An Official NHsmc Influencer: My Top Ten Tweets

Posted on by Brianna Thompson

From the start of this class, I came in having very little knowledge of how to use Twitter, and other social media platforms in a professional, and effective way. Now as we enter the last two weeks of the semester, I feel much more comfortable and confident finding ways to voice my opinions, as well as network with others. In August when I re-activated my Twitter I had only 51 followers, and at the beginning of December I now have 81 followers, with a 62.96, or 63 percent follower increase over the past few months. I grew 30 followers, just by actively tweeting and participating in the assignments Professor Grygiel gave.

On September 4th my Klout score was only 13.63. After adding all of my social media accounts, such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, my score is now 55.11! This increase is astounding to me and makes me proud that I was able to increase it so much, in such a short amount of time. I believe I was able to increase my score and my follower count by tweeting about topics that were relevant and that were important to me, making them more genuine. By using the correct use of hashtags it helped my tweets reach the right audiences, who also cared about similar topics. I think I could have improved and increased my followers even more if I tweeted a lot more often and if I was more active on it everyday as far as actively engaging with others. Also, by being able to experiment with different tools I was able to find ways to figure out what I liked about using Twitter for, and what I didn’t.

After this class, I intend to continue using Twitter for professional networking. Below I put together my Top Ten tweets from the semester that I am  most proud of:

1. The tweet above had received the most engagement over the course of this semester. I tweeted to the Beagle Freedom Project, an organization that is pushing to end animal testing, and was humbled by their response to me and the fact that they retweeted and followed me. I received over 60 likes, 7 retweets and multiple replies. By adding a picture of me and my dog, I think I was able to increase the interest of the post, which led it to being noticed by the organization. Using strong tags such as #Crueltyfree, I was also able to attract people who have a interest in the issue, and it made feel apart of a larger community that proactively protested the same issues.

2. This tweet assignment was one of my favorites, it was fascinating using technology I never thought I would ever use, such as the 360 application. By using the hashtag Delta Gamma, I was able to bring in a community of women, in which I am apart of, and provide a simple picture of our house and showing off how cozy, and beautiful it truly is. My friends who are also apart of the organization also liked the tweet getting me to 6 likes and a retweet to share with others.

3. I was excited to try out a twitter poll, because polls have been proving to be an effective way to get information or advice on social media lately. It was interesting using it in comparison to the Instagram polls, but I realized it lacked the visual appeal that Instagram has. I was live tweeting for another class watching an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians and found that live tweets were actually very fun and exciting to follow. It was quite the experience being immediately responsive to what was happening in the show and I realized how effective immediacy can be when tweeting. #KUWTK is a huge way that the Kardashian’s fans are able to stay up to date and be apart of this online community, so by tapping into that hashtag I was able to receive engagement from them while keeping it relevant to what was happening in the episode. I saw that they did in fact agree that Twitter is better than Google, which I did not necessarily agree with but not surprised they did.

4. We decided to get away from the Syracuse area for a weekend and see one of the great wonders of the world, Niagara Falls. I made a collage of the pictures I took at the Falls and used the location marker and appropriate hashtags and ended up being contacted by Niagara Falls Cruises to use my photos on their own profile. They use customers tweets and photos to help advertise for them by showing our experiences, which made me happy because they truly did provide me an indelible experience. By showing natural photos of us having a great time on the cruise, it made the perfect ad for the company to increase interest and exposed my account to other people.

5. By using a relevant and recent topic that was trending on twitter, such as Mental Health Awareness Week, I was able to tweet something that was important to me and also a issue that more people should be aware too. People should take more time to take care of their mental and emotional spirit to help lessen the severity of some mental illnesses, such as depression and anxiety. By pairing the tweet with an activity that promotes a healthier lifestyle such as Yoga, many showed their support by liking my tweet and it made me proud that Syracuse University offers these events to bring more awareness.

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6. When I finally got my business cards in the mail I was so excited how beautiful and cool they came out and decided to tweet a picture of them. Surprisingly, it got six likes, one from the MOO company account itself, who produces these cards. By thanking and tagging the company, I was able to get some engagement from them and used silly, but relevant hashtags to express how the cards made feel. By adding a photo, it allowed people to see how they came out, which prompted them to give me a like, which I take as their way of showing their approval of my cards too.

7. For this assignment we were supposed to reply to our own tweet and I decided to share a link to a an article about “The World’s Least Stressful Cities,” which ranked Stuttgart, Germany, a city I used to live in, as number one. Because I used the tag NHsmc, I actually was able to meet two girls in our class who were also from Germany, one being from Stuttgart! Since we used this hashtag in our course, I was able to make two new friends that I may not have if I didn’t post this tweet. I loved this tweet because it shows how networking online can create IRL relationships.

8. For this tweet, Professor Grygiel asked us to link one of our other social media accounts by tweeting them out, so I promoted my Disney Instagram account that is dedicated to showing all of my trips to Disney. This post was great because it allowed me to make a collage of my some of my favorite photos, allowing me to play around with how to best fit the photos and how market myself in a way that would hopefully drive traffic to my other account.

9. For this tweet, I promoted a local restaurant, Original Grain, that promotes healthy, and clean food, which is something I want to incorporate into my life more. They ended up liking the tweet which made me happy that they noticed. Since I took such a great photo of the food, it showed off how good clean food can be, despite what some would think. It was a way to bring awareness to how clean food can be not only nutritious, but delicious, and hopefully encourage others to try something similar (maybe OG i they are in the Syracuse area), and skip the drive-thru at McDonalds one day.

10. Last but certainly not least, I enjoyed creating my own GIF for this assignment and trying to think of a way that others would find it relatable and humorous. Using ImgFlip.com, in a matter of seconds I was able to create something, which was fascinating to see how simple creating viral GIFs can be. Using one of the most iconic shows ever, The Simpsons, I was able to show how I felt about always feeling way too busy, and continuing to make plans ( even when I shouldn’t). Other people liked it showing that they probably related to it as well, making me feel like it was sort of a win.

Now, that Professor Grygiel has provided excellent guidance and examples about the social media realm, I feel a lot more prepared to go out and achieve what I can on various types of medias. After this semester, I have realized that social media takes practice, and that by continuing to perfect, and improve I can make some sort of difference in the world by promoting and voicing my opinions about things I care about. With that, here’s a huge shout-out to you Professor Grygiel. Thank you!

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