and review the account’s growth data
Week 9-12 Compile the portfolio of successful strategies and finalize the project
My main tasks included:
- Editing Instagram reels
- Hosting Q&A’s
- Posting feed posts on platforms like Instagram, and TikTok
- Engaging with followers by responding to comments on reels and posts
The Content
Challenges
When it comes to social media challenges are inevitable. I would say the main challenge I had was coming up with enough content to post regularly. Especially because my page was surrounding books, it was hard for me to find content if I wasn’t reading fast enough. Creating a content calendar helped me with this issue and gave me some peace of mind knowing I had a bank of ideas if I needed help. Another thing you might not anticipate when creating content is how time consuming it is. You see videos and posts on social media that are seamless and might think they are easy but most of the time they are not. People who are putting out good content are ones that are paying attention to details, and fine-tuning their work.
Analytics
Here are my numbers from the Instagram dashboard from the last 90 days.
Takeaways
One thing I learned quickly is that you need to follow other accounts similar to yours because it helps when you are sharing each other’s posts. Instagram and TikTok like when you are active, so making sure to stay active right away when you make your account will help you a lot.
- Have a brand strategy (what are you wanting your audience to do?)
- See what is working for others/ what they are doing
- Find similar accounts and follow
- Engage with other people
- Make your content relatable and engaging
Conclusion
If I can takeaway anything from this project it’s how important it is to get hands on experience outside of what your classes require. I have met some amazing people running this account, and it even ended up getting me a social media internship!