Assignment 3 – Report
Name: Wong Wing Nam s3827326
I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration
Weekly Blog Entry:
Week 9 – Instagram photo
Week 9 – Instagram video
Week 10 – Instagram photo
Week 10 – Instagram video
Week 11 – Instagram photo
Week 11 – Instagram video
Instagram account: @easycook425
How do the affordances of Instagram affect the way photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network?
Everyone can be a Social Influencer
Introduction
In the age of the camera phone, everyone could be a photographer to author, publish and distribute photos (Kuc and Zylinska, 2016, p.7) to social media platforms, such as Instagram. The users perceived the affordances of it, that they could understand how to make use of it while they are interacting with it (Norman, 2008, para 6.). With the integration on understanding its affordances and its constraints, it allows users to utilise Instagram for a different purpose while they are authoring, publishing and distributing the posts. The affordances of Instagram are anything that could be happened within the network, everyone is mutually influencing once they are a user of Instagram. According to social learning theory, people learn behaviour by looking at what a majority of people do (Tench, R., and Yeomans, L. 2017, p.155) which means when the account has more followers, people would likely to perceive or imitate its style.
Therefore, the report looks into the way that social influencers author, publish and distribute photos and videos, given that nano-influencers(~1000 followers)(Influencer MarketingHub, 2019, p.6) and micro-influencers (<3000 followers)(Francisgroeneveld, 2019) as the main focus, with the support of real-life examples. Then extend to the affordances which affect the way other users author, publish and distribute the post.
Defining what is ‘social influencer’ (Evidence)
‘Social influencer’ as people who set their account as public and who has access to a large audience and can persuade others by virtue of their authenticity and reach.’ (Pixlee, 2019)
According to Manovich argued both ‘designed’ and ‘professional’ photo typed (definition mentioned in Week10 photo blog) is an example of ‘competitive photo’, that the authors would compete with for followers as they all aim for aesthetic photos (2016, part 1, p.14). However, nowadays ‘causal’ photo authors are also competitive who its content is more important to their users rather than following the rules to compose a good photo (2016, part 2, p.16).
Despite, the term ‘causal’ photos are contrasting with ‘designed’ photos and unaware to the composition, some authors of ‘casual’ photos follow another rule regarding the vernacular photography, such as:
- Individuals or groups of people appear in the centre of an image;
- Landscape photographs to have a horizontal horizon line;
- Food should be photographed from an angle etc. (Manovich, 2016, part 1, p.16)
Indeed, Manovich discovered there is a majority of galleries are visually unsophisticated photos, with the awareness of colours and compositions (2016, part 1, p.16).
Thus, the social influencers (nano and micro-influencers) are composing their posts in such ways to develop their personal profile on Instagram – the affordance. Although it maybe ‘casual’ however it’s visually aesthetic. Additionally, to have more than 1000 followers to lead the account engaging and influential where research finds the engagement rate with approximately 1000 followers is 8% (Influencer MarketingHub, 2019, p.6).
Evaluation
Reaching 1000 followers depends on time and whether it’s private or public. Taking myself as an example, I open an Instagram account since 2012 which is private having 748 followers. So, if an account set as public, comparatively it is easier to reach 1000 followers’.
Example of 1k Instagram Account: @summeryaya_
Despite, Summer was not as famous as Agnes Wong who I mentioned in my Week7 blog, however, her Instagram was visually artistic. With more than 1000 followers as a ‘nano-influencers’, she told me that most of her followers are her friends, some are photographers, she perseveres to edit every photo aesthetically to show her personality – elegant and beautiful, also she would take many shots with her smartphone with the same background and theme so she could choose the best to publish. Despite, after being a friend of her there is a huge contrast of what shown in her profile, but is still an affordance of Instagram to develop a personality through social media. Besides, she emphasised that Instagram is also a channel for her and professional photographer, which she sometimes would take portraits and work as a model, yet the Instagram profile is definitely a way to demonstrate her image and skills as a model.
Example of 10k Instagram Account: @10n__s__h18
Jack owning 16k followers, his gallery was well-organised with edited portraits
I followed Jack since his account was private with only 600 followers until now, I witnessed the development of his account that being influential and expanding of followers. In terms of constraints, the process to author and publish photo become time-consuming for editing photo when comparing to the past. He said ‘I’ve to think of what to write, when to publish and how to edit the photo every time, so sometimes I felt tired to publish a photo. However, it seems there is an invisible responsibility that I always needed to update my followers.’
As shown in the photo below, his posts were mostly utilising filters and the simple adjustment from Instagram which was more convenient and effortless. The significant differences of his way in authoring and publishing photos align with his growth of being a ‘micro-influencer’. Indeed, the plethora of apps in present allow him for manual manipulation to edit photos or add filters before or afterwards (Halpern & Humphrey, 2016 p.8) which assisted Jack to develop his own style whilst content regarding himself.
Both of their accounts are open to the public, their posts could be widely distributed on the Instagram platform, though they do not utilise hashtags for further distribution but their posts were engaged to their numerous followers, yet over 1000 followers are seen to be influential (Francisgroeneveld, 2019). Also, we can discover their accounts were likely to be their personal profile.
Additionally, analysing Jack and Summer’s Instagram photos, they neither specifically belong to what Manovich defined as ‘professional photos’ nor ‘designed photos’ but between ‘casual’ and ‘designed’. From their profile, their photos aware the composition, structure and exposure, it was not like the casual photo from fig.5a, but they seem following the rules regarding vernacular photography. Indeed, they edited their photo like the style of ‘designed photo’, which overall developed a stylish and unique profile for themselves. This way of authoring and publishing can also be seen on a ‘social influencer’, like Agnes Wong, her way to author and publish photos are similar to Jack and Summer which she developed her own style. So, with the constraints and affordances in terms of authoring and publishing, being a social influencer can take them as references.
There isn’t much transformation for distributing, but as a social influencer, you are encouraged to use more hashtags which relate to the posts as to gain more exposure on Instagram platforms which the effect of it was mentioned in my Week10 photo blog, also you can use the ‘location’ function like Agnes. If possible, you can upload the post on your Facebook to make your post widely distributed. Indeed, allow your followers to share and comment on your post to allow more engagement. According to my practice over the past few weeks, hashtags do help to widen the coverage of the post within Instagram but when it came to the aspects for gaining likes and followers, hashtags’ role only limited to gain viewers while authoring and publishing in a uniquely stylish way would be critical which Manovich argued Instagram is for aesthetic visual communication (2017, p.41). Critically, despite someone may say being a social influencer limited the styles and content of posts that could be influential to increase followers, however, in my opinion, style, like arts, the sky is limited, every style can be unique as it is tailored-made and created by you. Additionally, Leaver (2020) argued the myriad forms in visual is crucial on Instagram, from how users present themselves and content to how it interprets and responds by others.
Limited within the network of Instagram, the distribution may only be confined to surf within Instagram, unless the influencer also posts it to Facebook and other social network platforms. So, with the constraint, Instagram launched Stories in 2016 which allow users to interact and publish the moment decisively (Leaver, Highfield & Abidin, 2020, p.52), hence the convenience of Stories impact its frequent use by influencers, which is also a way to increase distribution.
Conclusion
Summing up, everyone is potential to be a social influencer, indeed the affordance of Instagram provides everybody with a platform and a chance to develop their own style, personality and portfolio in the network to interact and influence mutually. Giving to analyse, an artistic visual presentation could motivate more users to engage with the post, to the extent, the distribution would broaden accordingly. Therefore, a social influencer would always think carefully before they publish and tried to be professional whilst utilise various editing apps like VSCO, Lightroom, Snapseed, Canva/ Rush and iMovie so that the posts can be artistic. Indeed, the visual presentation is a cornerstone to gain more followers and exposure, assisting with hashtags, tags, location etc. yet to further expand the distribution.
References:
Francisgroeneveld, 2019, Everyone can become a social influencer, Consumer Value Creation, viewed on 10 May 2020
Halpern, M. and Humphrey L. 2016, ‘Iphoneography as an emergent art world’. New Media and Society, Vol 18, no. 1, pp. 1-8
Influencer MarketingHub,2019, Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report: 2019, Influencer Marketing Hub, viewed on 8 May 2020
Kuc, K. and Zylinska, J. 2016, ‘Photomediations: A Reader’, Open Humanities Press, p.7-16, viewed on 28 March 2020
Norman, D 2008, ‘Affordance, conventions and design (Part 2)’, Nielsen Norman Group, viewed on 9 March 2020
Leaver, T., Highfield, T., Abidin, C., 2020, ‘Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures’, Digital Media and Society, Polity Press, United Kingdom, Chapter 2
Manovich, L. 2016, Instagram and the Contemporary Image. University of San Diego, USA, part 1 p.1-53, part 2, viewed on 10 May 2020
Manovich, L. 2017. Instagram and Contemporary Image., p.40-49, viewed on 15 May 2020
Pixlee, 2019, What is a social media influencer?, Pixlee, viewed on 8 May 2020
Tench, R., and Yeomans, L. 2017 ‘Exploring Public Relations: Global Strategic Communication’, New York: Pearson, Fourth ed, ch9