At the start of the course, I created a new Twitter account so I could begin building a more professional and refined voice compared to my personal Twitter. Because it was a new account I started off with 0 followers. And now at the end of the course, I have 10.
I found that simply tweeting wasn’t really an effective way of gaining followers or any form of engagement. Using more hashtags and a wider variety of them helped a little but didn’t do anything dramatic. What worked more for me was engaging with other Twitter user’s posts and following other accounts. With the tweet below I actually got a response from the author herself!
Hi @AlexandreHolder! I read your book Open Up: The Power of Talking about Money, over the summer and loved every chapter. It completely changed the way I view my financial habits!#NHsmc
— Clare Coey (@coey_clare) October 7, 2019
The posts that did the “best” on my Twitter profile were ones that were actively engaging an established community on the platform, such as communities surrounding a social movement or certain fan base. These tweets also had rich media which I am sure helped as well.
It's #followfriday! These A M A Z I N G YouTubers deserve so much more recognition: @ContraPoints @TheeNerdwriter @flatbushcats @tiffanytheprez #NHsmc pic.twitter.com/cF24SQOqqU
— Clare Coey (@coey_clare) September 28, 2019
This tweet now has 3 likes and earned 345 impressions, one like was from the Youtube content creator I engaged with.
I fully support University of Virginia's choice to cancel their #VeteransDay 21-gun salute due to issues surrounding #gunviolence. An institution can still honor veterans without this tradition. #NHsmchttps://t.co/qUQNYUr9U1
— Clare Coey (@coey_clare) November 11, 2019
This tweet, on the other hand, has a drastically different tone compared to my others. Nonetheless, it engaged with a really important movement through rich media and a variety of hashtags, garnering 162 impressions and 1 retweet.
How is it already #october I swear I'm going to blink and be 60 years old, thinking about retirement.. how do you slow time down? This is a serious inquiry. #NHsmc pic.twitter.com/J5Xw8dvxkZ
— Clare Coey (@coey_clare) October 2, 2019
This my top media tweet of October, earning 131 impressions. I think it did better than others since I used an additional hashtag and included a gif.
When direct marketing apes social media. #NHsmc pic.twitter.com/TiNEVJIqAn
— Clare Coey (@coey_clare) September 4, 2019
This tweet, on the other hand, was one of my first tweets, with around 250 impressions now. Although I didn’t use many hashtags aside from the class hashtag, I incorporated an original photo.
It's almost like I enjoy putting myself in panic mode??#college #students #university #NHsmc pic.twitter.com/3O1xthjmUq
— Clare Coey (@coey_clare) November 4, 2019
I believe this is a tweet that included the most amount of hashtags on my profile, which I’m sure helped a lot with increasing overall impressions, as my other tweet with the same meme image does not have the same number of impressions. This tweet currently has an engagement of 4 and 69 impressions.
How ready are we for our upcoming midterms?#NHsmc
— Clare Coey (@coey_clare) October 13, 2019
This tweet, although it didn’t include many interesting hashtags (which I definitely should have added) still attracted some engagement due to the overall interactive nature of a poll, as well as the relevance and relatability of the tweet’s topic itself.
I don't know what started to happen in the 1980s… but white 👏 chocolate 👏 is 👏 not 👏 real 👏 chocolate 👏 #NHsmc pic.twitter.com/HUjFeDfWu7
— Clare Coey (@coey_clare) October 12, 2019
This tweet also includes original content, an easy to read graph with some pretty useless but interesting information, garnering 131 impressions, and engagement of 3.
Follow my Instagram if you're looking for another place where I manufacture my identity to the point where even I don't know who I am! https://t.co/4ZT9wzFE6b #NHsmc pic.twitter.com/te5qjTbcH1
— Clare Coey (@coey_clare) September 28, 2019
This was one of my top media tweets in September. The link in the tweet likely promoted engagement as well as the image used, as the image acted as a form of a ‘sneak peek’ into what the link would lead to. Overall this tweet currently has 306 impressions and a total of 4 engagements.
Angles are everything! #NHsmc pic.twitter.com/n1KZ20gzii
— Clare Coey (@coey_clare) September 18, 2019
Lastly, this tweet is my only tweet with an original video. It had a total of 191 impressions, 26 media views, and 1 engagement. I really should have incorporated additional hashtags to attract more impressions, nonetheless, I thought the video was funny and decided to tweet it.