The purpose of this thesis was to create a web series educating college students about cooking and nutrition. Due the students' on-the-go lifestyle and lack of experience in the kitchen, meals are often consumed outside of the house and typically lack the recommended nutrition content for a healthy diet. In my research, I studied what college students are eating, where they are spending their money and how to create a web series that would help to remedy the problems. Viewers will be able to watch the episodes on YouTube, where young adults age 18-24 spend a large amount of time engaging in multimedia. The goal is for the audience watching Gourmet Gab: On the Go to be educated and entertained. Every episode they will learn about cooking fundaments, basic nutrition or how to make better choices for an overall healthier lifestyle. Additionally, each episode will include at least one new healthy, easy and inexpensive recipe.

Many individuals are not following healthy lifestyles as evidenced by the high obesity rates and poor physical activity levels. Many do not know how to eat healthy and exercise effectively, especially given busy schedules and no time to cook or go to the gym. However, people do spend a significant amount of time on their mobile device using social media. This outlet can potentially be used to inspire and teach individuals how to cook healthy simple meals, or find motivation to get off the couch for some exercise. In this study, strategies were identified that would increase the comments, likes, and followers of the investigator's Instagrams, which were designed to motivate followers to live a healthier lifestyle. Initially, 462 posts were assessed retrospectively to determine how the number of likes and comments were influenced by hashtags, category of posts (nutrition, fitness, or inspiration), and/or type of app, PicPlayPost, Instaframe, and the updated Instagram. These results were used in a 1-month prospective study to increase likes and followers to the investigator's Instagrams. In the retrospective study, it was determined that hashtags influenced the number of comments and likes across the categories and that the PicPlayPost app increased the likes in all categories. Hence, for the prospective study, the investigator wrote 1 nutrition and 1 fitness post daily for 28 days using a minimum of 15 hashtags per post. In addition, 3 nutrition posts and 3 fitness posts per week used the PicPlayPost app. This posting strategy increased the number of likes per post by 100%, and the number of followers increased from 369 to 1082 in one month. Interestingly, the nutrition posts received 27% more likes than the fitness posts, and the PicPlayPost app increased comments by 134%. In conclusion, the use of hashtags, PicPlayPost, and Instaframe apps increased the likes and comments on social media. These strategies may increase audience's attention on a certain topic and be used to improve individuals' lifestyles.