Starting Social Media

After doing some research, it’s time to start posting on my social media account! As mentioned in a previous blog post, I am using Instagram as my desired platform to promote my piece. In my research, I found that most documentaries use Facebook or Instagram if they even use social media as a promotional tool at all. Instagram works best for We Are Young: Here & Queer, because it fits its target audience of kids, teens, and young adults. 

To start, I created a posting schedule for my Instagram page with the types of posts I’m going to create and when they will be posted. This ensures I create an account that will market my piece effectively and have enough content that conveys my message and purpose.

 

As mentioned in my previous blog post, I am going to start with posts about LGBTQIA+ activism to set the tone for the page and make my message clear from the beginning. I am also going to create a resources story highlight which includes sources for LGBTQIA+ youth to get help if necessary, ways to educate yourself on LGBTQIA+ causes, and charities to raise awareness and help LGBTQIA+ people in need. After this, I am going to post about my filming and editing process to keep viewers engaged and in tune with the process of creating my documentary. Then, I am going to introduce all the people who would be subjects for each episode of the documentary. I believe this is one of the most crucial and important aspects of my social media account. By doing this, I am highlighting what the rest of the documentary will be about and how I can detail the entire documentary without creating it all. I am also going to create a poster to promote my documentary as well as create a space where young queer people are encouraged to share their stories or anecdotes about what it is like being young and queer. Some of their responses will be posted on the account. Finally, I am going to create distribution promotion posters and “host” a promo event to promote the account to create more excitement and engagement in my piece. I may also create an episodic trailer to promote my documentary if time permits. I am also going to create story highlights for the subjects as well as stickers and lock screens to increase audience engagement. Doing all of this will ensure my social media page is successful. 

I also created a logo that will act as a profile picture for the account and will be the face of the documentary’s promotion. This logo is bright and emphasizes an iconic symbol for the LGBTQIA+ community, the rainbow. The fonts and boldness of the letters emphasize the title. This logo symbolizes my documentary completely. 

My production logo

For the social media account itself, I am converting the page from my music video production project in the AS class to my documentary account. I created two blog posts about that project which are linked here and here. I started by renaming the handle to @hereandqueerdoc. Although it's not the full title of the documentary, shorting it down makes it easier to market and promote. I also added a bio that briefly summarizes the purpose and message of my documentary with a pride flag emoji. Finally, I added the logo as the profile picture and it was ready to go! 

What the page looked like before

What the page looks like now

I did my first post which was a picture of teens protesting Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay,” bill that became a law in 2022. This law is affecting schools across the state and is restricting the way students, especially those in the LGBTQIA+ community, can express themselves. I captioned the post, “Teens using their voice and protesting anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation in Florida!” I added hashtags as well to improve the engagement of the post. The hashtags were, #wesaygay, #queeryouth, #weareyoung, #hereandqueerdoc, and #upliftvoices. I also created the resources stories and highlight with posts tagging different organizations that help queer youth, educate people on LGBTQIA+ topics, and places where people can donate to organizations that help queer people. These stories and the post highlight the message of my documentary perfectly.

My Instagram post and one of the stories I created

I can’t wait to continue posting to my social media and showing off what I am creating!

“We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.”

- Bayard Rustin