Personal Influencer Growth and Analysis

Posted on by Nolan Olson

Twitter was a new frontier for me when I started COM 427. Having no experience with the platform, I had to create a new account, which meant starting from the bottom at zero followers. From my first post, on August 28th, to date, I gained seven total followers.

I was surprised by the little impact that hashtags had on my follower count. I would have thought some of the car-related hashtags would have attracted followers because of other timely car posts, but my assumption is that my low follower and post count didn’t motivate others to follow.

The most significant spike in my follower count came when I made a post for the in-class group activism exercise. I gained two followers, who were students in my class, which I suspect is a result of the exercise since the professor encouraged us to look at each others’ posts. As far as the other followers go, one of them is a friend, one is a spam account, and two are automotive related, which was interesting.

Consistently uploading content seems to be the best way to grow an account. While that might seem obvious, when I was posting consistency, I saw an increase in impressions.

  • 62 Likes
  • 1,430 Reach
  • 4 Interactions

My most successful Instagram post by far, the Land Rover Discovery post, achieved its high reach and like statistics because of the hashtag #best4x4xfar. I attached this hashtag to a post I made on my personal account previously, which I had a lot of success with, so I was able to achieve the same results here. I think it works because it’s a niche hashtag that people “in the know” follow, so it doesn’t get buried like posts in other hashtags tend to do.

 

  • 39 Likes
  • 142 Reach
  • 3 Interactions

This post did well too; what I assume to be, the “cute factor.” I was able to draw in some dog lovers through the hashtags and engage current followers with the bright cover image and attractive pose that the dog was in. This was a more visual strategy, and the assignment we were given previously about applying an engaging filter helped here.

 

  • 32 Likes
  • 163 Reach
  • 4 Interactions

This post was a share of an existing article about a just-released vehicle. The timeliness and the fact that I tagged the publication in my post contributed to the increased attention, which explains why some of the likes came from people who didn’t follow me but followed Jalopnik, the website that the article came from. This was a great demonstration of how you can tap into other page’s followers by sharing their content.

 

  • 30 Likes
  • 174 Reach
  • 9 Interactions

This was one of my favorite posts, aesthetically, and at 30 likes, it fared alright for being just a picture of a frog. Because of various amphibian-related hashtags, I got some likes from amphibian “enthusiasts.” I also tried using the frog emoji to make the caption pop.

 

  • 26 Likes
  • 75 Reach
  • 21 Interactions

This post was my first, and I started strongly with 26 likes. This post had the most interactions, by far, because I posed an engaging question in the caption that got my audience interested enough to discuss their favorite wheel types. This is ina way, applying pull tactics to a social media post.

 

  • 26 Likes
  • 73 Reach
  • 9 Interactions

Not the best post visually, my second post demonstrates how strong hashtags can make up for an average photo. Like the frog post, I was able to channel animal lovers through hashtags, which got them to like the post. Even though the golden retriever wasn’t the main subject or even seen in the first photo, I used those has tags because I knew that out of everything in both pictures, the pet would resonate the most with people.

 

  • 2,096 Impressions
  • 2 Engagements

My top Tweet was actually a Tweet response to the popular automotive YouTuber, Doug Demuro. Since Doug responded to me, it’s no surprise that people took notice and read what I asked. While it didn’t boost my follower count, I think if I had more quantity of posts at the time, I could have gotten followers from it.

 

  • 215 Impressions
  • 3 Engagements

Impressions were not as high as my response to Doug, but I did get decent engagement on the post, which I hypothesize is from the link I posted. I did notice that after I posted the link, I got two follows on my Mr. Automotive Instagram page, which confirms my theory.

 

  • 327 Impressions
  • 26 Media Views
  • 3 Engagements

My Taylor Ham post got the second-highest impression rating, which is consistent with the higher impressions that I got on all of the animated posts I made. Twenty-six media views also tell me that all of those impressions weren’t just passive. Some may have captivated by the homemade gif o the divisive north versus south Jersey question.

 

  • 284 Impressions
  • 30 Media Views
  • 1 Engagement

The Many Saints Of Newark post gained above average impressions, which I attribute to the hashtag I used, the name of the upcoming show, which many people have been following closely. Like my Instagram post about the Mazda, the importance of timeliness is, again, reinforced. Cashing in on the buzz is essential, but I think the GIF I used made my post stand out from the many other Many Saints Of Newark posts that there were.

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