Morris, 2017. ShareTheSmarties

A social media experiment.

The brief: ‘make an image that you feel is intriguing and appealing, and spread it around as many places as possible.’

My aims for sharethesmarties as follows:

Determine the extent to which any textual content accompanying an image is complied with

Establish the effectiveness of various social media platforms

Assess the effective reach of a website within the context of a short-term project

Increase the number of Instagram account followers

Explore the use of hashtags.

The intention was for the life of the project to be short – two weeks maximum. However, it was also planned for the project to have a series of iterations in order to determine, for example, if different levels of textual content help the image to be spread in a viral manner.

After one week the results are rather inconclusive, rather as expected.

The first iteration saw the image accompanied by very limited text.

The image was made available on Facebook, Instagram, via a dedicated website, and was also emailed to personal contacts. Results as follows:

Instagram – the image was liked six times, the number of followers was increased by six

Facebook – the image was shared 4 times, and liked 9 times

Website – 13 visitors, making 16 visits with 35 page views.

The project as it stands, Phase One, has another week to run. I think in order for even the most intriguing and appealing image to be spread virally there has to be an incentive. So, the second phase will include a succinct message – in effect a strapline – outlining the purpose of the project.

As social media is such a cost-effective means of disseminating work, investing time in further research is more than justified.