I had never used a hashtag until a week ago, which shows how much experience I had with Instagram before this assignment. I had an Instagram account, but only posted every few months, if that. Needless to say, I did not understand how to use Instagram beyond posting a picture with a short caption. As for Canva, I had never even heard of it. However, as soon as I started the assignment, I knew I would enjoy using Instagram in a professional way. I quickly got carried away with Canva and posted one promotional image after another.
Click here to view my promotional Instagram posts.
I enjoyed using Canva to promote my work. When I chose fonts, I aimed for the ones that would further enhance interest in the story. For my creative devices post, I chose a very clean font so that it wouldn’t distract from the image in the background.
I also tried to use a more professional, clean-looking font for my Honors College story post. This font matches the books and the academic nature of the story.
The second page of Bridget’s audio Instagram post has two different photos in it, each with a quote from Bridget. I arranged this page to show how in Bridget’s audio, she would be exploring two seemingly very different topics. I think this dichotomy draws more interest to the story.
In my Google Maps post was I was able to combine two specific elements: patriotism and the University of Wyoming. I emphasized the importance of young people voting by using the UW slogan combined with “at the polls!”
The most challenging part of this assignment was starting from nothing to make a graphic. This happened with the Google Maps and Honors College posts. I didn’t have one main image I wanted to use, so I had to use my creative side to come up with a graphic that accurately represented the story. I came up with a methodology that I will surely use in the future: What major elements does the blog post discuss? What about the blog post will be the most intriguing for readers? What image will cause the viewer to want to know more?
I was most surprised by how much I enjoyed this assignment. I was expecting to be nervous about making a professional Instagram and promoting my work, but it ended up being really fun. I realized: what better person to promote my work than me, who knows my work best?
Considering how much I enjoyed making the graphics and promoting my stories, I will definitely use Instagram in the future. It’s a quick way to do something more creative than writing a hard news story, while also promoting the hard news stories I will be writing.
Mary's Media 