My Growth In Social Media

Posted on by Max Gerstman

When this semester started, I hadn’t used Twitter in about three months. In high school, I used it to comment on local happenings and funny things that went on around school in our community. When I moved to Syracuse, the content I would have posted wasn’t that relevant to that audience and I stopped posting as much. When I started Social Media for Communicators in August, I had about 70 followers. Posting more with strategies like quote-tweeting and using relevant hashtags, I was able to get my following up to 94 and improved my Klout score from 25 to 31.

 

Here’s a look at some of my top tweets from the semester:

This post seems more important than ever now that Bana’s account is no longer active. This post came the day after the election, when our assignment was to stand for something. I think using a relevant hashtag and the timing of the post was a big part of the reason I drew in 514 impressions and a 2.3% engagement rate.

I tweeted this after my epic Newhouse Chopped fail during our Periscope Challenge. Because so much of the class was tuned in, what was essentially a very niche post got some love and was able to generate 712 impressions and a 1.3% engagement rate.

I’ve really been enjoying watching the Oakland Raiders this season and was especially enthused after this epic (and terrible) overtime win over Tampa Bay. By using the game hashtag while Twitter was hot with conversation about the incredibly awful football being played, I earned 349 impressions and a 1.7% engagement rate.

If you’re like me, you came back from Juice Jam feeling absolutely awful. So, I decided to take a few memes off of the Internet and make some fun for people scrolling down their Twitter feeds waiting for the hangover to pass. My one regret for this post was not drawing a bigger audience with #juicejam, but it still got a respectable 189 impressions and 11.6% engagement rate.

I tweeted this common refrain from the Giants 2010 ‘Torture Tour’ World Series run, coined for the remarkable stretch of close wins and losses played by my home team. Well, on that early October morning they were at it again, depriving me of sleep by playing extra innings well into the AM. The hashtag drew in some West Coast audience that was actually still awake and the tweet received 356 impressions and a 0.6% engagement rate.

Another Periscope Challenge post got a lot of love. With my up-close view of the proceedings, my classmates were eager to click on the exclusive tweet I published. My main regret with this post was not adding #college to expand my audience, but I did pull in 165 impressions and a 10.3% engagement rate.

One of my first tweets from the class also turned out to be one of my most engaging. In September, I was a bit of a Westcott junkie, catching both nights of Jerry Garcia cover band Cats Down Under the Stars. By giving the band and venue some recognition as well as adding the ever-popular hashtag #socialmedia, my tweet earned 215 impressions and a 9.8% engagement rate.

This post came after the first presidential debate, when now-President-elect Trump’s debate-night sniffles were a hot topic of Internet speculation. I was especially surprised candidate Trump had the gall to flat out deny he had the sniffles, another example of his concerning habit of denying things he is on tape doing. Using the day’s trending hashtag, I pulled in 270 impressions and a 1.9% engagement rate.

If you can’t tell by now, I’m a pretty big Bay Area sports guy. This quote tweet showed the Golden Gate Bridge photoshopped with a picture of the Crying Jordan meme to poke fun at the recent sports tragedies that have befallen the Bay. Connecting with the large segment of my audience back home, the tweet drew 215 impressions and a 2.3% engagement rate.

This post was the same as my campaign copy, but it did much better with the ad spend behind it than on it’s own. My funny and relatable meme got only 118 views and a 1.7% engagement rate on it’s own, and I probably should have though of more/better hashtags. However, by targeting stressed out college students with my ad spend, the post drew in an additional 748 impressions and 61 engagements.

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