A Reflection of My COM 427 Experience

Posted on by Sydney Trager

Part 1:

I learned so much this past semester about social media thanks to COM 427. The numbers can attest to my growth in my social media presence. My Twitter followers went from 338 to 402, gaining 64 followers at an 18.9% increase. I think this is due to the fact that I learned to focus my Twitter more on who I am as a person and my potential career. I started following influencers and tweeting about subjects they spoke about, and it caused me to receive new followers that were also interested in those subjects. I also didn’t really use my Twitter before this class, it was honestly a platform I had forgotten about, but now I’m always on Twitter. I’ve learned it’s such a great way to see and share news, and there’s always funny or adorable tweets that I enjoy reading. Now that my content on Twitter is more targeting to things like dogs and social media, I know I’ve gained followers who are interested in either of those particular important aspects of my life.

Twitter isn’t the only platform that I’ve been working with and learning about. In this class I’ve created my own blog, posted Instagrams, Snapchats, Facebook posts, and of course tweets. Using all of these platforms in new and interesting ways has caused my Klout score to go up, from a 50 to a 62. I’m ecstatic to see results like these, going to show that I really have become more excelled in social media.

Throughout this class I’ve started to try and focus all of my social media accounts towards my future. I’m a senior and looking to go into social media after I graduate in May, so I realize my accounts matter to my future employers. I’ve created a professional Instagram and Twitter that I’d be happy for employers to see. I’ve also created public posts on Facebook so if they search me there they’ll be able to find out a little bit about me, in an appropriate setting. I think the content I produced that spoke to my audience on Twitter (social media and/or dog lovers) did really well, because it reached an audience that genuinely cared about it. I think what didn’t work well for me was when I would tweet out things about politics, random celebrity news, or things that were off-brand. I saw that, frankly, my audience wasn’t interested to hear that kind of message. I also think being more present on these platforms has caused an increase in followers for my accounts, and engaging with influencers and micro-influencers. Even if they didn’t respond to me it sparked interest in others who were also following them. I became someone to follow in my field for some people, just as I had followed others to hear what they had to say. Using my social media to push out content I’m interested in and so is my audience has allowed my growth to flourish, with new followers on Twitter and a higher Klout score.

Part 2:

I’ve tweeted a lot throughout the semester, some receiving more engagement than others. It’s incredible to see how far my Twitter has come, from the first week where I barely tweeted and wasn’t exactly sure what to say, to a Twitter user that is using the app daily. Here are a few of my favorite tweets from this semester:

This was a post about social media in real life, and though I could find social media in real life almost anywhere I looked, I was happy to highlight my tattoo on my foot. This tweet showed a photo I had taken last summer when I was sending someone a photo of my tattoo. I’m proud of my tattoo and I love to share it with others, so I was excited to share it out on my Twitter account. I received four likes on this post because I think it was at the beginning of the class when I started to post more and my friends who followed me where happy to see content from me. Most of my friends think that my tattoo is cool, so I wasn’t surprised to see good engagement on this post. I think phrasing my tattoo as social media in real life gave me an advantage because I was able to also talk about something I’m passionate about: social media. I know that some of my followers are also interested in this, and I’ve learned that speaking to your followers and to what you’re passionate about it a good way to receive engagements.

This next tweet was assigned with A/B testing. I used two different kinds of copy for the same article over one weekend, and was interested to see that the copy really did make a difference. With this copy I received one retweet and four likes, but with the other one I had done I got one like. I also remember receiving six new followers after posting this article. Testing out with A/B methods showed me that what I choose to caption my tweets with will really have an effect on the engagement I receive. I think sharing news is always a great way to interest followers, and clearly the words you write to get them to see the article are important.

These tweets were assigned together so I wanted to include them together. I posted a tweet that was relevant to the time and day, Sunday, and commented on a relatable mood that I’ve seen on social media before; before coffee and after coffee. I wanted to use gifs of dogs because I was talking about getting work done and starting my day, so I wanted to add some fun to the post with puppies. When I saw these gifs of puppies I immediately thought that this was actually how I felt before and after coffee. I love dogs and I know I have a lot of followers who also love dogs so I wanted to engage with them, and I think it worked well because on my first tweet I got three likes, one retweet, and then my reply comment. On my second I received two likes. I’ve learned in this class that you can reply to yourself and then it will begin a thread, that way it comes up in the right order on someones timeline. I will definitely be using this method more frequently now so I can make longer posts if there’s something I need to comment on (although since the switch to 280 characters I haven’t needed to).

For this tweet I learned how to create a gif. This is a really important tool for me, giving that I will hopefully be working in social media after graduation. I utilized my love for puppies and my knowledge of my followers appreciation, once again, to create this gif. I used an old video I took of a fat bulldog and tried to relate it to how quickly time was flying over the semester. I think the humor in this post and the media itself led me to the three likes on it. I still look back at this post and laugh about how funny the dog looks.

This assignment was to promote another one of your social media accounts through twitter. I’d honestly never thought about doing this before, but now I can see how great of an idea this was. I tried to use a screenshot of my Instagram that was aesthetically pleasing and also could relate to my followers. I know my friends that follow me enjoy seeing pictures of my manicures, and I know most people and most of my followers relate to my love of dogs. This post received two likes and a comment, in which someone told me that my Instagram looked amazing and they would give it a 12/10. From that same person I later received a follow on my Instagram. Over the course of this class I’ve seen how fluid all of the social media platforms can be, and this is definitely something I’m going to use in the future to promote myself (which I’ve also learned there is no shame in 🙂 )

This challenge was to create a hashtag that had never been used before. I initially thought this was going to be really difficult, but I ended up accidentally creating two new hashtags, about dogs of course. We learned about how it’s important to stand out on social media and differentiate yourself, and I’ve seen how this can actually be really beneficial. I had high engagement on this post, with two retweets and three likes. Using gifs always lead to a lot of engagement, so I added that in, and I think the unique hashtag also caused more engagement.

I had the incredible experience of being able to witness the Buzzfeed Tasty Shoot this semester at Newhouse. I tweeted about it and tagged Buzzfeed and Syracuse in it. I know that it’s rare to get a response from such important accounts, but we’ve been encouraged throughout the semester to try and engage with bigger accounts or influencers, and clearly it worked, even if I didn’t get engagement from Buzzfeed or Syracuse, I got four likes on this post. I also have seen that media has been a better promise to more engagement, so I included two photos from the shoot.

As stated previously, media is a great way for engagement, so I included this gif in order to try and create humor during a relatable issue I was struggling with. I know that a good amount of my followers are my peers, college students, so I wanted to tap into something we all know too well, a low bank account. I posted this gif of a woman fanning herself and looking nervous and made the copy about looking at my bank account. This got one retweet and three likes. I think because it was relatable it was retweeted, and some people just enjoyed the humor of it so they liked it. Using my knowledge of media engagement and that humor can attract audiences I created this tweet that I think was pretty successful.

This tweet was my best engagement over the course of the class, and that is no surprise because it’s also the tweet I paid for. I learned over this course how to use Twitter ads, and how a small amount of money can go such a long way on Twitter. I was promoting my viral meme, which was relatable to college students and already doing pretty well on Imgur, and I tried to use hashtags that were searchable and common. This tweet got three retweets, because of it’s relatable qualities, and seven likes, because of it’s humor. I used sarcastic copy to accompany my sarcastic meme, and I think the pairing worked well. Now that I know how to promote tweets, and how well it actually works, I’ll definitely be doing more of it in the future.

This tweet features a video I took in one of my classes in Newhouse. I used Newhouse as the location of the tweet and also used it as a hashtag. I think using the school so many times increased my engagement, and tapping into what my followers wanted to see while trying to be professional was in line with my voice on my account and effective in receiving engagement. I got one retweet and two likes on this post. I’m proud to go to a dog-friendly school and I think others are too, so they could relate to this post.

Looking back on all of my tweets this semester and the way that my follower count and Klout count have increased show me how beneficial this class was for me. I’m so excited to go out into the real world and impress my future employers with the knowledge I’ve collected in COM 427. I can’t wait to continue to use my Twitter and make professional adaptations to my Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.

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