project one
@fancied | summer 2019
market research Instagram account for Bustle Digital Group (now @bustlestyle)
Following: 665k on Instagram
Audience: Zillennial women and femmes, who are lovers of pop culture references, fashion, and beauty, especially the Y2K styles re-popularized by Euphoria.
Areas of Influence: in-feed curation, community management, graphic design
PROBLEM
High following, low engagement for ‘aesthetic’ aggregated content Instagram page.
@fancied (now @bustlestyle) was a testing Instagram account run by Bustle Digital Group focusing on Zillennial (young Millennial, older Gen Z) women and femmes with an interest in beauty, fashion, and pop culture. At the time of my arrival, the account had over 600k followers, however the average post only had between 150-250 likes, and minimal comments and shares, with an engagement rate of 0.04%. The original posting cadence was twice daily. While I knew that it was unrealistic to go from 100 likes to 10,000, my goal was to rally our existing audience to engage more.
pictured: @fancied/@bustlestyle posts in May-June 2019, before I took over the account
SOLUTION
Intentional content curation, with an emphasis on pop cultural references, and targeting niche demographics within the audience, combined with optimized posting cadence for increased reach.
For @fancied, I posted 3x/day at key points throughout the day, focusing on when our audience was most likely to be on their phones: between 12-1pm (during lunch breaks), 3pm when people are most likely to be distracted), and between 5-7pm (when people are commuting home). This posting cadence proved to be much more effective in generating likes and comments in the first hour, maximizing our exposure and boosting our chances for inclusion on the Explore page.
pictured: @fancied/@bustlestyle posts in July 2019, average likes doubled to 300-500 (from 150-250)
Next, within our audience of Zillennial women and femmes, I focused on highlighting content from diverse content creators. I included posts by women of color, hijabis, plus sized creators, male makeup artists, etc. This content focus never came at the “expense” of our overall aesthetic; instead, it ensured that people of all races, genders, and sizes were included in our content, maximizing the pool of our audience.
These posts often performed much better than our other content, not only in likes, but in overall engagement, from comments, shares, story reposts, and more, proving that when diversity is prioritized, it yields great results. I supplemented with pop culture content like Euphoria makeup/stars, popular influencers like Cindy Kimberly, and cute, colorful, filler pictures that would still maintain interest.
pictured: @fancied/@bustlestyle posts higher performing posts in July-August 2019
Lastly, I utilized tools in Instagram Stories, to: 1. Increase audience participation and engagement, 2. Establish a connection with our followers, and 3. Collect measurable insights and gain real-time feedback from our audience. I did q&a’s and “this or that” posts, w/ calls to action to reshare on their own pages.
Through this strategy, average likes per post increased from 150-250 likes to 300-500 likes, with several of our pop culture posts skyrocketing to 2.5k likes and more. We saw an increase in comments, story views and participation, and overall engagement for even our lower performing posts.