Posted on by Vivian Whitney

INFLUENCE

I started the semester with 311 followers on my Twitter account I’ve had for a few years. Now, at the end of the semester, I have 386 followers, which is a 24% increase. Most of the followers I started off with were a lot of people I know from home and from here, but when my tweets got a lot of engagement, I did gain a considerable number of followers that are my friends who just hadn’t found my Twitter yet, so having good tweets helped those people find and follow my Twitter.

Additionally, I followed a lot of the Twitters of people in class. While not all followed back, a good amount of them did, which helped my follower growth. Along the way, I have gained a few random followers I don’t know, but I didn’t notice a whole lot. The more I tweet and the more engagement I get, though, the more I noticed random accounts will follow me and engage with my tweets.

EXECUTION

In no particular order, here are 10 of my tweets and posts for the semester. Some are my most successful and popular tweets, some are my worst tweets, and some are pretty mediocre tweets that taught me something.

1. Lower East Side Pickle Day

Likes: 11 | Retweets: 2 | Replies: 0 | Impressions: 561 | Engagements: 33 | Engagement Rate: 5.9%

This is one of my mediocre tweets that taught me something. What I noticed throughout the semester is that a lot of the times, when I shared links or tried to plug different things, they never got too much engagement. But on this one, I used a hashtag (part of the assignment, I think), which I think I’ve never done before in a serious manner. The tweet got two retweets, from @ChutneysAndJams and @ArtisanLard, two people who don’t follow me. Judging by their handles and accounts, they most likely found the tweet under #pickles and retweeted it from there. I definitely underestimated the power of hashtags when it comes to tweets like this, so this tweet showed me that they can actually work to get engagement. Additionally, this tweet did better than some of my other plug tweets I think because it was more in my tone and voice, which encouraged my friends to engage with it more than they do my “professional tweets.”

2. Jonah Hill

Likes: 18 | Retweets: 1 | Replies: 1 | Impressions: 459 | Engagements: 27 | Engagement Rate: 5.9%

This is one of the first tweets I did with a picture. I wanted to think of something retweetable, and it did get one, but it didn’t do as well as I had hoped. Compared to other simple tweets I did with no pictures though, it did do comparatively better. One thing with pictures on Twitter I’ve had trouble with is having it the right size so it doesn’t get cut off too badly in the preview, and maybe that was a problem with this one.

3. @2vivz

Likes: 1 | Retweets: 0 | Replies: 0 | Impressions: 291 | Engagements: 11 | Engagement Rate: 3.7%

This is one of my most embarrassingly unsuccessful tweets. Only one like. 11 engagements. I knew a normal plug tweet wouldn’t work either, so I tried to make it more in my voice, but it didn’t help either. One thing I think is that maybe because a good majority of my followers already follow me on Instagram, they didn’t bother engaging with the tweet. I think I definitely should’ve used a photo for this one to boost engagement, but I can definitely learn from this one in the future when trying to plug other socials.

4. Tik Tok Mom

Likes: 15 | Retweets: 0 | Replies: 2 | Impressions: 794 | Engagement: 180 | Engagement Rate: 22.7%

This is one of my earlier tweets that had a good engagement rate. I had never used moments before, and I’ve honestly wondered about a way to share a collection of tweets, so this was helpful. For a collection like this, it worked well and I was able to find content that people would engage with.

5. Bathroom Picture

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#NHsmc

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Likes: 115 | Comments: 4

This was the only #NHsmc Instagram post I posted on my actual personal Instagram, and it got a pretty good amount of engagement. While it did get a considerably less amount of likes than my average amount, it did get around the normal amount of likes I get for posts like this. One thing this post made me realize is that I think people appreciate my brand. Like I said, I do post pictures like this on my Instagram quite often, so people are familiar with it coming from me and engage with it more. In the past, my posts like these wouldn’t get any comments at all, but this one got four comments which is a pretty decent amount for one of these posts on my account, so I think people are accepting these pictures as part of my brand and wanting to still engage with them.

6. House Destruction

Likes: 34 | Retweets: 2 | Replies: 0 | Impressions: 1,343 | Engagement: 387 | Engagement Rate: 28.8%

This tweet also got a good engagement rate, and I think this use of photos worked better than my earlier one because it’s more personal and funny, which I think my followers like more. This, I think, is a good combination of text with photos too, as each support each other.

7. Harry Styles Stans

Likes: 10 | Retweets: 0 | Replies: 0 | Impressions: 5,083 | Engagement: 26 | Engagement Rate: 0.5%

While this tweet didn’t get a good engagement rate at all, it got way more likes than I thought it would and a whole lot of impressions. I didn’t really know what kind of tweet and whose to comment on, but I replied to a verified reply of a Harry Styles tweet, which is one reason I guess it got a lot of impressions, which worked out. Also, it was interesting to see at what time engagement would come. It didn’t initially receive any likes, but after days, it would slowly pick some up and I even kept getting a few after a week or two.

8. Me on the News

Likes: 65 | Retweets: 1 (me) | Replies: 2 | Impressions: 1,680 | Engagement: 583 | Engagement Rate: 34.7%

This is one of my more successful tweets, surprisingly. I didn’t know what video to post, but I wanted to make it genuine, and it worked out. Like my house destruction tweet, I think my followers like more personal media like this, and it got a lot of likes and a good engagement rate. This amount of likes is even high for my non-class tweets, which surprised me because I didn’t think it would be this successful. This is also the tweet I retweeted to increase engagement, but I don’t think it really helped.

9. Skateboard Gif

Likes: 3 | Retweets: 0 | Replies: 0 | Impressions: 462 | Engagements: 27 | Engagement Rate: 5.8%

This tweet was, unfortunately, an unsuccessful tweet. My other tweets with media elements generally were doing really good, so It thought this one would too, but it only got three likes and 27 engagements. I thought it was relatable too, and my previous “me this week” tweet had done well. I think this tweet taught me that it’s not just media that boost engagement on tweets. My guess is that because the gif is pretty dark and not very eye-catching, it didn’t come off as well as a brighter, more engaging one would have. Also, I would have liked to crop the gif to get rid of the black sidebars too, which might have helped. The text maybe could also be funnier. Maybe it was the fact that it was too similar to my previous content that made people engage with it less.

10. Me Calling People Out

Likes: 15 | Retweets: 0 | Replies: 0 | Impressions: 491 | Engagements: 29 | Engagement Rate: 5.9%

This tweet is another one of the kind of plug ones that didn’t get much engagement. I did try to find a way to do it more in my voice, and I think I did it well. I don’t usually like to do tweets like this just because they’re not very me, but I actually didn’t mind this one because I found someone I actually wanted to shoutout about something I’m interested in. Anyways, I remember this tweet was up for an hour and did not receive a single like, and while my tweets of this don’t usually get a lot of likes, they usually get at least a few within an hour. And I was kind of bummed because it was a plug tweet I actually kind of cared about. So I tweeted this.

Likes: 26 | Retweets: 1 | Replies: 2 | Impressions: 1,366 | Engagements: 111 | Engagement Rate 8.3%

This tweet then got the earlier tweet 15 likes, and it also got significantly more engagement than the previous, with retweets and replies, which was kind of ironic. But this one, like the other, shows me what kind of tweets my followers right now are interested in. Because they’re my friend and mostly on Twitter for humor, they relate more to tweets like this than they do my professional and plug tweets.

CONCLUSION

I’ve been using Twitter for a while before this class, but I did learn some new things in these assignments, like including rich media and hashtags, and I also got to know better what kind of content my followers like. Realistically, I don’t see myself having a career where I really depend on Twitter like a lot of local journalists may, or even one where I need or want to use it very professionally. I’m also bad at the whole network/plug type of tweeting, though I did improve a little on that. Also, the type of follower base I have right now doesn’t really like it either, which makes sense considering I use Twitter mostly for humor and funny personal content. This summer, I tried to do a networky plug tweet, and this is what my friend tweeted about it:

I’ve done a little more of these tweets now, so it’s a little more normal for me to do, but I’ve also figured out ways to add my voice into them. While I wanted this one to be way more professional than some of my others because I was tagging accounts, from the practice from this class, I know now how I could’ve done that tweet a little differently to stay professional and still be in my voice.

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