Throughout the ideation and prototyping stages of my DA I have been able to let aspects of ‘Needing a Feeding’ fail in order to decide what works and what doesn’t. Now that I am at the making stage of my DA I can simply stick to current tried and true methods. So everything you are about to see are aspects of my DA that I found worked best, and how exactly I got there.
Formats
The format of my post has been one aspect of my DA that I am constantly experimenting with, not because I am not satisfied with it but instead because I enjoy complementing the recipe length with the post format. Some of my favourite post formats include:
Video clips separated into sections:
This format helps viewers to easily swipe through each separate section of the recipe, instead of having to watch a whole 1 minute clip for a tiny section. From my research on Instagram video attention spans, the best length videos are 30 seconds. But due to the nature of my content, 30 seconds is simply not enough time, so by splitting the videos into separate sections I can maintain more attention.
This research also explains the failure of my IGTV video, as the length is too long for Instagram, as my audience are not use to maintaining attention for that long.
Recipe through photos:
A picture is worth a thousand words so this style of post can be very useful. Another handy thing about these posts is that if one of my followers does not swipe through it will reappear in their feed automatically opened to the second picture. Since people scroll the most on instagram compared to other social medias, this format complements the media.
Another aspect I have noticed about displaying the recipe through photos is a lot of my most “saved” posts are in this format. So my audience like this format to keep recipes to make later.
Videos of finished meal:
It’s no secret that foodie videos are successful, similar to mukbangs on Youtube. They help to entice viewers for the recipe, as well as being useful within posts or instagram stories. This format complements the short attention span on Instagram by immediately enticing viewers, and provides more detail than a photo can. This is a similar concept to food advertisement that lures its audience by cutting into, stringing out or zooming into food.
Instagram Stories
Utilising Instagram stories increases how often your posts are seen because of Instagram’s algorithm, so the more people interact with my stories the higher up in their feed my posts will be. Stories allow me to entice my viewers with ‘sneak peeks’ before I post a recipe, this also helps to alert my audience when a new post is coming out. This also allows me to receive more user feedback with polls, as I can easily ask my audience which recipe they would prefer. This form of feedback is more successful than asking my audience a question, as they can easily choose from the two options which generates more feedback.
Post Concepts
Something I realised early into my DA was that posts that received the most engagement had a clear concept, as posts that focus on minimal ingredients and equipment, being low cost or correspond with an Insta poll (such as meat free meals) were better received than those without.
For “foodie” Instagrams, in order to be successful having a specific purpose is essential. This helps to communicate your brand as an account. So it makes sense that my posts with a clear concept are most popular as that is the purpose of my account, to help students make meals with a small amount of money, equipment, time and skill.
These are the posts on my account that have received the most engagement with their concept, demonstrating how clear purposes increase engagement. While the posts that received the least amount of engagement didn’t have a particular concept, or it wasn’t clearly expressed.
References:
Baslova, J (2017) “Exclusive Data on Instagram Carousels: How Well Do They Work?” Social Bakers
Chi, C (2018) “How Long Should Your Videos Be? Ideal Lengths for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube [Infographic]”, HubSpot
Kramer, J (2018) “How to Become a Food Instagram Influencer”, Food & Wine
Laurence, C (n.d.) “Instagram Stories – How to use them and why it matters”, PLANN
Bees and Bells 