The first thing I did when creating content after reading Contagious was to create a “Bingo” themed Instagram Story based on hidden gem restaurants in Oxford. This came to mind immediately after I read the section on “Leveraging Game Mechanics” in Part One. This is a trend that has been happening on Instagram recently during quarantine because it doesn’t require people to come up with any new content. Also it is popular because it provides “tangible evidence of our progress” (29) in collecting memories and creating valuable experiences. I thought this would apply well to by blog concept because it would allow people to document which Oxford restaurants they have already experienced and which ones they may not know about or should still be on their list.
In one of my Instagram posts, I tried to use a technique from Part Two, “Triggers.” According to the text, “accesible thoughts and ideas lead to actions” (40). In my caption of this post, I tried to create an association for the reader. This came naturally because this is an association I already have. It was a beautiful sunny day and I posted about the porch at Phillip’s Grocery and used pictures from a nice day on the porch. I did this in hopes that the reader will now think of this restaurant and my advice the next time they are experiencing nice weather and looking for a place to enjoy it.
In Part Five, the books talks about “Practical Use.” This was the technique that I tried to use on my next Instagram post. I wanted to provide followers with practical tips to use the next time they visited the restaurant I specified. It can be a little tricky to navigate at first with different rules about brining in your own alcohol, splitting plates, and choosing from the menu. I tried to offer suggestions to my followers that would make the process of trying a new restaurant less intimidating. The text states that “people share practically valuable information to help others.” This is definitely true because the information I shared with my followers is information that I got from my friends the first time I visited this restaurant. I hope this information helps my followers and that as a result they trust and return to my blog.
Another post that was inspired by the Contagious book was the Instagram story that I made about the Oxford restaurant bracket that had been taking place on Twitter. It was posted on @olemissrebels and has been proceeding by Twitter polls for the last few weeks. It finally came down to the final two and I could see that many people in the comments were upset about the results as they felt passionately about another restaurant that should have won or that their favorite restaurant had been robbed. I thought this would be a great opportunity to appeal to “Emotion” as is talked about in Part Four. The text suggests, “Articles that evoked anger or anxiety were more likely to make the Most E-Mailed List” (59). I figured if I told my followers that these two specifics restaurants were deemed the best in Oxford, they were likely to have a somewhat angry reaction. I hoped they would then share this news with their friends and also interact with the account by arguing for a more just ranking.
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