Slowly Becoming a Twitter Expert

Posted on by Natiah Camillo

At the start of this semester I was pretty new to Twitter and all that it offers as a social media network. In 9th grade I used Twitter briefly as a place to vent, gain followers, and just post pictures or funny videos here and there. Since I hadn’t used the platform in so long I felt rusty while using it this semester, as I felt like I had to start learning from the beginning. I had to learn all over again how Twitter works, how to use it in a way that is beneficial for me, and how to gain an audience and some followers through tweeting rich content. I started this semester with a new twitter handle and 0 followers. I am now ending this semester with 54 followers. I also started with a Klout score of 0, and ending this semester with a Klout score of 31.27 as my highest over a 90 day period and with 20.96 as my lowest. Today my score is 24.03 on Klout.

My Klout score was pretty inconsistent but began to drop towards the end of the semester, more specifically in April. Looking back and analyzing the dates and the score change, I realized that during the month of April I tweeted less often than I had in the beginning of the semester. At the beginning of the semester, however, I tweeted more frequently and I used hashtags that had a big following. What worked for me was being myself and finding my voice in my tweets. I am a naturally funny person but it didn’t necessarily transfer in my tweets as well as my deep and poetic voice did. When tweeting for assignments, I began to tweet true to how I felt instead of trying to capture an audience through comedy. I realized that many of my followers and other twitter users liked my content just the way it was. What also worked for me was having conversations with and following people who influenced the kind of voice I was creating. This not only helped motivate me but I was also able to gain new followers this way. I also realized that tweets with GIFs, pictures or videos had more engagement for the most part.

TOP 10 Tweets:

1.

Impressions: 1,773

Engagement: 32

In this tweet I used my established voice and my interest in PR to reach out to an influential PR professional on Twitter. I used content that directly related to what Brian Hart tweets about and used it to influence my own tweet in response to his. This tweet was successful because he could connect with what I was tweeting about because it related to his own content. I also used a GIF to gain more engagement from others who may have been scrolling by the tweet. I received 6 likes, 2 retweets, as well as a few new followers including Brian Hart himself.

2.

Impressions: 1,068

Engagement: 145

I believe that this tweet circulated and received a lot of engagement because I was live tweeting about the periscope challenge in class. I shared a snippet of what was happening live on periscope which created an interest for some viewers to want to see more. Using a small preview video helped to gain more engagement because it made viewers want to click on the tweet for more detail and go to the actual periscope.

3.

Impressions: 403

Engagement: 27

This tweet included “In Real Life” social media. This was one of the first tweets posted on my Twitter when the semester started. My hashtags were not as developed and I didn’t understand the purpose of hashtags at the time this tweet was made. If I were to do it over, I would use hashtags that would attract a bigger audience to get more engagement with the tweet. The picture that I used of my bulletin board is very colorful and makes viewers want to click on the picture to see more of the image. The use of the picture was very successful in this tweet.

4.

Impressions: 371

Engagement: 11

I used a GIF in this tweet to help with viewer engagement. I also mentioned FollowerWonk as I talked about information I received from their platform. Through mentioning the platform I also indirectly mentioned all of my followers and said something unique about them. I learned that this technique attracted my followers’ attention to not only 65 media views of the GIF that was used but to also 3 likes.   

5.

Impressions: 310

Engagement: 6

In this tweet I used a periscope as rich media to gain the impressions. I also used my poetic voice to make the tweet rhyme, while also connecting it to the Syracuse community. If I were to redo this tweet I would have included the Syracuse hashtag so that the tweet not only talked about the community but allowed them to view my tweet as well. I think the most successful part of this tweet was my rhyme introducing the periscope that I linked to it.

6.

Impressions: 287

Engagement: 28

This tweet was meant to cross promote my other social media pages, more specifically my Instagram. The use of a screenshot of my actual IG page made the tweet engaging and pleasing to look at. I also mentioned Tyra Banks and added a little comedy about her teaching me how to “smeyez” (smile with your eyes). Using these specific hashtags allowed for those who watch/have watched America’s Next Top Model to relate to this tweet in some way. I believe tweets like this would be more successful and bring more engagement/ followers if I put the direct link to my Instagram page in the tweet along with the picture.

7.

Impressions: 283

Engagement: 8

This was a tweet that had a specific audience in mind: Seniors, more specifically Syracuse seniors. I used a GIF video of myself and some friends waving pom-poms at a Syracuse game. Seniors can all relate to the feelings of relief after finishing exams and this tweet speaks specifically to those feelings. There was a total of 87 media views which shows how many of my followers/viewers were interested in seeing the GIF video that was displayed. I used a lot of hashtags that resonate with the Syracuse senior community, as well as seniors and students from all over that were experiencing the same type of feelings so close to spring break. This tweet would’ve gotten more engagement if I made into a GIF that automatically played rather than having to actually press play each time a viewer wanted to watch it. 

8.

Impressions: 237

Engagement: 30

In this tweet I used humor and hashtags to help bring in a bigger audience than some of my other tweets. This tweet of my younger self received 237 total impressions. I used a picture of myself as a child which not only connects my followers to me personally but also shows a bit of humor. I used popular hashtags that related to both the post and the day in which I posted it. I used “#flashbackFriday” to get engagement from those looking for older pictures, as well as “#cutekid” and “#babyme”. I used these hashtags to also bring in engagement for viewers that enjoy pictures of cute kids. The emojis I used also reflected the type of voice and mood I was trying to portray to my followers.

9.

Impressions: 216 

Engagements: 31

In this tweet I interacted with a classmate which I can imagine generated some engagement from both my followers as well as hers. I replied to a Twitter moment tweeted by a classmate, thanking her for the motivation. The combination of the media and emojis that we both used helped to engage viewers. I also used hashtags that were specific to the day that it was tweeted.

10.

Impressions: 21o

Engagement: 20 

Everyone loves dogs and the use of my puppy Lola helped to give me a little more engagement on this tweet which received a total of 211 impressions. I used a snapchat filter on my dog which added media that people would want to open and engage with. I also used relevant hashtags to capture a bigger audience. I used hashtags that had to do with the kind of dog I have, the process and the platform used to create the image, and other relevant tags to the post.   

 

Although I started from the bottom and had to relearn how to use Twitter, what I did learn helped me to grow a lot of followers and engagement with those followers. Looking back at old tweets I’ve also learned what works and what didn’t so that I could fix these things moving forward. With all that I have learned I expect that my growth will be even bigger as I continue to use Twitter and other social media platforms.

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