Revisiting Studygram: Brand & Aesthetic (ii)

Anindya Widita, B.A., M.A.

Previously on the last Studygram article, we have seen a little about the general content and look of the account. Like the other lifestyle content posts, despite the variety in how they display their content, studygram accounts are usually easily identifiable, that is if you are already familiar with the term. However, even if you are not able to put a name into this community, the similarity could easily be noticeable, if you care to look.

Branding, as we know, relates to an identity owned by a product, service, or an individual. A personal branding, or self-branding is how individuals shape their image, their identity through various platforms, including social media and how others perceive it.  Brems, et al., (2016) and Kleppinger & Cain (2015) noted that social media can be utilized to build an image or persona through activities of self-presentation in the virtual presence. In the case of Studygram, or study bloggers in general, let’s assume that what they are trying to achieve is a representation of themselves as a student, making the content revolves around their productivity through aesthetic display of photography.

Through observation to some Studygram accounts, it showed that there are plenty of variations in how these students perceive and shape the branding of Studygram. Everyone has their own style and characteristic in arranging their content. While the community has the word ‘study’ in it, don’t get it wrong, the content is not only about studying. It could be that study related activities dominated their feed. However, there are much more than that that we can all observe together.

When talking about branding, we know that there needs to be consistency. But, consistency does not mean monotonous. In this case, these studygrammers appear to understand that putting same type of content over and over would not work well. While the main content still revolves around photos of their productive activity and their tools, generally of stationery laid out neatly on the study desk or space, variety of other aesthetic, visually appealing contents were never neglected to decorate their well-crafted feed. Some examples include photography of a cup of coffee, a café visit post with a laptop arranged next to their snack, a simple adventure walk around the beach, giveaway post, and free downloadable templates (such as calendar or to-do list).

Not only it helps perk up their overall visual of the feed, but it also works for their branding too, since, let’s be real, who wants to study all the time? Having a consistent stream of same content type, albeit with quality of visual, is not realistic, especially for this type of self-branding. It could be better to portray the more relatable side in order to connect with their followers. It would be nice for these young people to be aware that life, while productivity is desirable, should also be enjoyable.

References:

Brems, C., Temmerman, M., Graham, T., & Broersma, M. (2017). Personal Branding on Twitter, Digital Journalism, 5:4, 443-459, DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2016.1176534

Kleppinger, C. A., & Cain, J. (2015). Personal digital branding as a professional asset in the digital age. American journal of pharmaceutical education, 79(6), 79.