During my placement at Piracy Corporation, I had the opportunity to work with a client called Disco Cocktails, a start-up during COVID 19. Lockdown meant we couldn’t go out to bars so they took initiative and found a way to bring the bar to people’s homes creating their ready to drink cocktails, served pouches that can be sent through your letterbox. It was interesting to work with a company who were creating a new brand so quickly in such an uncertain time.
My specific role was to manage the @discococktails Instagram account, planning all the content and boosting the following count. The planning process was all done on ContentCal which meant I could see the upcoming month to ensure there is no repetition with the captions, keeping it fresh. The posting schedule for @discococktails is three grid posts a week and ongoing stories, this was a good amount as we didn’t want to bombard our followers with content but we wanted to post frequently to raise engagement levels. Another technique I used to boost engagements was changing the hashtags used every couple of weeks, researching which hashtags are currently trending.
The actual content for the account was mainly supplied by the client which meant each month I had to filter through using the best images to plan for the Instagram grid. We also reached out to stylist Instagram pages who took photos for us in exchange for gifted products. This was important as we gained not only a mention on their page but content to use on Disco too.
Stories were also a key feature of our page, always making sure to reshare any mentions we get so the followers can see them. Story highlights were also a great tool, as we could create different sections of mentions or new flavours, so people can tap through the highlights when they visit our Instagram page.
A key project in which I was involved was the Valentine bundle box. This was important for the brand and we needed our Instagram page to cause a buzz around the cocktail boxes being the best possible present for your partner. This was a success as we had many shares and mentions which spread the brand name.
One way of raising the interactions with @discococktails was creating polls in which the followers could vote and get involved. This was a great way of raising the engagement levels on the @discococktails page, hopefully encouraging people to click the shop link to browse and purchase products. I created a ‘This or That’ poll which not only helped to increase engagement but allowed us to get to know our audience and to hear what they wanted to see from us as a brand.
By the end of the six months in which I had managed the Disco account, the follower count went from 150 to 650 which is a 333% rise. This felt like a great accomplishment, the client was so pleased with the progress that he’s asked me to continue managing their social account as a freelancer while I complete my final year. This is a fantastic opportunity and I’m excited to see where the account goes in the future. I hope to take these skills and experiences into my career.