Reviewing my work

Posted on by Paul Schwedelson

After a semester of working toward improving my engagement on Twitter, I didn’t see much growth. Many of my Tweets lacked compelling elements to grip people in and get followers to stop scrolling when my name popped up on their timeline. I found that generally my most successful Tweets were ones that included certain types of media content or an engaging hashtag or emoji. This is an important lesson. My Tweets that simply just included text received very little engagement.

While my engagement struggled at times, I’m glad my follower count grew from zero to 36. That was encouraging and I know that once I can generate more retweets, that number can continue to increase. The fact that I built up a follower base from scratch shows the potential I have to keep getting bigger. There are certain trends I noticed with the Tweets that created more engagement. If I do that more often, I know I can form a strong follower base. However, my Klout score didn’t reflect much movement over the course of the semester. I’m not entirely sure why, but both my high and low score was 10. There’s definitely more room for improvement in the future but at least now I have the tools to make that into a reality.

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Now, let’s get to the nitty-gritty. Here’s an analysis of my top 10 Tweets from the semester.

This didn’t generate a ton of engagement, it left 149 impressions, but the incorporation of just one emoji helped me generate three likes. I even got a hashtag click on something that was a generally pretty bland Tweet. Still, it was better than most Tweets without an emoji or a hashtag.

This Tweet received 256 impressions and goes to show that people like emojis. They’re usually fun and goofy, something that Twitter users often gravitate toward. The content in the Tweet also pokes a little fun at the way high school football players use emojis. While it wasn’t inappropriate, that slight jab helped me get eight likes.

While this Tweet only got three likes, it received 248 impressions and 22 total engagements. Again, this goes to show the power of media in Tweets. I received 15 media engagements, a statistic that couldn’t have existed unless the media was included. Similar to emojis, bitmojis are fun animations that Twitter users tend to enjoy.

This Tweet only received 79 impressions, but also 23 total engagements. So the impressions decreased with a lack of media, but the interactive element of a Twitter poll allowed me to create a slight discussion about this topic. Had this been a more compelling or relevant topic, it would have created a bigger discussion, but 13 people voted, which I was happy to see. Due to the generic nature of these hashtags, I only received two hashtag clicks. If they were more specific or related to a relevant topic, perhaps that may have generated more attention.

This Tweet generated 136 impressions and the Twitter card of the photo may have helped with that. Also putting the period before replying was a smart move so that all of my followers could see this. The idea of replying and interacting helped create some more analytics.

Again, here’s an example of media in a Tweet. I’ve come to learn how valuable that can be. That’s what separates average Tweets from the ones people actually pay attention to when they’re scrolling through their timeline. It only got 16 engagements but 226 impressions stood out to me. Perhaps the timing of the Tweet in the morning helped with this.

Not a ton of action here, but seven media engagements existed because of the photos I attached with the Tweet. If I didn’t do that, those engagements wouldn’t have existed. Two-hundred-eleven impressions was a solid number and I played off the fact that lots of people in Syracuse love their basketball team.

This Tweet received 144 impressions but also 32 media views. The use of a GIF helped that number increase compared to my statistics when regular still photos were used. That’s a solid improvement and goes to show the more engaging media, the better. The GIF itself isn’t that compelling (my roommate winking at the camera while cooking dinner) so a more well thought out GIF could probably do even better.

This Tweet only got three likes but the retweet really helped me. It got 351 impressions, which is a result of the retweet since my Tweets generally did not get that many. The use of the hashtag “Trust The Process” didn’t help as much as I thought it would (I only received one hashtag click) but perhaps people found this Tweet when searching that hashtag. The Tweet didn’t have any media, but it goes to show the power of a retweet. That’s how things can go viral with many more shares.

This Tweet received 205 impressions. I thought it would have done a little better because it’s a funny note and it interacts with another Twitter user. But the person I Tweeted at never replied. It was a good attempt, but it didn’t quite reach the potential I thought it had.

 

Looking back, what I’ve learned is I should have included more media, hashtags and interacted with others more often. Too often I simply sent out a Tweet that didn’t check any of those boxes and I received little engagement. In order to have better engagement numbers, I should have put myself out there, been more interactive and fully immersed in the Twitter environment.

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