Social Media
Creating the artist's social media profile was a task that we decided I should do for two reasons:
1, I live and breathe graphic designing.
2, I'm more well versed with social media and digital marketing than Tashfa is (maybe being a business student isn't all that bad.
58, Planning the Social Media Profile
Creating the social media profile for mrs. midas was an essential part of ensuring audience engagement. In one of our initial meetings, Tashfa and I had already decided that we wanted to use Instagram as our medium to make the social media profile because it was easy to use, provided us with multiple tools within one app (such as posting an image, video, or story) and the most common platform used by artists. We wanted to have a good visual outlet so people could see snippets of our video, stills, and graphically designed posters.
According to the responses on our initial research survey, 69 out of 79 people used Instagram as a platform to keep up with their favourite artists.
However, reading the form responses gave me an epiphany of sorts. I realized that a lot of people also use YouTube, and I considered posting our music video on a Youtube channel because that is what record labels and artists typically tend to do. This usually happens because of monetization reasons and to retain the quality of the video. Therefore, I decided that our main social media profile will be based on Instagram, and as a minor edition, we will create a website where people can buy the album and merch, browse through tour dates, and view the music video through a linked Youtube channel (I know this sounds quite elaborate, but it will all make sense soon).
To take some references, I searched up the accounts of Claire Cottrill (Clairo), Cigarettes After Sex, and Arctic Monkeys, who all had either a linktree or website linked in their Instagram bios.
Here is the rough plan I created for what I wanted the feed to look like.
I came up with the idea of having a virtual concert to maximize engagement even during a global pandemic and searched up tour locations in the USA using seatgeek.com that were known for hosting indie/alt concerts. I chose 4 locations in the USA and 4 in Pakistan. I had also began thinking of merch that was trendy enough for people to like and want to buy, and also have it be useful.
59, Creating the Social Media Profile
(and forgetting the password)
I didn't anticipate how much work would actually go into making the social media profile. In-fact, it was harder for me to make the social media profile than the actual video, possibly because I am a maniac when it comes to graphic designing and believe that all alignments should be perfect even if I have to create 18239893874 drafts.
The first step was creating the accounts and linking them all together. As mentioned before, my main social media account was based on Instagram, with a website link in the page bio to connect audiences to the merch store, tour tickets, and YouTube Channel.
I faced my first and biggest struggle instantly - the username mrs.midas was taken :(
However, I went ahead and added an underscore to each side which fixed the problem.
Creating the YouTube channel and Wix website was easier because I could link them to my existing personal accounts.
1, Instagram and the Posts (primary)
I opted to create all our posts on Canva and Adobe Phototshop along with the video teasers on FIlmora.
Here is the timeline for our first teaser:
This is what it ended up looking like:
Here are time-lapses of me designing our first post and the last post. I ensured to keep all text in lowercase letters and match the colours and font of the digipack to maintain consistency.
Here is a time-lapse of me designing the merch which was done on photoshop so I could work with more advanced settings and make clear background PNG's. I ended up making a journal, sweaters, polaroids, and totebags.
Here are the final feed posts:
I showed some snippets to Tashfa and here are her thoughts:
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Yet another "Slay"
A "Slay"
No reply and no "Slay" :(
I designed a story template for an idea that Tashfa pitched, which was to post a booklist of literature that inspired the album to add to our intertextual vibe.
2, Website (secondary)
I designed the website on Wix. Here is what the preview looked like:
3, YouTube Channel (secondary)
Here is a preview of the YouTube channel:
60, The Final Outlook
Creating the social media profile turned out to be more enjoyable than I had anticipa because I could see people actively engage with the posts and I got to play around with a lot of different designs which gave me a nice creative outlet.
This is the link to the final account I ended up creating:
https://www.instagram.com/_mrs.midas_/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
This is the link to the website which is also linked in our Instagram bio:
https://eshad1744.wixsite.com/mrs-midas
Here is what the Instagram feed turned out to look like:
Here are screenshots of what the Instagram feed ended up looking like on a smartphone:
The page was able to get a nice number of following with around 35-50 likes on each post. The tour dates posts couldn't get as many because I posted them towards the end of April, and quite a lot of people had exams and therefore, were avoiding social media. The teaser got almost 600 views and reached 468 different people:
The YouTube channel linked to the website in the page bio was also able to get substantial views:
Here is the outlook of the website:
We also received many positive comments from our friends. As I predicted, people ended up loving the merch, especially the tote bags:
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