Social Media Influence: It’s More Than a Nice Photo

Posted on by Sarah DiMarco

If you ask someone to describe the term, “social media influencer,” you most likely will hear, “someone living the perfect life.” However, social media influence goes much deeper than just a photo or post. Social media influencers not only have established a level of credibility within a certain area, but the ability to connect and educate countless people.

When looking at my own social media, I never imagined that I could have the power to establish myself as a go-to person on a certain topic. And yet through clever posts and well placed hashtags, my influence on social media has grown in countless ways. When starting the semester in Social Media Theory and Practice, I only had around 80 followers on Twitter with a Klout score of 22. I previously had been using my social media as a way post about articles I was working on, and follow my favorite journalists. As I started to think about how I wanted to grow my influence, my first thought was to stay true to my own personality and voice. I love to start discussions around food and insightful writing, so I knew that those were the topics I would be posting about the most.

With each post, I tried to make sure I tagged either a person or a publication in hopes of grabbing their attention, and the attention of people that follow them. When I would do that, I almost always got had that person like my tweet. I also realized that any tweet that included a food photo would get more engagement. The few times I posted photos of food I made, people would direct message with questions about the dish. Including rich media within my posts gathered more engagement than those without it. While I love tweets that include links to articles, I realized that many people don’t unless the article included an image of somebody well-known. My lowest performing tweets were the ones that were about articles that I had read. By the end of the semester, I managed to grow my followers to 106 and my Klout score to 37. 

As stated before, my Tweets that performed the best almost always included rich media or a tagged influencer:

500 impressions and 87 total engagements

The tweet about my pho was a clear winner on Twitter with people messaging me about my recipe. This was a retweet of a photo of pho I made months ago. But with this tweet, I managed to plug my own website. I believe people liked that they were able to see the food, and a way to learn how to make it for themselves.

 

270 Impressions and 8 total engagements

In terms of analytics and numbers, this tweet may not seem like a win, but the writer, Helen Rosner, actually liked the tweet. Rosner is notoriously known for being rather strict when choosing what she likes on Twitter. Earning a like from her felt like a major win for me, and it simply happened because I tagged her in the tweet.

 

 

773 impressions and 35 total engagements

I can safely say that many of my followers are fans of Donald Glover. I really enjoyed this article, and thought that the writer, Tad Friend, managed to encapsulate the spirit of Glover within his prose. The bright photo of Donald Glover invited people to click which is why it easily became one of my top tweets.

431 impressions and 37 total engagements

Ask anyone that knows me, and they will tell you that I don’t leave my house without a mug in hand. I wanted to have fun with this post and play off the fact it was Valentine’s Day. However, I realized that I missed an opportunity by not using the trending hashtag for the holiday. While this tweet is still one of my top performing, I could have garnered more attention by using that hashtag.

 

881 impressions and 13 total engagements

I was surprised that this tweet had such a high number of impressions without a hashtag. I think this tweet got the attention it had because I was speaking passionately on a subject that wasn’t covered much on most media outlets. I think this tweet is an example as how having a clear voice on social media help to establish influence.

 

401 Impressions and 26 total engagements
 This was another moment in which I geeked out about my tweet because Carey Polis liked it. The highlighting feature was a fun way to point something out in an article, and also created something besides just text to look at.

 

491 Impressions and 47 engagements

This tweet didn’t include the class hashtag, but over the semester is was one of my top performing tweets and my favorite. While it included photos, the tweet also detailed a major project I was working on and care for. By including the hashtags I did, I had a number of soul food accounts follow me.

 

425 Impressions and 46 total engagements

729 Impressions and 7 total engagements
The hashtag, “foodie,” always managed to earn more impressions than any other hashtag. Whenever I tweeted about food, I always made sure to include #foodie even if there wasn’t a rich media element. I found the conversation I had with my father to be hilarious so I decided to tweet about which lead to more impressions than some of my tweets with gifs and photos.

252 Impressions, 42 Media views and 23 total engagements

This tweet is an example as to how rich media helped me to gather more attention on the platform. The tweet didn’t get many likes or retweets, but it was one of my only tweets that had a number of media views. Gifs are quite popular and a favorite on Twitter, so I plan to use more of them when it seems tasteful.
I was able to see how different media components truly effects the engagement on a post by tracking my growth on social media. As I continue to grow my following and influence, I will continue to find ways to include that richness, but also, stay true to the voice and brand I have created on Twitter.

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