What do these colours remind you of?
Social media is more than just sharing your amazing looking meal, taking a cute selfie, photographing your holiday view, or showcasing your fitness journey. Social media is about connecting to people, forming networks and relationship, communication and presenting a sense of self, it’s a tool for establishing self-expression and identity. Instagram is by far my favourite social media platform, there is nothing I like more than taking a boastful photo of my over-the-top pancakes and sharing it on the gram, to let all my followers know that I’m eating over the top pancakes. However, when I’m not making my followers jealous with my yummy food stories, I’m usually on Instagram presenting and advertising my digital artwork illustrations, photography, and poetry:
“As an image and location sharing platform, Instagram offers intimate visual access to events, experiences and situations in a manner that is mobile and contextual… Instagram posting practices offer a base layer of information about disparate prosocial action taking place in an urban context. We see this as informing and sustaining a new hybrid mode of promotional and humanitarian communication, evidencing social good ‘place making’ and enabling new forms of visible humanitarian participation”.
Instagram is my tool to success. Being able to publish my work and content has showcased to many viewers and by doing so it’s given me the ability to create an identity for my digital creation. I would say that my online social media presence is authentic, and that it showcases me as an Artist, my mediums being digital illustrations and photography. I have curated my social media profile to present a sense of professionalism. The content on my Instagram page is very well thought out before its published.
As you can see, there is a certain structure to how the feed is formatted. Photography on the left-hand side, digital illustration artworks in the centre, and my poetry on the right-hand side. I like to think of myself as a well-presented young woman, therefore I want my social media to reflect myself.
Because I am essentially presenting my Instagram page as a business, my intended audience would be everyone who comes across my page. My overall social media objective is to market my small ‘Design’ business, but also be able to share my lifestyle as well.
Instagram is the second most popular social media platform in the world, just under Facebook.
“The world’s most popular photo-sharing app comes in at number 5 with a total of 1.22 billion global active users…One of Instagram’s most enduring contributions to the world of digital marketing”.
Regarding accessibility, I believe that my social media presence/profile is very accessible. I am a public account, therefore anyone who comes across my profile has the ability view my content and see what I share. Social security is a very important factor I always consider when it comes to social media. Like on all social media platforms, it’s always important to make sure you are safely conducting what is published on your profile, and what you may comment on posts from other people. Instagram is a fantastic platform, where I feel like I am in control of what content I want to view.
Lastly, I have been using Instagram ever since its establishment. I’ve grown up using the platform since I was old enough to make an account. Instagram has allowed me to establish a sense of self via social media, and now I have been able to utilise it as a tool to not only share my lifestyle, but it has also given me the opportunity to advance my creativity into a small design business. Both lifestyle and artistically it has helped establish my sense of self and what I enjoy viewing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dreamgrow. 2021. The 15 Biggest Social Media Sites and Apps [2021]. [online] Available at: <https://www.dreamgrow.com/top-15-most-popular-social-networking-sites/> [Accessed 27 August 2021]. – “The world’s most popular photo-sharing app comes in at number 5 with a total of 1.22 billion global active users…One of Instagram’s most enduring contributions to the world of digital marketing”.
Tandfonline.com. 2021. Social media for social good? A thematic, spatial and visual analysis of humanitarian action on Instagram: Information, Communication & Society: Vol 0, No 0. [online] Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ref/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1748089?scroll=top> [Accessed 21 August 2021]. – “As an image and location sharing platform, Instagram offers intimate visual access to events, experiences and situations in a manner that is mobile and contextual… Instagram posting practices offer a base layer of information about disparate prosocial action taking place in an urban context. We see this as informing and sustaining a new hybrid mode of promotional and humanitarian communication, evidencing social good ‘place making’ and enabling new forms of visible humanitarian participation”.
Dana Cetojevic 
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