How I Improved My #SocialMedia Presence

Posted on by Courtney Beacham

Part 1: Influence

When I first began COM 427: Social Media for Communicators, I was pretty mediocre at Twitter. I had a personal handle that I tweeted my thoughts that had no rhyme or reason and definitely lacked a consistent voice. With this in mind, I decided that I wanted to totally re-define myself on Twitter, so I decided to make an entirely new account.

I began with a mere 7 followers and ended the semester with a grand total of 58. Now, that might not seem like a lot to the average person, but I went from witty and not so funny tweets to a total overhaul involving #socialmedia and a far more professional voice. To me, my growth of 728.57% seems quite outstanding.

Along with tracking my Twitter growth, I also saw great improvement in my overall social media influence via Klout. At the beginning of the course my Klout score was a 26 and it is now a 57. This growth of 119.23% shows that my social influence over the past 90 days has seen a great increase and to continue climbing the social media influencer ladder, I can make minor tweaks here and there to ensure that my social media is remaining relevant.

What I think worked best for me was following the class Twitter assignments, but also mixing in some of my own tweets that had to do with things that I enjoy. I tried to use trending hashtags during big events like the CMAs, as well as more emojis and engaging visuals to try and increase my user engagement. Some of my most successful tweets centered around my meme for the Viral Content Challenge, GIF creation and the stop motion assignment which proves to me that humorous, relevant and engaging content is likely to gain a wider audience. I definitely think that these tactics worked best for me because on tweets where I did not utilize hashtags, gifs, emojis or a visual aspect, I got little to no user engagement.

Part 2: Top 10 Tweets 

#1. Stop Motion. 99 engagements. I think this tweet was one of my most successful tweets because it was funny and engaged my closest friends. I used my friends as subjects to try out stop motion, and their awkward-ness really helped to spike my engagement. To improve this tweet and get even more engagement, I would add an emoji, and make a stop motion video that is higher quality.

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#2. Make your own GIF. 62 engagements. I believe this tweet received a high level of engagement because I tweeted it at a time when many fraternities and sororities on campus were having their date nights and everyone was scrambling to find dates. To improve this tweet, I would make the GIF a bit longer and the video more clear to the viewer.

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#3. Viral Content Challenge Meme. 61 engagements. I was so proud of the meme that I created for the Viral Content Challenge. This was my first tweet promoting my meme, and I was so pleased to get 61 engagements on it. I think it did so well because it was funny and relatable for the viewer. I tried many other versions of tweets to promote my meme, but this was by far the most successful organic tweet.

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#4. Social Media IRL. 61 engagements. I tweeted this photo of wall art at Chucks, a bar on campus, as part of the social media in real life assignment. I think it did so well because I utilized hashtags that are often looked at. The majority of the users who favorited and retweeted were users that I didn’t even know. I tried to bring this tweet back to life a few weeks later, but my engagement was nowhere near as high.

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#5. #HowTo Video. 56 engagements. I spent a lot of time trying to make a short how to video as stock content to promote on Twitter. This video will always be relevant, and I believe that it did well because I used popular hashtags and included an interesting media. To improve this tweet I would try and change the wording in the tweet and use different hashtags.

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#6. Group Selfie. 51 engagements. I posted this tweet after a guest lecture about the culture of selfies. I think it received a decent amount of engagement because I tagged the network of the show I was watching, as well as two stars of the show. Many of the favorites are from accounts associated with Bravo and the Real Housewives franchise. I was very pleased with this tweet and I don’t think many alterations would enhance my engagement level.

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#7. Twitter Poll. 44 engagements. Who can resist voting for their favorite type of chocolate? My first attempt at a Twitter poll was around Halloween time when everyone was in the mood for their favorite candies. To increase the engagement, I would add #chocolate in the copy of the tweet to attract more of an audience.

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#8. Trending Hashtag. 28 engagements. During the 50th Annual CMA awards, I tweeted this photo of Peyton Manning giving an award to Kenney Chesney. This tweet was successful because of the use of a popular hashtag, #PeytonMannin, as well as a trending hashtag #CMAawards50. To improve this tweet, I would tag more influencers of country music who were likely to be watching the awards show.

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#9. Self-motivation. 28 engagements. Through this next tweet I learned that being positive about yourself on social media is awkward. I wasn’t sure what to tweet about myself, but when I decided to do this gym picture I was pleased with the engagement it received. I didn’t expect 6 favorites, to be honest I expected none because I didn’t feel this tweet was worthy of many favorites. To improve this tweet I might add another hashtag about working out to gain the audience of people who are into fitness.

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#10. Unique Hashtag. 23 engagements. My final top 10 tweet was my sad attempt at creating my own unique hashtag. I don’t think this tweet received engagement because of my clever #CBthings hashtag, but I think the photo of the farm and horses coupled with tagging the friends I was with drove the engagement. To improve this tweet I would spend a bit more time researching and coming up with better ways to create a personal and unique hashtag.

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Conclusion: 

If there is one thing I took away from this semester’s social media class it is that social media is a beast of its own. Before embarking in this course, I thought that likes, favorites and retweets had no rhyme or reason, but after 14 weeks of learning the ins and outs of platforms, I realized that there is so much you can do to try and gain a wider audience and be a social media influencer. I learned about hashtags, GIFs, memes, stock and flow content, and so many other valuable skills that I can now utilize in my personal and professional life to increase my social media presence. I feel like I’m well on my way to being a social media guru.

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