Liriel's Instagram
Liriel's Instagram account is a social media page on Instagram which role-plays the main character of my story, Liriel. It follows her life and inspirations, as well as the general aesthetic of the character and the narrative, and serves to fill in the gaps for the animation as a text and image based platform.
As Liriel has a background as a social media influencer, I also felt that a social media account is a good way to promote the narrative as it is immersive for the viewers and suits the character well.
Findings:
Through managing this Instagram account, I have found that illustrations can garner more attention than simple photo based images in terms of activity (comments, likes) on the page.
Initially, I was expecting there to be many comments raising the issue of eating disorders (EDs) or body dysmorphia, as many of the followers already knew about my project before I started the social media account. However, most comments simply complimented her or replied to the captions that I wrote.
I conducted some interviews with some followers and found out that many people will not raise such a sensitive issue up, especially if they are not close to the person. However, they felt that with some positivity, they could prevent the character's mood from souring and potentially stopping any harmful activities of the character.
Another possible reason for this is that the character is clearly fictional due to the nature of the posts, which are illustrations, and because many of the followers already knew that this was a fictional narrative to begin with. This could have impacted how they treated the character because they knew that no matter what they said, there will not be any consequences, as opposed to a real person who suffers from ED or body dysmorphia.
Conclusion:
I feel that social media is a good way to involve some audience interaction for campaigns, especially with the many features like posts, stories, polls, Q&A, etc.
A better way that I could have done this social media if it was more impactful through the use of slightly more realistic images rather than drawings, as most people already knew that it was fiction. I think that if it was a real person or simulated a real person, more people would be inclined to reach out to help or learn more about ED and body dysmorphia in order to help the character.
How the information from this account can be used:
Through managing this account, I found that most of the audience were interested in illustrated posts or posts that clearly stated events that happened within the story, as opposed to filler posts that were meant to develop the character's likes and image.
In future endeavours, it could be good to use more illustrations to advertise this campaign and plot out concrete events that occur in the story which correspond to any events that might occur in real life to create a clearer sense of realism and immersivity in the story. I plan to host a giveaway of merchandise related to the story to attract more attention to the project.