1} Identify your key responsibilities and list the main areas of work you have been involved in. Briefly highlight the skills and competencies that are relevant to this project/work area. [This section should be revised in time for the final submission]
My key responsibilities within the group project have been to work as a Social Media Coordinator alongside another team member, Tomee and liaising with the rest of the group on content to build awareness and engagement on the website content and documenting the project as a whole. This role included:
– Research into other institutions social media’s; looking at what institutions such as National Trust England does to create content that is inclusive and diverse, attracting their audiences.
– I also researched into what posts, stories and captions institutions use. Making sure to use the correct form of communication.
– I learnt how to create posts on Canva, a communication tool that allows you to design your own content. We created posts such as Quizzes, Q&A content and general information posts about the event.
– We also created a TikTok reel of a take on a masterclass of how to create your own cocktails (Mocktails included) at home.
– From this we used Trello a management tool to add all our social media posts to. From this we could add when and what time we wanted our posts to be uploaded and where we wanted them posted for example (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok). It was on Trello that I learnt how to do Alt-Text which allows people with disabilities to easily access the content being shown on the social media posts.
– We also liaised a lot with Laura Doherty Digital & Social Media Officer at NGS and our team on what content we wanted to produce. Focusing on building timelines and deadlines for the content so that it correlated with the build up towards our final launch event and creating content for afterwards so we would ensure a higher percentage of engagement from people at home for the website content.
We knew that we wanted to post through NGS’s social media channels as we wanted to keep a coherent structure and collaboration with NGS. The broad audience outreach that NGS has on their social media channels as well would mean that we could reach a broader audience and get recognition faster than building our own social media following.
2} Looking ahead, list your key objectives for the GRP. 3-7 SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timed) objectives should be noted with realistic timescales and focused outcomes. The objectives should cover the project itself and your own role. [This section should be revised following feedback and finalised before the end of Semester 1]
Specific =
- To engage an audience of 16-24 year old’s in an online exhibition.
- To transform the exhibition archive into a living resource. Creating interactive content that is attractive and motivating.
- To build on EDI (equality, diversity and inclusivity) within the institutional context.
- To encourage a healthy learning environment for our audiences to really get to know the culture and art that they are engaging with.
- To build on the digital pivot. Helping the GLAM sector progress in terms of the importance of technology in the present day and how it impacts everyone’s lives.
Measurable =
- To create content that is easily accessible, inclusive and diverse so everyone can feel included in the content produced.
- To create a brand that is attractive and engages younger audiences, creating a positive learning environment.
- To build a timeline of deadlines, making sure content is produced alongside the build up to the website (Unfortunately this wasn’t successful as we had issues with copyright and communication).
Achievable =
- To build a range of social media content that could be posted on any platform.
- To make sure we didn’t use to much content. We needed to curate our posts, so they were a weekly an occurrence keeping relevance but not being overbearing with information.
- To create content that was easy to read, and creating a brand that was attractive to build upon (We opted to keep with the text of the NGS website but added a new color scheme and built on graphics keeping it simple but appealing).
Relevant =
- Posts needed to be quick and snappy but also filled with information that got our point across.
- Needed to feel as though they could reach audiences such as our target group but also to go beyond that making sure that we invited people to engage in the content that wouldn’t necessarily have done so before.
Timed =
- To communicate with the rest of the team to build on content produced. Working on timelines, making sure we get content from team members in time so we can build graphics around this and be able to get this out to the audience on time.
- To keep up to date with relevant information.
3} Discursive self-reflection
Use this section to, 1) reflect upon the progress of the project to date (both as a whole and with regards to your own specific area/role). 2) Critically reflect upon your experience working with the group. Here you may consider your contribution so far, the value of your specific strengths and expertise, the effectiveness of group communications and your performance in group meetings. How might the group [have] enhance[d] its performance? [This section should be revised in time for the final submission]
The project started off well, we were excited about our final idea and were having weekly meetings to discuss and plan what we needed to do so we were prepared for next couple of months ahead. We managed to create a very successful website and launch event at the Fruitmarket Gallery were we invited prominent artists and researchers to talk about the subject of Surrealism in the everyday. Our website also turned out to be successful with a 63.83% ‘bounce back’ rate.
However with all this success I felt communication was our biggest problem and working with an institution that is so fixed in its own roots created challenges that would lead to frustrations as we only had a small time to produce content and fulfill the project brief. Sometimes I didn’t feel heard as a team member, and I think we could have been more considerate about peoples commitment and priorities to the project.
It was frustrating to have worked to a strict deadline producing content for social media for only one post to be posted after the launch event. I felt there should have been more communication and in person meetings, as we were still learning copyright should have been something considered at the very beginning but it was a useful learning curve. We ended up putting our content on our own social media which didn’t have as much awareness as the NGS social media channels.
