To further enhance my digital artefact I have looked back at my peer and tutor comments for my pitch as well as lecture materials from previous weeks. I was extremely pleased with the feedback I received from my pitch. Some suggestions that I had been told was for me to use tags whenever I post on my blog as this can lead to a larger audience finding my post which would ultimately lead to more engagement. I even took this advice one step further and realised that hashtags in the captions of my TikTok would be a way in which I could attract the niche audience I am after. Hashtags also increase the chances of engagement as well with how the TikTok algorithm is set up.
Another really great piece of advice I received from a student was to focus on performing a textual analysis surrounding my niche. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, visual appeal plays a key role in engagement surrounding cryptocurrencies on TikTok. The way in which the creator uses language, semiotics, ideologies and narrative all plays a part in how the TikTok performs and the way their audience reacts to it.
I also took advice from my tutor who indicated that I need to be specific about my persona which is why I have revised my angle of approach around what my persona is going to look like to my audience on TikTok. I am going to focus my persona and account as being interactive by posting topics and allowing discussion to occur in the comment section.
In this blog post I will be unpacking even further the key epiphanies (which I mentioned in my previous blog post) I have experienced while undergoing my research for my media niche. I will be further analysing how these epiphanies can benefit my project moving forward and how they have affected my original viewpoint coming into this research.
Building a reputation is key
Expanding on my first epiphany ‘building a reputation is key’ I have noticed another key idea that comes along with being associated with building credibility in the industry. The task for niche content creators on social media isn’t just attaining credibility in their chosen niche but maintaining it. Reputation is built and maintained on four different dimensions: Communication skills, influence, authenticity, and expertise (Ryu, E.A.; Han, E. 2021).
Specifically on TikTok the affordances that have been brought to their platform have made it extremely easy for micro celebrities to have their reputation crushed. Users can use the duet or stitch features on the app to easily highlight misinformation or audience exploitation. Particularly in the cryptocurrency niche, content creators have become popular simply by using these affordances to educate their audience on scams, hopium filled or false information videos.
“Influencers give consumers familiarity and consumers grant them credibility because they are sharing their own experiences and lifestyles” (Tobin, 2018)
Visual appeal influences engagement
Since the previous week’s blog post I have found another interpretation of what contradicts engagement surrounding the media niche cryptocurrency TikTok, visual appeal. In order to evaluate this epiphany I have used a textual analysis to identify the underlying ideological and cultural assumptions of the niche.
A textual analysis is a qualitative analysis method that focuses on the semiotics and interpretive approaches to a piece of content (Fürsich, 2018). When evaluating visual appeal it is important to understand how audiences react to the content they are shown as ultimately it is the audience that influences how successful content is. It has been proven that presentations with visual aides are 43% more persuasive which tell us that using imagery and semiotics that catch the eye are extremely important (Patel, 2019). On YouTube I have noticed that most cryptocurrency based YouTubers use bold titles with colourful thumbnails and arrows pointing to different aspects of the image to emphasise what’s happening in the video.
Similar patterns on TikTok are beginning to emerge as creators are finding out how the TikTok algorithm pushes videos. Most cryptocurrency based TikTok creators show appealing images of a trending topic or idea and have themselves speaking about the topic. They also add titles to the videos that generally are in all caps and have plenty of emojis. It is also worth mentioning that the TikTok algorithm is extremely unpredictable and is hard to study how engagement works on TikTok as some of it is luck.
References
Ryu, E.A.; Han, E. Social Media Influencer’s Reputation: Developing and Validating a Multidimensional Scale. Sustainability 2021,
As I mentioned in my previous blog post I have chosen to investigate cryptocurrencies as my media niche for my digital artefact. In this blog post my goal is to provide a map of how I am going to ethnographically go about my research into my niche. The primary method that I am going to use to conduct an ethnographic research study on my niche is observation and field research. Being part of the cryptocurrency online community for over a year has allowed me to personally observe common participatory behaviour throughout the different platforms the niche is involved with. Having this experience will allow me to utilise the research method being auto-ethnography. This includes the majority of the top social media platforms eg. YouTube, Facebook. In observing my niche, taking notes and publishing information from social media onto my blogs etc, my highest priority is to only publish information if it is ethical to do so. I am going to make sure to not post usernames and specific comments to not expose anyone online.
Creating a field map/site is a crucial element of performing a thorough ethnographic analysis since it helps you to better grasp your selected media niche and conduct in-depth quality research.
Throughout the cryptocurrency online community I have observed numerous personas, cryptos, participants and social media platforms and compiled a mind map which sums up the niche in detail. Being in Facebook group chats has given me knowledge as to who the general audience is that consumes cryptocurrencies. Many people put on a critical persona and negatively comment on specific ideas within the community. YouTubers that I consume who cover cryptocurrencies such as Crypto Capital Venture and Jason Pizzino often put on specific personas to cater to an audience. YouTubers often hype up and exaggerate cryptocurrency news to get people to watch their videos.
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