Analyzing My Semester’s Top Tweets

Posted on by Jake Smith

I never thought I could grow my presence on social media to where it is today, but that was before I started this class. I began this semester with 400 followers on Twitter, and I ended with 426. That’s an increase of 6.5 percent over the course of this semester.

What helped me gain these followers, most of all, was being active and engaging with the interests of the people in my network while using those to promote myself. I took cues from journalists that I follow, tweeting articles that I wrote and engaging with influencers I respect. I also offered to create Spotify playlists for Twitter users, which helped me gain influence on both social networks. I noticed that the tweets that performed best were ones that felt like I, personally, was speaking, as opposed to more generic ones that anyone could have written.

Here are my top ten tweets of the semester, in order:

Impressions: 2,867

Engagements: 221

Engagement Rate: 7.7%

Summary: This tweet was an attempt to raise my influence on Spotify, with a direct link to follow me on my account. I made over 25 playlists, and the plan worked — I’m now the fifth result for “Jake Smith” on Spotify.

Impressions: 2,030

Engagements: 110

Engagement Rate: 5.4%

Summary: The follow-up to my first Spotify tweet was nearly as successful! Same deal, slightly diminished returns, but still very popular.

Impressions: 1,428

Engagements: 12

Engagement Rate: 0.8%

Summary: I promoted my own content from my internship this summer. While the quote tweet was not the most effective, it created a bit of a mystery as to what the article was about, so I think it ended up helping me.

Impressions: 903

Engagements: 11

Engagement Rate: 0.8%

Summary: This was more generic content, but it had a great time peg, so I think that’s why people were drawn to it. The use of the FEMA hashtag probably helped me reach more people that I would have otherwise. The article, too, gave my tweet added richness and a sense of authority.

Impressions: 768

Engagements: 44

Engagement Rate: 5.7%

Summary: While using “anti-” right before Ariana might have thrown off potential SEO optimization, this tweet was timely and still performed well, with surprising results. Having the ability to interact with such a hot-button issue impacted this tweet’s success, I think.

Impressions: 722

Engagements: 26

Engagement Rate: 3.6%

Summary: My followers showed a lot of interest in horror movies, so I tried to harness that with this tweet. I got two responses, so it was mildly successful.

Impressions: 693

Engagements: 28

Engagement Rate: 4.0%

Summary: Another favorite of my followers: A Star Is Born. I’m in awe of Julia’s work ethic, so I decided to engage with her and my audience in the same tweet. She responded!

Impressions: 681

Engagements: 14

Engagement Rate: 2.1%

Summary: I decided to promote a few writers from my dream publication for #FollowerFriday. The other tweets in the thread have links in them, but this tweet is very low-richness. They didn’t respond, but I’m happy that I was able to tweet this. Maybe it’ll help getting a job in the future!

Impressions: 574

Engagements: 44

Engagement Rate: 7.7%

Summary: I’m kind of amazed that this is in my top ten, but I’m happy this page lived a tiny second life on Twitter. I was trying to go for something relating to magazines to stay on-brand. The photo probably helped, even though it’s a little boring.

Impressions: 476

Engagements: 16

Engagement Rate: 3.4%

Summary: This introduction doubled as a way to define my Twitter voice: irreverent, straightforward, and self-aware. I thought mentioning Hoda would get a little extra love, and maybe that helped. I wanted to have low richness because emojis are not my thing.

Looking back, my best tweets were rich not in emojis or photos, but in links and content. As an aspiring magazine writer and editor, this makes me happy — I have proof that tweeting about my own content is popular within my network and has helped expand my follower count and reach.

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