The above screenshot shows the Endangered Plant Index instagram as it is at the moment. As you can see, I have built it up using a variety of posts, some asking people to sign my petition, others sharing facts and insights that people may not have known about the native British wildlife (specifically flora). I have been making these posts using a software called Canva, which allows me to create consistent posts, which have a well established theme (using the same colours and type-faces every time) and easily add in text and images of my choice. The ability to do all of this means that I am able to create a consistent and well established ‘brand’ for my project – using the repeated use of certain colours or type-faces, etc, become synonymous with my project and give it a visual identity of its own.
Creating the instagram also means that I am able to campaign online as well as in person – starting the actions that I will undertake in my project online. It helps to establish the project, and give me something to reference when inviting others to join my project and collaborate with me – as they will be able to see the work that I have already done, and where they might fit in with my work.
Additionally, I have already had offers of collaboration from my friends and fellow activists, via instagram. This us crucial as their platforms are much larger than my own (and especially that of the Endangered Plant Index), and their interaction with and collaboration with my project, visually on social media, will help grow it enormously, thus also raising awareness and traction for the project.
The first post I made for the instagram was a short video or Reel, sharing the fact that I had made the petition, and asking people to sign it. For this, I took much inspiration from the posts of other movements and organisations such as Paid to Pollute and Fridays for Future, who routinely use reels in order to gain wider audience for their actions and the work that they are creating (below are screenshots of their instagram accounts, which served as inspiration for the content that I create for the Endangered Plant Index account)
The reel has been quite successful, and I therefore plan to make more in the future. Although when I normally create reels, I use TikTok to do lipsync videos with a climate theme, this time I used Adobe Premiere, as I had a script that needed editing into a certain order, as well as adding in imagery and videos to support the points that I was making in the text. It also allowed me to caption the video, thus making it accessible to deaf audiences too.
Overall, I am really pleased with the instagram so far – it is definitely slow growing, but I am happy with what I have created, and I look forward to working on it more and progressing it alongside my project.
Image Sources:
Paid to Pollute. (2021) Paid to Pollute Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/paidtopollute/ (accessed: 30 December 2021)
Fridays For Future. (2021) Fridays For Future Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/fridaysforfuture/ (accessed: 30 December 2021)
