When looking at my DA and adapting it to the future prospects, I found it quite difficult. Considering my Digital artefact is a travel Instagram – inspired by international travel and different cultures my initial reaction was to change my DA (that I have done for the past 3 years at university) all together. However, as more opportunities came up to travel interstate, I thought this would be a great series to document. My overall goal, throughout my whole 3 years of this DA, has been to promote travel and inspire others to share their experiences – ultimately, this is still my goal now focusing primarily on domestic travel.
Truthfully, I found every tutorial material relevant, in some way, to my DA. When the news came out about Covid, it felt like a movie, a dystopian right before our eyes. Every film introduced a new layer of this. This idea of technology taking over was extremely predominate in most films. Considering my DA is based on social platforms and I’m using technology as a means to communicate to those on the other side of the globe, parallels were made between my DA and the tutorial material.
This time around, I have really focused on two-way communication throughout my DA. I have introduced polls, reels and hashtags as a means to communicate with different demographics and generate engagement. I found the reel to be most successful on my channel.
Following from this, polls have been a highlight. Polls are a great way to encourage others to have opinion and further generate that two-way communication.
Through feedback from peers, I have been able to create a page that focuses more on engagement with others rather than following. My comments, likes and views have all increased by making changes to the content I post. Something recommended to me was utilising hashtags and captions. My captions now explain the destination in a short one liner. Hashtags are also included to target the correct demographic. I have noticed that by doing this, traction has increased as has likes and comments.
Overall, my DA, The Tattered Passport has developed greatly over these past three years but especially through this last year. Covid has played a big impact in everyone’s lives in one way or another. Looking specifically at the tourism industry, I can understand the importance of travelling domestically and I encourage others to, safely, support local and explore their on state. I have learnt so much this time around and have seen some awesome places in the process. From here, I will continue to stay engaged with my following and will utilize my learnings to create a platform that inspires others to support local
Live tweeting has certainly been challenging for me – as you may have guessed form the title. Although I have still been tweeting, they have not been at the same time slots as fellow BCM325 peers and I believe this has strongly affected the engagement of my tweeting. Saying this, I have taken on board the learnings from previous live tweets and believe I have made improvements to generate more engagement.
The Matrix – Week 7
I figured the best way to get engagement with tweets was by “collabing” with other BCM325 students in a humours way:
Through my tweeting, I utilise articles to gain different perspectives and understandings of the film. I found this extremely helpful in helping me to align this older film with modern day concepts:
This was a lot of engagement for me – I was super happy to see other people relate to the article.
Alita: Battle Angel – Week 9
I’m just going to be honest, I was super slack this week and found it hard to find the motivation to A. Watch the film and then B. Tweet. As I work full time I usually watch the film on the train on the way home. Retweeting was my way of communication this week:
This whole concept of our past defining our future really stuck out to me. As Amelia said, it is a common question we ask ourselves. Following on from this, technology is clearly a predominate part of everyones lives – does it control us?
Ready Player One – Week 10
A few reasons why I liked this film:
There is deep meaning behind this film which I tried unpacking – this idea of virtual reality being better then our reality?
Robot and Frank – Week 11
The last screening for this semester was the Robot and Frank – I really loved this film. It was an emotional rollercoaster where love, family and friendship really shined through.
This film made me want to dig further into robots and what this companionship could mean for the future.
I also came past some super interesting articles that uncovered this idea further.
Overall, Live Tweeting has been seriously entertaining. Although engagement wasn’t achieved through my tweets, I enjoyed seeing the different perspective from other BCM325 students which taught me so much.
As part of the BCM325 DA development, a key component is giving feedback to peers. I can say, first hand, the feedback I have received from others has helped in establishing my DA today.
Seeing the progression of fellow peers DA is inspiring. It is always a great feeling to see that they have taken on board what others have recommended – and to see it has been a success.
I really love Stephs concept – focusing on the future of retail from the affects of covid. Stephs beta was honest in explaining her struggles with staying on top of her posting schedule for her DA. Blog posts are time consuming in many different ways. My suggestion for Steph was to consider an auto style blog post. Steph spoke so well in her Beta, i believe by dong this the audience will be more engaged as it feels more personal.
I love Bellas DA – it is so unique and fun! I really like that she is utilising Tik Tok to generate content and, as you can see, it working! Tik tok is known for being a highly engaged social platform – much more engaging than Youtube. I believe Bella can utilise Tik Tok to further unpack her concept of the future of food. Instead of cooking videos perhaps interviews could be more powerful in portraying her opinions and research.
Serena’s DA is one that I have been following for a while! I absolutely love how she has adapted her original DA to align with the future. I believe this take on beauty is super interesting and one that many people will love to learn about. Again, I do believe Serena would thrive on Tik Tok as the engagement is high and will further bring more attention to her blog posts on the Future of Beauty.
For BCM300 assessment task one part two our group worked efficiently together in order to create our game One Way Ticket. One Way Ticket utilises both a card game aspect and a board game. As the title suggests, our game is inspired by travel. The main influence for this was our shared love of travel and our considerations of the current global pandemic and wanting to create an outlet for people to learn, to reminisce and to win. Overall, we wanted to keep it simple and clear so it appealed to a larger demographic.
One-way ticket is virtually a trivia game with added components. The board game is designed as a world map to fit with the travel theme, the world map has a path through it. The path crosses over seas and countries, again to show this travel/ flight path feel. The objective is to get to the end of the flight path first. A dice is required in order to move from country to country. When you roll the dice and land on a country you answer a trivia question – if you get this question right, you can move forward a space, if you get the trivia question wrong, you must stay in the same country until it is your turn to roll again. The trivia questions are based around the country you land on, and they differ from easy to hard. Again, this design around questions was based on appeal to a larger demographic.
Overall our group worked well together. We met up occasionally and discussed via Facebook roles and questions. Those that could, met regularly to discuss next steps on the developing of our game. We utilised each members’ strengths to navigate roles. For example, those that were more creative helped with the designing and layout of the game, those that were better with media helped with the presenting of our assignment and those with travel knowledge focused on trivia questions and the mechanics behind the functioning of the game.
My roles within the group included: Trivia questions, board game design, presentation slides, testing out the functional features of the game and organising and contributing to regular meet ups with our group.
Trivia Questions:
Travel is something that has always been super passionate about. I love learning about places I’ve been and places I’ve never been. To make this game successful, we decided to all contribute 20 questions each on different parts of the world. Considering Europe is a place I’m familiar with, I choose to do my questions based around that.
This required a lot of in depth research. I wanted to have a variety of easy and hard questions, again to appeal to a larger demographic. My questions consisted of multiple choice and true & false questions. For examples one of the questions included the following:
How many Languages are spoken in Europe
A- 30
B-157
C-200+
D-20
My main sources for these trivia questions included google scholar, general knowledge and online travel games.
Board Game Design:
In order for the board game to be both aesthetic and on theme, we decided to design the layout of the board game a world map. Taking inspiration from games such as Snakes and Ladders and Monopoly, I decided to follow this “pathway” within our game. Thus creating the final product – a world map with a pathway passing through different countries. The reason why this was agreed upon was because it resembled a flight path, which again is on brand with the travel concept. Although aesthetic, the board game is clear in representing where players need to go in order to win.
Presentation Slides:
In regards to our presentation slides, this was evenly broken up between all remembers. My role was to talk about the idea generation behind our game. Like mentioned, the main theme is travel and our shared passion for it. We took inspiration from games such as Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders and cards Against Humanity. These are all classic games which each helped in implementing components into our game. Monopoly – Board game design. Snakes and Ladders – Board game design. Cards Against Humanity – card game design/ layout.
Testing out the game:
Lauren, Steph and I met on a Monday night to test out One Way Ticket. With trial and error and minor modifications needing to be made – we successfully played the game. It was super fun and easy to follow which was encouraging! This testing of the game allowed us to make improvements and also collaborate, face to face, with other team members.
Group meet ups:
All 7 members of the group live very busy lives. It was often hard to find appropriate times that suit the majority of members to meet and debrief on our assignment. Amongst some others, I came to every group meet up with thoughts and contributions to our assignment. I found these meet ups most helpful in establishing our game and understanding others ideas.
Overall, One Way Ticket is a fun and family friendly game! Our group worked as a collective to establish the ins and outs of the game, and through communication we were able to come together and achieve the final product. We hope you enjoy the game.
With a heavy focus on Australian travel and tourism, my DA has forced me to try new things/ places and discover some of Australia’s hidden treasures. By documenting this, I have been able to gain traction to my page and generate higher engagement with my followers.
Considering I did not receive any written feedback from peers on my DA pitch, I utilised those around me to provide their feedback. The overall consensus was to utilise all of Instagram features in order to generate new and exciting ways to promote travel to others. Posting regularly, utilising hashtags and promoting local areas were key tips given in order to have a successful page.
So far, my travel Instagram is going okay. Although I have all the content ready to post, I have not been as active on the page as I should be. Saying this, my following and engagement on images (likes and comments) has increased. I have been engaging with other like minded pages in the hope to generate some more engagement and increase following – I will continue to do this!
From here, I am hoping to post my first reel. I hope to collaborate with other pages and get some of my images posted on there account. I want to continue to utilise highlights and polls as I believe they generate traction.
As I continue to focus on the future of travel by promoting Australian Tourism, I hope to explore other states soon – when this happens, my goal is to create mini vlogs of trips, with this, perhaps I can expand and post these mini vlogs on other social media platforms like tiktok.
Am I the only one who hasn’t seen this movie before? and there is a remake? So much you can learn via twitter! Blade runner explores this idea of techno orientalism to a tee. In simple terms, techno orientalism explores the stereotypes of asian culture, highlighting there technological advancements the cultures primitive intelligence. Blade runner is set in 1982 and it explores the future of the world (2019). I loved unpacking this film via tweets and better understanding techno orientalism and uncovering other perspective on the topic. The best tweets to me are those that incorporate humour whilst also better their perspective across – making tweets more personal then like reading a textbook. You will notice, through time, that I begin to understand the appeal of this and apply this idea to my own tweets.
Blade Runner’s idea of the future, whilst extreme, does have relations to present day. I found a great article that explore this further.
Robots, lie detectors, smart homes and video calls are among some of the predictions and well… they were right.
This is when I (Tried) to incorporate humour.
Ghost in the shell
This film was like nothing I have ever watched. Truth be known, I have never been a huge fan of anime – however I quiet enjoyed this. This film was confronting in a lot of different ways. This relationship/ reliance of humans on computers and computers on humans was astounding.
These key themes were addressed throughout the film. Through research, I now understand the true meaning and power of this film.
This beginners guide was great in explaining each Ghost in the Shell series. A remake was made in 2017 featuring big time american actresses. The reviews of this film were mixed – this is primarily due to the success of the original anime film.
Tweet Review
Overall my tweets haven’t received that much traction. I believe this is primarily due to the time of tweeting. I have a better understanding of which tweets attract more response. Through looking at others tweets to, I understand that those receiving a high volume of responses are those who ask questions and interact with the audience. This is something I will consider for future tweets.
First off, I love the ideas of each of these DA’s, so creative and unique and i’m so excited to follow along with these Digital Artefacts! Each DA I looked at was totally different and utilised different platforms. “The Future” was predominate within all DA and they aligned well with subject readings and lectures.
My aim with my feedback was to help each individual find ways to engage with their audience. I also provided academic and non academic sources which are tailored to each DA. I hope that by doing this, I have helped each person in creating and improving their DA’s.
I really enjoyed finding out about Alana’s DA. I have only recently heard about NFT so hearing that that was something Alana was analysing was really interesting. Overall, I think the 3 part blog series is a smart choice for Alana. Keeping it on the one platform makes the DA easy to manage and having the goal of 3 allows Alana to stay on track. Unlike many DA’s, I noticed that Alana is looking particularly at Covid and this impact on the creative sector. Although I think it is great to be doing something different, it would be very interesting to analyse the impact this has had on the creative industry – perhaps this could be another topic/ blog.
Bella’s DA explores the future of food. What a cool topic! The future of food is something I have never thought about before so I’m super interested to see how Bella unpacks this. Originally, Bella was only using the platform Youtube to receive analytics and feedback from others, she has made the decision to also utilise her Instagram page as a means to engage with others. I think this is a great idea! Instagram has a lot of new added benefits which allows creators to post reels and stories. Stories are especially good in creating engagement with followers. Polls and questionnaires, on stories, further generate this engagement. I found other blogs relating to Bella’s topic that I think would serve great purpose to her! Overall, awesome DA look forward to seeing how it goes via instagram.
Steph has chosen to look at the future of retail. Being a retail assistant for almost 6 years, Steph has been first hand the highs and lows of retail. With the current pandemic at forefront, the retail industry has certainly seen a shift in online spending rather than in store. I recommended to Steph that she utilises blog posts as a means so analyse the future of retail. Her DA pitch/ blog has funny and super easy to read – that is why I think she should do blog posts. Considering Steph has seen so much during her career, I think primary research would be most appropriate when unpacking this topic. Perhaps interviews with fellow staff members? Super interesting topic to unpack! Look forward to seeing how it goes.
Over the years, games have developed completely. From the standard board games to now the virtual reality online gaming world, games continue to expand and grow with the times. That face to face contact that was once necessary to play a successful game is completely unnecessary now. A primary example of this is something as simple as cards: poker, black jack even snap! These all required a minimum of three players. Now, you can simply download an app and play against a computer or phone screen.
Throughout weeks 1-4 I have witnessed, via discord, students trial new games. It has been extremely interesting to see how those react to instructions and more specifically, how they react playing in a group environment. Considering, these days, we are so used to instructions being online or explained via video tutorials, it was interesting to see how everyone reacts to a subtle change. There was also a nostalgic component to these tutorials. Reminiscing on older games brings back childhood memories which is another reason why, I believe, you cannot go past the classic, face to face, games.
Considering I was unable to attend these tutorials on campus, I decided to play back gammon with my boyfriend. Before I get started into the analysis of the game I just want to say that he has played this game before, he loves it, he has always begged me to play with him – so I thought, what a great opportunity to do so!
Overview of game:
Backgammon is played on a board that consists of 24 narrow triangles that are called points. The triangles alternate in color and are grouped into four quadrants of six triangles each. There are four types of quadrants: the player’s home board and outer board, and the opponent’s home board and outer board. Sounds confusing right? However, the aim of the game is relatively simple, move all 15 checkers off the board. If you do this, you win.
The Rules:
Now to list all the rules would take me awhile – to put it into perspective I had to re-read each step at least 5 times before starting. With no input from my boyfriend I tried to break down what I had to do – not how I had to win, this took time. Through further research I have noted that the game has adapted and may now be a bit simpler to follow.
For my BCM325 Digital Artefact I will be continuing on with my travel Instagram @the_tattered_passport. This Instagram was established in 2018 as a means to promote my mums business (Travel Agent) and an outlet for me to post my original content from around the world.
Stating the obvious, Travel is not really an easy thing right now – just like working in the tourism industry. I feel confident that one day things will go back to a new normal however, in the meantime, I want to adapt my Instagram to focus on purely domestic travel and supporting local. As we look specific at the future, within BCM325, I think it appropriate to change my Instagram account to this.
I still have a love for travel, as does my family, so we have a number of trips planned in the coming months – this will help with flow of content and making sure I stay engaged with my audience. Collaborating with small businesses is another goal of mine within this DA process. I will also be incorporating reels, stories (polls) and videos as a way to keep my content engaging and allow feedback from others.
I look forward to seeing where this new change in my DA will take me.
My Digital artefact (DA) @the_tattered_passport is a travel Instagram established in 2017, where I was first introduced to Digital Artefacts within my first year at university. My Instagram takes inspiration from other, typical travel Instagram pages. The overall aim is to inspire others – through posting personal content from my favourite trips – to see the world. Through every DA assessment and all of the development stages; ideating, prototyping and iteration, I have created a page with great aesthetic, a loyal following and all original content. I have loved developing my Instagram and look forward to continuing with my DA after university.
Originally, when I found out that BCM 302 involved a digital artefact again I was torn whether to continue with my Instagram or to start over. Considering the current pandemic and the great impact it has on the tourism industry, I was unsure if my page would be appropriate at this time. Both my mum and dad work within the travel industry, my dad as group treasurer for Qantas and my mum as a travel agent, travel has been a big aspect of my life from a young age. Travel sparks creativity, passion and wonder, I believe these are all emotions required at a time like this. At one stage, my DA was an outlet for my mum to use for business, to promote locations to her clients and give her opinions on places. Although she is without work now, I hope that she can continue to use the Instagram when things return to normal. It is through further research and input from others, I came to the conclusion that I could adapt my DA to fit the demographic and climate of today.
@the_tattered_passport is now an Instagram that focuses on local travel within Australia. With current borders shut, the focus at the moment is on New South Wales however this will change as more of Australia opens up and we are able to travel to different states. Recently, I went on a trip to Byron bay and documented my experience. with this, I created a highlight reel too give further insight into my travels in Byron, the highlight reel includes best places to eat, swim and stay. In order to have a lot of disposable content, I created a posting schedule of 2 times a week. This way I could manage the content I had and source new content when needed. I hope that by showing more of local areas I can engage with a local following – those that live in NSW. The thought of travelling can be scary to some at this time, I hope my Instagram reminds those of the joy travel brings and further encourages those to travel around their local areas. With this concept in mind, below is my “classic travel insta starter pack”.
Travel insta Starter Pack
Utility and reflection
Like mentioned, the promotion of domestic travel is the overall goal of my Digital artefact this time around. For this to be achieved I wanted to establish a loyal following whereby two-way communication is sought. First I needed to gain followers. To do this I went to other, similar, travel pages and started following a handful of their followers. From here, they would follow my account, I would return the favour by liking their previous posts, then I would unfollow. The goal of this is to maintain high numbers of followers whilst keeping my following ratio down. This method proved successful for short periods of time.
Another method I utilised was questionnaires on my story. I found this a helpful way of creating traction, engage with followers and maintain my following. Question I asked include the following: “are you a… Home body or travel bug?”. As well as creating traction, these questions provided insight and understanding into people’s opinion of travel at the moment, thus allowing me to post appropriate content based off the answers. From these questions, I received a lot of direct messages asking me travel related questions and enquiring about potential collaborations in the future (when travel picks up again).
Saying this, there are still some improvements that can be made. Like mentioned in my beta, my posting schedule could have been improved. As I was focusing more on Australian travel, I did not have that much disposable content and therefore found it hard to post regularly. This lack of content has greatly impacted engagement with my followers, which has further resulted in a loss of followers. Although I have placed emphasis on other methods to increase engagement, I have recognised the decrease in likes and comments. Within this DA period I gained 27 followers however only 7 of them have remained following me. Suggestions such as reels and IGTV will be taken into consideration as I continue with my DA. Below you can see the progression of my DA over the years.
Content Curation
Content curation involves the sharing of others content. In the case of travel Instagram’s, this is very common. The pros of this include lots of disposable content and being less time consuming, negatives include lack of creation and ability to copy others. How to Use Content Curation the right way looks at different methods of content curation. When looking at social media specifically, content curation can involve the reposting of others work or resharing of images you are tagged in. This establishes two-way communication with the user and further generate traction to your page. In regards to my Instagram, I utilise others work as a means of inspiration however am yet to share someone else’s images. Recently I reached out to @cuba_travel in the hopes to collaborate, this unfortunately did not eventuate into anything. Content curation is a very good marketing technique and is something I will work on in the future for my Instagram, especially as I focus on Australian travel.
Research
Instagram vs reality: Travel influencers gloss over coronavirusportrayed an interesting perspective on travel Instagram’s in relation to the current pandemic. The article goes on to examine the job losses during this time and sheds light on Instagram influencers. A popular marketing tool these days is influencer trips. These trip often involve individuals with large followings to travel, usually overseas, with a brand. The goal of these trips is to promote the brand through the posting of photos, videos, tagging and sharing content. Although this was great publicity for the brands, it was also great for the travel destinations. The article goes on to examine this impact and how the content has changed because of the pandemic. The article looks particularly at 5 travel influencers. Majority are adapting to the changes and promoting local areas to travel to whilst some are still promoting past, overseas trips. Although it is important to encourage travel for the future, the question is; is it safe for these individuals with over 500 k followers to promote travel in a time like this? Although my Instagram is not at the same degree of followers as those mentioned in the article, it is still an important factor to consider.
The influence of Instagram on consumers’ travel planning and destination choiceis another great source showing the power of Instagram on travel. The 83-page report looks at Instagram as a marketing tool, a source of visual communication and a source of tourism. Through analysis of different accounts, a deeper understanding of Instagram’s influence is understood. The target group used within the research report are aged 19-36. Through surveys, it is understood that human behaviour is influenced by a lot of different factors, those include; motives, culture, age and gender. According to the survey results, people are heavily influenced by visual aspects – photos and videos. In regards to travel, visual aspects and input from others are most important when making the decision on where to travel. Social media is the most popular source in finding accommodation and travel locations, this is followed by Tripadvisor which is then followed by brochures and travel guides. The report goes on to describe Instagram as a wanderlust; a need to temporarily leave familiar surroundings to travel and experience different cultures and places. The research then goes on to discuss the importance of collaboration with influencers and how this impacts consumer behaviour greatly. This research report was a great indicator, to me, of the power of a travel Instagram. Although it has been done many times before, I do believe travel Instagram inspire and encourage others to travel. Through aesthetic content and accurate information, travel Instagram’s have great power in influencing others actions.
Conclusion
Overall, this time around, my digital artefact was successful. Although I did not achieve all aspects I had wished, I am happy with the progress and look forward to continuing on with it in the future. My Instagram, @the_tattered_passport, started as a typical travel Instagram page where I had an outlet to post photographs, taken by me, from some of my favourite places in the world. With 66 followers behind me, I used my platform to form a posting schedule of 4 times a week. Although successful, it was hard to manage. Soon after, it became a page for my mum to use for her business, she is (was) a travel agent. Although I would still manage and run the account, the Instagram was primarily used as a means for mum to connect with existing and potential clients. I used this as a means to promote hotels as well as travel locations. During this stage, @the_tattered_passport gained another 50 followers. Now, in 2020, living through the current global pandemic, my Instagram travel account is used as a means to promote local areas of travel, whilst also reminiscing on past holidays. This balance of old and new content will have a posting schedule of 3 times a week. Stories have been introduced as well as questionnaires and the posting of videos. By doing this, I have been able to engage with my following and improve on my following ratio. It is through trial and error that I have learnt a lot about my Instagram page and what works for my account and what doesn’t. FIST is critical in having a successful DA. I have maintained a fast and effective method of posting, being one social platform. Being free, my DA is inexpensive. Again, the one platform makes my DA very simple and tiny.
In the future, I hope to still continue to post travel relate content, and I hope that I can continue to promote places around the world. Travel is something that sparks wonder, passion and excitement. Considering the current circumstances, it is devastating to see the tourism industry struggle through this time, thus proving why I believe it is still important and relevant to post travel related content – but modified.
References
University of Applied Science 2017, The influence of Instagram on consumers’ travel planning and destination choice, University of Applied Science, viewed 10 November 2020
Brittany Manning Portfolio 