Week 11: Making media – Video 

 

1. How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

As with all of my other posts, I use my Iphone 6 camera, but because I wanted to record a tutorial and wanted to see myself while I was doing it, I lean the phone on a high surface and use the front camera. Just like I did last week, I filmed the video in my bathroom so I could see what I was doing in the mirror and also to have good lightning. I only did one shot because I knew I could cut the parts I didn’t want to. 

I recreate the same idea I did before because I realized that last week’s video did really well on Instagram. Beauty tutorials are huge in social media applications because people feel comfortable with the format this type of content offers, and creators don’t have to worry about coming out with new ideas everyday to be successful. Tama Leaver et al. argues that this phenomenon exist thanks to “the metrics and algorithms driving Instagram today” (2020, p.150).

In regards to the editing, I had the intention of doing all the authoring process with the Iphone camera application, but I later realized the constraints it had. The only thing that it let me do was trim the video at the beginning and the end. Since I wanted to replicate the video from last week, I decided to look for an external application. With the first want I didn’t have much luck, but I ended up finding “Magisto”, from the video sharing platform Vimeo. Even though I had to subscribe for a free trial, the app was really easy to use. 

The editing process was divided in two steps. In the first one, I chose a style for the video, which included animated transitions, put a title and picked the music, a very pop and light hearted song. For the second part, I was able to trim the video and erase some parts I didn’t like. Even though it was a very complete process, it didn’t have filters to put on the video, but I didn’t really mind because I thought it was already too much, I even forgot to apply any other feature on the Instagram app, like choosing a “cover”.

 

2. How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

As I mentioned before, I only record one video because I knew I could edit and trim the parts I didn’t like. I knew that doing a tutorial video was something easy to do and went in the same line as the type of content I was trying to show in my account, relatable and with a casual look. Leaver describes it as when the consumption feels like  “almost getting access to a hidden camera in someone’s life” (Leaver 2020, p.153). 

I wrote the caption with the same approach the author mentioned, friendly and short: “The travel size @poloralphlauren perfumes are really easy to carry around. The perfect combination between design and beauty”. I also add several hashtags that were related with the beauty community and the products I show,  #makeuptutorial #skincare #perfume #ralphlauren #melbourne #australia #makeup #polo1 #polo3; and put my location “Melbourne, Victoria, Australia”, broad enough to gain more reach. 

One constraint notice in this process, and that I also noticed last week, is that, even though the editing app let me share the video directly to Instagram, without having to close it, it didn’t allow me to upload the video simultaneously into other social media platforms, like Twitter and Tumblr. I had to finish the posting process on Instagram and then share it to my other social media. This shows that, although I worked with networked platforms, the software, on both apps, has its limitations and its perfectible. 

 

3. How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

Post Insights video, 24 May 2020, 17:44

The video was distributed on Instagram and, after it was posted, to Twitter and Tumblr. I used nine hashtags that were related to the beauty world, my location and the product itself: #makeuptutorial #skincare #perfume #ralphlauren #melbourne #australia #makeup #polo1 #polo3. I did it because I realized that last week, the video got a really great response in terms of interactions. In addition to that, I also put the same geotag I have used the last few weeks: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 

Once again, I notice that it is on Instagram where I have the biggest reach, and thanks to the “analytics” feature, only available for business profiles, I’m able to see which distributing elements are working and which are not. Up to this date, the video has 41 reproductions and seven likes. It has reached 73 accounts and 38 of the impressions come from the hashtags I used. However, the other two platforms where the video was shared didn’t have the same reactions. 

Clearly, the algorithms of Twitter and Tumblr don’t work in the same way. The first one, focuses more on the text, and popular posts are the ones that refer to one of the trending topics of the day and use a specific hashtag to immerse in the discussion. Tumblr, on the other hand, it’s similar to Instagram, but has a more adolescent angst vibe and its users centre more on sharing posts that are already on the internet, rather than creating their own content.

How the post looks on Twitter.
How the post looks on Tumblr.

References

– Leaver, T, Highfield, T, Abidin, C, YP 2020, ‘From the Instagram of Everything to Everything of Instagram’, in Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures. Digital Media and Society, Cambridge, United Kingdom, pp. 191-217. 

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