Critical Reflection Essay
Category: Component 3
Social Media Page Draft 3
Introduction
In this task, we will be creating our final posts for our social media page. We will also receive feedback from our teacher, which clearly identifies areas that need to be improved, and ways we can develop our page further. Using this feedback allows us to refine our content so that it will meet both industry conventions and assessment criteria. We are able to see what changes are necessary and how to implement them effectively, as a result, we can confidently plan and produce the last few final posts.
Skills
- I have learnt to use canva in a really cool way, by adding new fonts and blending in photos
- I also used the blurring tool on photoshop a lot throught out this
- I also used features on canva to make the posters
For example I used canva and photoshop for this simple poster
I created this poster on canva which I need to post on the instagram page
Feedback:
- Guerrilla marketing.
- Cross – media conversion.
- Traditional advising.
- More authentic posts i.g. BTS.
- Releases digipack.
- Releases Music video.
- Merch
- We need to create merch, that is attractive but still unique for our fans, it also needs to show both genres.
Reflection:
Our teacher provided detailed feedback on our social medua page, which allowed us to identify the specific improvements to make before producing the final draft. One key area for development was the inclusion of more traditional marketing content, such as images of our star on nights our or during recent trips. This type of content helps to humanise the artist allows the audience to connect with her on a more personal level. We are no able to clearly understand how to improve this and plan our next photoshoot more effectively. This ensures that the content we produce is both engaging and conventional, while still representing the artist’s brand and star persona.
BUZZ feedback
Introduction
In lesson, we had people from Buzz come in and talk to us about marketing, and social media. We showed them our social media page for our artist, and they gave us feedback on what we should include or do to make it look more better, and also become more engaging for our audience. We showed them draft 2 of our social media page, which has Ads, collaborations, and music information. Buzz creaative studios is a well known marketing and design agency which is based on the island, they offer many services such as digital marketing, social media marketing, website design, graphic design, and content creation.
The feedback
- make more personal posts to make social media page feel more genuine
- good vanity of posts
- need more adverts
- Shows the genre well
Reflection
Getting feedback from Buzz is extremely helpful, as they are known for their marketing and social media skills, so gaining this feedback and ideas, we will be able to create more posts and make them a porfessional standard. They told us to make our feed more personal, so we will definitely be doing that as it gives character to our artist, and also a sense of interest for our audience.
Focus Foward
After taking this feedback, we will be able to use to improve our social media page, by making it more conventional. As we need to add more personal posts and make it flow more to our aesthetic.
Social media page draft 2
Introduction
For our second draft of the social media page, we focused on putting up the main instagram posts, that give a summary of our stars lifestyle and music life. We have put a lot of music related posts up, which is good for the brand image, and shows what genre we portray our star as this also makes it more conventional for our audience. We also got feedback from the Buzz marketing team, they told us what they like about our page and what we can do to make it better. We will be able to know what other posts that need to be made, and how we can make this page better, and more engaging for our target audiences.
Feedback from Mrs Cobb
We sent our teacher, Mrs Cobb our second draft of our social media page, and she gave us feedback on our posts, and layout of what we had previously done. Getting feedback from our teacher is helpful as it gives us a push to post and create more posts for our target audience, where we also portray our star’s identity and genre.
Her feedback
What was good?
- Good tour posters
- Synergy? for a guerilla marketing campaign, with a what is in my bag
- Good teasers
- Good brand deals
- Lots of teasers
- Behind the scenes.
What we should add?
- more behind the scenes
- More authentic posts
- maybe a billboard post
- add on music video
Reflection
After taking this feedback, I am going to make my new posts conventional, and creating more interactive posts for the audience to ask questions. I will also make a few more personal posts as a it shows her lifestyle, and also gives our star artist character, and a real personality for the fans to relate too.
Focus forward
For our next few posts, we will be making a tour poster for our album, an album release, and a couple more authentic posts. This allows us to present our artist as relatable, and shows the genre throughout. I will be taking her feedback and using it to make our social media page more interactive, and add more to the captions, also saying we have teasers. I will also add Guerilla marketing as this creates synergy, which makes the fans mire involved with the fanbase and the release of songs.
Social Media Page Draft 1
Introduction
In this task, we are creating a social media page that clearly communicates our artist’s genre and star persona to the target audience. The page will be used as a platform for audience engagement, allowing the star to interact directly with fans through features such as replying to comments, and sharing interactive content, this helps build a strong relationship with the fans. Our social media page will include posts featuring brands/brand collaborations that align with the artist’s image and appeal to the target audience. Additionally, we will post content allowing audiences to interact, the audience will also expect posts that are apart of the brand image and aesthetic. For example, tour posters, promotional material and personal life style content, including holiday photos. These posts help tp humanise the star while maintaining a recognisable brand identity.
Self assessment
Self assessments are important, as we are able to analyse our own work from a different perspective, this allows us to go over what we have done and then see we have got everything we need.
- Another shoot for brand deals/magazine etc
- make some posters for tours
- We also need to make a bio
- add some stories
- canva was one of my main apps i used to create posts and edit pictures
- I made the Jimmy Choo ad on this add and it worked well as I used the background remover and found the exact font the brand uses
- I also used photoshop to edit images, for the contrast exposure and colouring
Reflection
After evaluating my current draft of my social media page, I wanted to see how much further I can develop my page to meet professional and industry standards. I used a convention checklist to systematically assess the effectiveness of my page, focusing particularly on the areas highlighted in orange and red. This allowed me to identify specific weaknesses and produce a clear, structured plan for improvement. One area for for development is the instagram stories, which are an important tool for maintaining regular audience engagement. To address this, I’ve decided to introduce interactive content such as Q&A’s, which will encourage direct communication between the artist and the audience. This not only increases engagement but also supports Blumler and Katz uses and gratifications theory, as it provides social interaction and personal connection. I was also able to identify the lack of visual consistency across the page, where I will be able to improve this, after we get the rest of our photoshoots for the brand deals, and collaborations done. I will be using apps like Photoshop, InDesign and Canva to make these posts, I will also try to develop a consistent style, hoping ut can strengthen the artist’s brand idenity, making the page more recognisable and appealing to the target audience.
Focus forward
from this task, I used the convention checklist, and I was able to identify the key features required to make my page more conventional and aligned with the industry standards. This has helped me understand which technical conventions I need to develop further, such as consistent branding, captions, hashtags and also audience engagement. As a result, I can apply this feedback to improve my next draft and ensure my social media page effectively appeals to my target audience. Overall, this evaluation has helped me to make creative decsisions that will significantly improve the effectiveness and professionalism of my social media page.
Timeline and Marketing ideas
Introduction
In this lesson, we created a timeline on canva to show what we could post in order to make sure our audiences can be engaged and interested in our stars career. It also gives us ideas of what social media posts we can create over the time and when we would post these, as we would want to curate them in an ideal way. Having a timeline also helps when we want to know when we need to do extra shoots for different posts, such as brand deals or teasers.
Reflection
The timeline will direct us on what we can post and when we would be able to do so, which will keep our social media page organised and in the correct order, so that our audience will know what is coming, as well as making sense to them. We have used Pinterest a lot to get inspiration on what we could post for our social media page, for example we can post teasers, and do small marketing campaigns, and promotions. This will help us identify our personal identity and genre through our posts. We also need to make sure that our social media page has AIDA, allowing our target audience to interact with what we post. We looked at different viral videos that were entertaining to our audience that had lots of social interaction, we also looked at celebs instagrams to see how they organised and put out their posts. So that we can make ours the best as possible.
Focus Forward
By understanding what our target audience likes and dislikes, we will be able to post and know what to present to them by making sure it is something they would like and interact with. We will be able to keep organised as we will know what we would need to do for each shoot and where they would be. Allowing us to keep our audiences connected to the anticipation of the album drop.
Social Media Page Terminology
Introduction
In this lesson, I analysed a social media page from Tate McRae, who is similar to the artist I am using for my own music video. The purpose of this task was to identify and label key technical conventions of a social media page, such as hashtags, likes, followers, comments, captions and branding. I then explained what each convention is and how it contributes to creating an effective and professional social media presence. This analysis will support the planning and designing of my own social media page, by demonstrating what is required to meet industry conventions and audience expectations.
Reflection
The social media page I analysed was Tate McRaes, because she is a similar artist to mine in terms of genre, style, aesthetic, and target audience. After identifying and labelling the technical conventions on her page, I analysed the purpose of each feature and how it appeals to her audience. For example, Tate McRae uses hashtags, and captions to promote her music while also reinforcing her brand identity and emotional themes, which helps her audience relate to her on a personal level. The high levels of likes and comment on her post also show a strong audience engagement and demonstrate how she maintains an active relationship with her fans.
I also analysed the marketing campaigns, promotions and brand collaborations featured on her profile, such as the promotion of new singles, albums and tours. This has helped me understand how artists within this genre use social media as a marketing tool to create hype and anticipation around her releases. I also explored how her instagram applies to the AIDA model, as her visually appealing images and videos attract attention, and her captions maintain interest.
Focus forward
This task will be useful when creating my own social media page, as it clearly shows which technical conventions I need to include to make my page look professional and industry standard. It has also given me inspiration on what type of brands i would want to include and also what types of posts, promotions, and campaigns that artists with a similar genre use. This will help me make my own marketing strategies. Furthermore, this research has shown me how to apply Uses and Gratifications Theory to my page in order to engage my target audience effectively and improve the overall success of my social media presence.
Audience interaction with a social media page – an analysis
Introduction
In this lesson, we explored how and why audiences interact with an artist’s social media page, where the aim was to understand what attracts and maintains audience engagement and how social media is used to promote and artist’s brand, music, and identity. By analysing layout, content and interaction. We identified the key elements needed to create a successful and engaging social media profile for our own artist. This includes both technical conventions and the more strategic use of content to build a strong connection with the audience.
Reflection
Through this task, we developed a deeper understanding of what our demographic target audience would find engaging, and how artist’s can use social media to express their personal identity. We also analysed specific features like the type of posts shared, how much the artist posts and the way they interact with their fans through comments and story features.
We also looked at how advertising and promotional strategies are used, for example brand collaborations, sponsored posts and music release campaigns. We then evaluated which types received the most positive audience responses. This helps guide us through deciding what kind of content we would be posting, also what would look good for our own page. We will also use technical conventions like likes, followers, and engagement rate, which can give us clear indicators of audience interest and interaction. We also identified examples of viral marketing or guerrilla marketing tactics.
The analysis also allowed us to apply the Uses and Gratifications theory, in what the audience would be looking for:
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Personal identity
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Entertainment
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Social interaction
This helped us understand which gratification our own artist should focus on most when building their social media presence.
Focus Forward
This analysis will directly inform the way we design our own social media page. By understanding what type of content our target audience responds to, we can tailor our strategy to maximise engagement. We now know how important it is to reflect the artist’s genre and personality consistently through visuals, captions, and tone of voice. It has also helped us consider what types of brands or sponsorships would align with our artist’s image, as well as the kinds of photos, videos, and stories we need to create in order to build a cohesive and professional profile. Finally, analysing the structure and layout of the page gave us practical inspiration for organising about the mix of content, the aesthetic, and the balance between promotion and personal posts to strengthen audience connection and maintain interest.
Digipak draft 3
Introduction:
In this draft, we will be analysing the feedback provided by our teacher and using it to refine and improve our digipak, in preparation for the final product. Following these improvements, we will assess whether our digipak effectively represents its intended genre by gathering audience feedback from our class mates. This will be recorded using a tally chart, allowing us to evaluate how successful our product will communicate the genre to the audience. This is also our final draft for our digipak so what we have completed is what will be shown to our peers for an audience review.n
This is the Digipak in the plastic cover.
After finishing our digipak we printed out the pages and put it in a case, then we asked our peers if they could evaluate it and also put it into a genre category for feedback. This worked well as we were able to see what they though of our album cover as well as what kind of genre we have used.
Our audience feedback
This is the result of what our peers thought of, The most popular choices was R&B and Pop which was perfect as that is exactly what our genres were. This was great for feedback as we were able to see how our digipak conventions represented to them.
Online/Digital version
How I made this…
For the front cover I was able to make the the image blurred, with a spherical blur and made sure that the centre of the sphere was placed on her eyes, where it wasn’t blurred. This made her eyes become the centre of attention as it was the clearest part of the whole front cover. I also added glitch effects to the tv by using the AI generator on photoshop, and it worked out perfectly with the outcome of the digipak, as this represents the heartbreak in the album. For the font, I made a metallic silver effect on Indesign which also corresponds with the theme of my digipak, as it works with both genres and the colour scheme. As for the inside of the digipak, I used a photo we liked from our photoshoot, which also is posted on our social media page, and we did this for guerilla marketing as on our post we are talking about a “what is in my bag”. This whole photo links to our music video as well as some of the stuff is in that video, so we kind of did a play on words with that photo.
Reflection:
At this stage, we have improved our digipak based on the feedback from draft 2. This feedback was extremely useful in highlighting specific changes needed to ensure our digipak follows industry conventions. As I added a whole new design and also including the key features, such as; spine, barcode, and the copyright information. This enabled our product to be recognisable as a conventional digipak.
To further assess whether our digipak clearly communicates its genre, we were also able to get audience feedback, and they were able to identify the genre associated with the product. The results were extremely successful, confirming that we have effectively conveyed the intended genre throughout the digipak.
Digipak Draft 2
Introduction
In this, we will be reviewing the feedback received on our second draft our Digipak. This feedback is essential, as it allows us to identify areas for improvement and make any necessary changes suggested by our teacher in order to develop a more effective final product. Additionally, we will be completing a conventions checklist to assess how successful our digipak will follow the industry conventions. This process will help us identify any remaining elements that need improvement, so it will appeal to our target audience and encourage engagement with the product.
The Feedback
Teachers feedback:
- The name
- Needs a spine, barcode, and copyright
- Too many tracks
- Salome or Salome Deroses? which one?
- The background is dull
- The star should be looking at camera
- Brighten colours or add a brighter light to it
Whats new:
- Added more tvs + stacked tvs with the glitch affect
- Added the middle section
Whats next:
- Add barcode
- Add copyright
- Change image
- Change font
- Add spines
- I need to add the spines onto the back cover, to finish the plan for the digipak, this is important as it makes the digipak conventional.
- I also have to add the rest of what is on the checklist, such as barcode, and copyright label
- We have also incorparated fonts that match our genres as this is important because it makes our digipak more attractive and interesting, By keeping Salome’s name in a cursive font throughout our whole project this can be shown as her “trademark” or “brand”. This is important as the audience will be able to identify that it is her.
Reflection:
We have managed to analyse a recorded feedback from our teacher, which will be used to further improve our digipak. As this feedback is valuable in helping us strengthen our artist’s brand identity. For example our teacher had suggested that the star image should be looking at the camera as it would be more effective and if the televisions could be placed a little more differently. As the current pose may convey lack of engagement and enthusiasm, which would not be the intended representation.
We are also reviewing our font choice, as it does not fully communicate the genre of the music. Through the use of media language, we have aimed to clearly signify our genre to the audience; for instance, the bright colours on the televisions reflect the pop conventions, while the darker clothing represents the R&B conventions. The overall colour palette reinforces these genres, as the music that would be produced within, is almost heartbreak and self worth type of songs, which is common in the R&B genre. This put together helps our audience locate what kind of music and message we are trying to represent. Additionally, we have incorporated photo manipulation and graphic techniques, such as cutting our televisions from separate photos we originally took, and adding in a glitch effect. This creates a distorted and “broken” visual effect that enhances the aesthetic of the digipak.
Focus Forward:
We will be using the feedback to improve our digipak, and also make changes which would be necessary to be able to create a more eye catching digipak. I will also include the missing features that are needed in our next draft.