For my digital artefact I wanted to use a range of sources to find content, this included Reddit, YouTube, other Instagram accounts, and news sources from around the world. However, when attempting to post content every day I struggled to find new, relevant information for each post.

My process of making content involved quite abet of research, about 30 minutes each night searching online for relevant news stories or information which fit with the content I wanted to show on the account. However, I often found that some news stories would dominate for a couple of days, making it hard for other more relevant information to come through, and leading to me not finding stories or information with enough substance to make a post about.

When I could not find something to post on a day, I tried to do something with the account, this could be like people who have commented on my posts, follow other technology accounts, or follow other users in the hope that they would follow back. I also did a number of Instagram stories where I asked a question of the audience, this content was a bit more mainstream as I wanted to get as many responses as possible, ultimately I didn’t receive large numbers of replies but it was still engagement.

Overall, I enjoyed making content for this account and I think I learnt more as I went along, however I realised how difficult it can be to find content, as well as make the audience interact with it.

I have been experimenting abit with my digital artefact in the past couple of weeks, trying different types of content and hashtags to see what engagement it receives, however the biggest experimentation was through the use of Fiverr services.

Through Fiverr I bought a service from a man located in Israel, in which he described an increase in followers and interaction on a business instagram account. Being unfamiliar with the site and its reliability I chose his cheapest option of $20, from this he requested my account details and took control over the account for six days.

In the following days I received constant notification on my phone of new followers, likes, and comments. As seen below (before on the left, after on the right) the increase in interaction on my account grew throughout the week, and left my account in a better position than what it was.

However what I continue to struggle with this semester is getting users to like my posts, the number of likes my content is receiving is significantly lower than those received on my content posted during the BCM112 course. Ive concluded that the major influencing factor in this is that Instagram had removed the number of likes seen on posts during mid year holidays, I say this because my posts this semester have been seen by the same amount of people, if not more, that those of last semester (last semester on left, this semester on right).

As you can see the number of likes are significantly down on last semester, I am yet to find a method that increases reach to like ration, this will be looked at further before the end of this semester.

Overall I am relatively happy with what I have produced so far, I think I am learning alot through studying the insights and numbers on my posts, aswell as the experimentation with Fiverr has opened up a new service that can help with my DA moving into the future, it is a slow build but I feel it is going in the right direction.

For a brief overview of what I am doing with my digital artifact, I decided to make an instagram page to look at future technologies, and how they will affect the ways in which we live. I would not only showcase small future technologies like phones, but also cars, homes, stadiums, etc. I decided to use instagram to share the content, and look at reddit pages, other instagram accounts, and news articles to find relevant content to share on my page.

I am pretty happy with the progress so far, however I have run into some issues along the way, one being that since instagram removed the number of like from posts I have notived a significant drop off in likes, however the same amount of people are seeing the content on their feed, if not more than last semester. However I am happier with the types of content I am posting, as it has covered a greater range of topics, whilst still focusing on the future living aspect.

I also used a service on Fiverr, which was to help grow my follower numbers and user interaction, and I am very happy with the results. I gained almost 50 followers in the week my account was taken over, and the interaction on my posts also increased. I think this was a good tool to play around with, as there was a range of services that could be more of an assistance for the future of my DA.

Overall I am happy with the progress of my DA, however I need to continue to experiment with different form of content, aswell as different hashtag groups to encourage user interaction.

Coming into BCM114 I didn’t realise that it would be much the same as BCM112 in the fact that the major focal point is a digital artefact. However when I heard this was the case I was very happy that I would be given the chance to improve and build upon what I had already done in BCM112.

I decided to continue on with my Instagram page ‘FutureTech5000’, where I attempted to show future technologies and how they will change the way we live moving into the future, covering small technologies like phones, to larger technologies like plains and houses.

Through these first couple of weeks I have done some research into how the platform (Instagram) works, reading articles and watching many YouTube videos in an attempt to figure out the best way to maximise engagement with users. I did this at the start of BCM112 as well but I didn’t execute them in the most effective ways, simply because I had no prior experience with how business accounts worked on Instagram.

The main things I have taken away from my research is to interact with users who are liking content similar to my own, follow them, like their comments, or reply to their comments to create an interaction and interest in with my own account. The second thing is to experiment with hashtags, I did a lot of this previously, but maybe not as effective as I could of done, I need to be using the hashtags with the most users interacting with, instead of trying to find niche hashtags. But the main point I am focusing on is posting more regularly, I failed to upload consistently during BCM112, not allowing for continuous interaction with users, and this is my main point I want to improve upon.

A few of the readings have been quite helpful when thinking of how I can improve on what I already have, one was the ‘Introduction to Design Thinking [Process Guide]’ which highlighted the importance of testing and why its good to receive feed back, something I probably didn’t do enough of during BCM112 was ask users how I can possibly improve their experience when viewing my content. Another was ‘Williams H (2019) How Often Should You Post on Social?’ which explained that posting everyday on Instagram can help grow follower numbers by 56%, fingers crossed this will happen to me.

I have also come up with some ideas on how to be more exposed to content myself, thus allowing me to curate content for my DA, one is following a bunch of technology accounts on my personal Instagram, another is being subscribed to tech channels on YouTube, as well continually searching on Reddit pages for content.

Over these first few weeks I have done a lot of research and think I am ready to post content back onto the FutureTech5000 account, engaging with users hopefully on daily posts, and continuing to experiment with methods of creating and sharing content to maximise my digital artefacts reach.