How Gen Z Inspired Me to Utilize Vertical Social to Engage My Audience
This week in class we discussed what makes vertical social platforms, like Instagram Stories, TikTok, and Snapchat, so appealing to Generation Z. Our class explored how these platforms allowed Gen Z to easily connect with their friends (and others) and express themselves, but for our assignment this week I wanted to experience this firsthand.
I already had decided that I wanted to do something special for my Facebook community since Halloween was just around the corner. I knew members would be ecstatic to show off their dog’s costumes with one another. However, since Large Dog Owners of Florida’s membership spans across the state it would be impossible for us to gather a large enough group to celebrate together.
My solution was a virtual costume parade for our pups. This allowed us to branch out and welcome dog owners of all sizes to participate and gave us a fun way to connect with one another.
With the success of last week’s member recruitment post on my dog’s Instagram in mind, I decided to post some slides to Sansa’s story about the virtual event.
For the posts, I made sure to include hashtags, like #dogsofinsgram, that would reach my target audience. These same hashtags assisted me last week in growing my Facebook group, so I knew these and similar ones would work well for this event. Additionally, I attempted to not overwhelm my viewers by stacking information separately on each slide. This allowed my audience to easily digest the directions for participation in the event and simplified the process into steps.
My intention with these slides was to stay on brand with my Facebook community but embody the Halloween spirit as well. Overall, I think the use of spooky fonts and colors, as well as the graphics of dogs in costumes, kept users engaged and ready to find out more as they tapped through each slide. Not to mention, including a brief poll on the first slide was an easy way to increase engagement and maintain attention since our audience had no clue what was coming next.
Looking back at our turnout for the event, it is safe to say that my efforts were quite successful. I received an abundance of emails consisting of adorable dogs dressed-up and ready to have a happy Halloween. After collecting the photos, I created a video showing off all of our participants. I used IG Stories’ music sticker to add a little tune to set the mood (Monster Mash by Bobby Pickett, of course), and then our virtual event was live! The final product can be seen on Sansa’s Instagram Highlights here.
Next time I’m looking to spice up my content, I definitely won’t be discounting Instagram Stories. Their in-platform features make it simple and straightforward to add extra elements to any photo or video to increase its quality. Additionally, the ability to switch between photo and video content is seamless in execution.
I can see why the appeal for vertical social platforms is so strong for Gen Z. I genuinely had so much fun creating content for my fellow dog owners, and seeing their reactions to their pup being included was more than worth all the effort.
Thanks for all of the inspiration, Generation Z.
