HSE Student Instagram Success Story
One more story about HSE student's success in blogging. Let us introduce you Alyona Yatskovskaya and her @alyonaa.y Instagram account that has 10,500 subscribers.
I am 20 years old and I am a 3rd-year student of Journalism Program of the Faculty of Communications, Media, and Design. It was not easy to enter the humanitarian direction. For many years, especially in the last school years, I studied literature, constantly participated in Olympiads of different levels. By the way, participation in the Olympiad from HSE gave me several decisive points, thanks to which I study on a free basis. I also developed a portfolio – wrote articles for the city newspaper and school website and began to develop my blog. This helped me with additional entrance tests! The examiners liked that I already have my own small projects at such an early age.
I love being here! It seems to me that among competing universities, Journalism is best taught at HSE. We have a lot of practice: already in the first year, we filmed reports ourselves and recorded podcasts. In our university special attention is paid to project activities. I think that for a journalist, practical skills are much more important than theory. I am always attracted by the field of video content: now I work as a correspondent for a small town channel, and I plan to switch to federal ones.
I started my personal blog at school. Then Instagram was not so widespread, so classmates looked at me like I was a white crow. They often laughed, joked, discussed.
It always seemed to me that I had an interesting life. Moreover, I am good at expressing thoughts in text format. Slowly but surely, I began to share this on Instagram. I really liked creating an aesthetic Instagram feed so I always pay attention to light, composition, and color (this came from my experience in art studies).
For me, an Instagram profile has always been for the soul. Gradually, more and more people came to me. Last year I was offered my first barter cooperation. Brands started to notice my account, and this is how other offers appeared. Now I can have about 10 partnerships a month: these are cosmetic brands, clothing, restaurants, meetings, and invitations to theaters. I am happy to share this with my audience. I can work on the creation of each shot for a very long time: recently I had a collaboration with the «Dove» brand, and I redid the photo 4 times! I changed the location, light, idea ... Of course, now I began to carefully selecting applications because this is very important for a blogger not to spoil the reputation.
The most important thing is the connection with the audience. I am glad that all my subscribers are kind, sincere, and warm people. They always support me, and I am so pleased to share something new with them and inspire them with my creativity!
As I already said, it was always interesting for me to shoot something, and to speak on camera. That is why when the first studying year began, I immediately started looking for projects connected with making videos. One of such projects was «TeleVyshka». We filmed a creative release with teachers in bars in Moscow. It was a very cool team and media experience. I have made many acquaintances from completely different, even polar, spheres. For a journalist, connections are very important!
Unfortunately, I am not an expert in this. It is very difficult for me to manage everything. However, I think the most important thing is to plan and prioritize. I am studying on a free basis so I can afford not to worry about marks and calmly do what I need and what I consider interesting for my future. As for personal life, it must exist. I would advise all students to stay free, communicate, party until the morning. When, if not now?