Social Media Campaign: Instagram

Posted on:  Aug 02, 2024

OVERVIEW

In this assignment, you will design and produce a social media campaign consisting of six Instagram graphic posts with a unifying graphic theme, style, and overarching message.

Each Instagram post will have a graphic, a caption, a campaign hashtag, and post-specific hashtags. Your campaign topic may be anything related to social media marketing trends, design, or UX (user experience).

INSTRUCTIONS

LEARN AND EXPLORE

STEP 1

• Review the sample submission to understand what you must do to complete this assignment.
• Review the Social Media Campaign Assessment Form to know how your work will be evaluated and how you will provide feedback to other students.

STEP 2

• Research social media marketing, specifically focusing on social media marketing trends, design, or UX.
• Please select a specific topic for your campaign and research it further.
• Consider an overall campaign idea that can be conveyed in a hashtag.

STEP 3

• Make some notes about the key points from your research.
• Gather images related to your campaign idea.

CREATE

STEP 1

Define your social media campaign topic, theme, and style. Include the following in your campaign description:

• Topic

  • The rationale for selecting this topic

  • Target audience. Tip: be very specific and go beyond demographics. Think about shared behavior, attitudes, and lifestyle.

  • Voice and tone. Tip: use plain English that is accessible and inclusive. Make sure to avoid buzzwords and jargon.

  • Unifying color palette. Tip: the Adobe Color Wheel may help select

  colors. Other unifying elements, such as font(s), are used in

  • Graphic style.

  • Campaign hashtag.

A hashtag is a pound sign (i.e., #) followed by a keyword or group of keywords with no spaces like this: #hashtag. On Instagram and other hashtag-friendly places around the web, the hashtag turns into a link so all the content tagged with the same hashtag can be connected. You can follow hashtags on Instagram to discover content related to your interests. Hashtags can also be used to group your content. If you’re embarking on a special campaign or project, you can use a unique hashtag to tie all your related posts together.

STEP 2

• Review the research you did and the images you collected. Design six social media posts that align with your campaign theme. Include the following items in your post: An image or collage of images with or without words for your post graphic. Text for your caption. Keep it short and eliminate any unnecessary words.
• Campaign hashtag. Tip: You may put this in the caption body or at the end. If you include the campaign hashtag in a list of hashtags, your campaign hashtag should be prominent, typically first or last.Other hashtags. Tips: The best hashtags are relatively short, easy to remember, specific, and relevant to your target audience. You can include up to 30 hashtags in a single post, but limit the number of hashtags you use because too many look spammy.

STEP 3

• Prepare one document in MS Word or Google Docs with the campaign theme and your six Instagram posts. Include the following:
  • Campaign theme and style;

    • Campaign topic

    • Campaign theme and style guidelines: target audience, voice and tone, color palette, fonts, other graphic elements

    • Campaign hashtag

  • For each of the six Instagram

  posts include the following:

  • • Title

      • Purpose of the post

      • Intended message

      • The graphic

      • Caption with hashtags and optional emojis

  • A list of sources you used for research. Include the author, title, date, publication or website, URL, and whatever else is needed to identify the source fully.
• Save your file as a PDF.

REVISE AND SUBMIT

POST YOUR WORK

• Share your updated Campaign on your course Instagram account

The Sample Assignment

Campaign theme and style

Topic: UX Visual Design Principles

Visual Design is crucial for engaging users on social media, especially on graphic-centric platforms like Instagram.

Target audience. 18-34 year olds with an interest in digital design.

Voice and tone: Professional, technically correct, and engaging. Stated in plain English so that it is accessible to someone with no formal training in the subject area.

Unifying elements:

Color palette: a limited color palette will be used for this campaign.

Font: Acier BAT Text Solid

Campaign hashtag: #UXdesign

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Instagram Post 1

Title: Radial Balance

Purpose of the design: This is an Instagram main feed post designed to demonstrate how Radial Balance can be used to make a design more interesting and engaging by indicating circular motion.

Intended message: Motion can be created with a “static” image.

Caption: This seems like it’s moving but it’s not. Static images don’t need to be over complicated or boring to have an impact. This image uses radial balance to organize the complexity of all the flowing lines. #radial-balance #UXdesign

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Instagram Post 2

Title: Figure-Ground

Purpose of the design: This Instagram main feed post demonstrates the Gestalt principle of Figure & Ground when the mind distinguishes an object from the surrounding area.

Intended message: You can exploit common figure-ground perception conventions to “confuse” the viewer and add interest, even when using simple objects like flat squares.

Caption: Look at this figure & ground illustration for a moment. What are the figures and what is the ground (surrounding area)? It may seem to change, with the smallest squares being the figures on the square fields, and then switch so that the larger squares with the squares inside become the figures. #gestalt #UXdesign

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Instagram Post 3

Title: Proximity

Purpose of the design: This is an Instagram main feed post demonstrating how Proximity can be used to encourage the viewer to group similar objects together and incentivize them to engage further.

Intended message: Proximity can be used to simplify information by grouping objects together. We don’t really think about this process unless we are specifically prompted to engage. In this

Caption: How many objects are in this photo? Because of the Law of Proximity, we first perceive this image as two objects: a single silver ball getting ready to hit an object composed of four identical silver balls. Because of the question, TWO OR FIVE? you were prompted to also think about the five identical silver balls. Grouping things like this helps us simplify our world and remove unnecessary complexity. #gestalt #RCSCdesign

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Sources:

Caleb Kingston, Key Principles of Visual Hierarchy in UX Design, Mar 17, 2020, https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/process/information-architecture/visual-hierarchy-principles-examples/

Cameron Chapman, Exploring the Gestalt Principles of Design, https://www.toptal.com/designers/ui/gestalt-principles-of-design

Interaction Design Foundation, Gestalt Principles: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/gestalt-principles

Nielsen Norman Group, 5 Principles of Visual Design in UX, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/principles-visual-design/

Orbit Media Studios, 27 Research-Backed Web Design Tips: How to Design a Website That Works, https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/web-design-tips/

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Source: Kennedy, K. (n.d.) from https://edex.adobe.com/teaching-resources/assignment-social-media-campaign