Becoming an Influencer–My Takeaway: Influencer Growth & Analysis

Posted on by Chandler Burke

PART 1: INFLUENCE

I created a new Twitter account for this class with hopes to drive engagements, likes, and followers on this new account. As I created this account at the beginning of the semester, I started with 0 followers, and as of now, I have reached a total of 24 followers. The reason for this follower growth stems from the content I have published, the interactions I have had, and with the most impact–the people I have followed. While starting to build an audience on a social media platform, I have learned that the best way to drive follower growth is by initially following a lot of people who are likely to follow back. Over time, although your following/follower ratio might match up, new followers will see the large amount of following you have—which may drive them to follow you. The biggest trick to gaining followers, as I have learned through this course, is to simply follow many people.

It is difficult with a new account to drive engagements to your tweets if you do not have a large follower count to begin with, which is likely the reason my posts have not amassed a large number of likes and retweets. Although, I do believe that my tweets have done well for the amount of followers I have obtained throughout the course, and that is because of the quality of content I have produced on my account. The use of the #NHsmc hashtag also drove many of the impressions to my Twitter content, as students from this course were often viewing the hashtag. Now, at the end of this course, I have a total of 24 Instagram followers. This is a 2400% increase from what I has at the beginning of the course.

PART 2: INFLUENCE – Analyzing my best tweets

IMGUR:

Wig!

Analytics:

Views: 593, Upvotes: 4, Downvotes: 5, Comments: 3 (@awconnon: gif of woman laughing (2 points in upvotes), @awconnon: “HAHAHAHAHAHA” (2 points in upvotes))

“Wig!”, my created internet meme, surpassed 500 views on Imgur with the use of strategies I use for my own personal content. As an Instagram-fanatic, I understood that promoting my content to my Instagram followers would allow me to reach a platform of people whom I have formed a trust with. I also understood the power of promoting content in my Instagram bio, and this drove some traffic to my meme as well. I also promoted my meme along friends through Messages, posted the link to my Snapchat story, and posted to my Twitter using the #NHsmc hashtag–asking followers to click the link to my meme. To gain a greater number of impressions I could have tweaked the meme some and reposted it, although it did well on its own.

TWITTER:

Analytics:

Likes: 3, Impressions: 312, Media views: 61, Total engagements: 12, Media engagements: 7, Detail expands: 2.

I have loved the cafe By Chloe since I first entered New York City this past summer for an internship. After many personal visits to this cafe, alongside visits I would make for my company Rebecca Minkoff, I built a connection with the cafe. By getting to know their friendliness and overall approach to customer service, I understood that if I were to tweet them, they would likely engage with it. With this information, I tweeted @EatByChloe, and received a like from them—which I hoped for after being a valuable customer. Their like drove impressions and likes to my tweet. If I would have asked a question in my mention to them, it may have driven a response rather than simply a like, which is something I will keep in mind for next time.

Analytics:

Likes: 3, Impressions: 305, Media views: 46, Total engagements: 22, Media engagements: 4, Detail expands: 11, Profile clicks: 3, Hashtag clicks: 1.

As I have watched YouTuber Trisha Paytas on YouTube since sixth grade, I now understand her personality and character. Because of this, I was able to create a tweet that she would likely enjoy–as she often makes videos, like the one this gif was made from, to gain a response ot attention. I could have tagged @TrishaPaytas in this post for her to potentially engage with it, and in the future, I will make sure to tag influencers while creating content that relates to them. This post did well due to the comical approach I had to it, although it could have done better with Trisha’s engagement.

Analytics:

Likes: 2, Impressions: 566, Total engagements: 9, Detail expands: 5, Profile clicks: 2.

Due to the class assignment of targeting a micro-influencer on Twitter with around 80k followers, I tweeted @OfficialRodarte—a fashion brand whom I admire. I did not have much confidence that the brand would engage with my tweet, although I gained confidence in class while taught that micro-influencers often engage with comments and mentions. By this brand simply liking my mention to them, my tweet reached 566 impressions. I made sure to mention this account at the end of my tweet with the advice learned in class, and this helped drive impressions so Twitter would not hide the tweet from my timeline. To get the brand to respond with a mention, next time I will form my mention to them with a question.

Analytics:

Likes: 4, Impressions: 249, Total engagements: 13, Detail expands: 4, Retweets: 3, Hashtag clicks: 1, Profile clicks: 1

Per the in-class assignment of creating a hashtag for something my group and I stand for, we decided to tackle the topic of Veterans Day. My group and I understood that our university does not give Veterans Day off, and in support of Veterans Day being a celebrated holiday by other universities, we created the hashtag #SUStudentsforVeteransDay. Being in a group project helped drive likes and retweets for this post, as we all liked and retweeted each other’s post in favor of this movement. To gain further attention, we could have mentioned other schools to gather support for this movement.

INSTAGRAM:

Analytics:

Likes: 9, Comments: 1 (@thechandlerburke: “#NHsmc #dress #design #fashiondesigner #designer #designstudent #instagood #fashion #photooftheday“), Sent: 0, Saved: 0, Profile visits: 3, Accounts reached: 23 (53% weren’t following), Follows: 0, Impressions: 31, Home: 17, Hashtags: 9, Location: 1, Other: 4

On my personal Instagram, I have considered incorporating my own fashion design creations in my feed, as I get the most interactions on Instagram when I post my designs to my story. As I have not yet dared to fully merge my personal Instagram account into a design account, I decided to try it on my class Instagram to see if the post would still have the same engagement. This post ended up obtaining 9 likes—the most likes of a post on my @thechandlerburke account, which allowed me to see that people enjoy seeing fashion-related content on their feed. This allowed me to understand that maybe I should start incorporating my designs on my personal account’s feed, rather than just in my stories. To drive views, I incorporated the #NHsmc hashtag, along with a few hashtags relating to the image. With this knowledge, I could have incorporated more design-related content on my @thechandlerburke Instagram account, although I did my best to incorporate this type of content fairly often.

Analytics:

Likes: 7, Comments: 1 (@thechandlerburke: “#NHsmc #beauty #love #fashionblog #instagood #me #tbt #cute #follow #followme #photooftheday #happy“), Sent: 0, Saved: 0, Profile visits: 4, Accounts reached: 15 (40% weren’t following), Follows: 0, Impressions: 25, Home: 16, Hashtags: 3, Other: 6

With another fashion-related post doing better than many of my other Instagram posts, I now understand that the incorporation of fashion with my feed actually leads to more engagements! I posted a mirror-selfie of myself before the Stella McCartney We Are The Weather campaign in New York City, and it is my second-most-liked post on my feed. To drive views, I incorporated the #NHsmc hashtag, along with a few hashtags relating to the image. For a greater amount of engagements, I could have tagged @StellaMcCartney and others associated with the event.

Analytics:

Likes: 6, Comments: 1 (@thechandlerburke: “#vintagefashion #aestheticposts #aestheticaccount #retroaesthetics #aesthetictumblr #aestheticstyle #artaesthetic #vintage #vsco #model #male #modelling #malemodels #grunge #outfitinspiration #newyorkphotography #darkgrunge #aesthetic #fashionblog #beauty #style #travel #NHsmc“), Sent: 0, Saved: 0, Profile visits: N/A, Accounts reached: N/A, Follows: N/A, Impressions: N/A, Home: N/A, Hashtags: N/A

To drive engagements on this post, I decided to re-post the best post on my personal account. With the use of hashtags, this post on my personal account achieved 50,849 impressions and 3,664 likes, so I decided I would repost this post to my @thechandlerburke account to see if it would drive a large number of engagements again. It did not drive as many engagements as I anticipated, although this is likely due to the trust my followers have built in my personal account, that my new followers do not yet have on my @thechandlerburke class account. The follower difference also has an impact. On this picture, I also chose to use 23 hashtags, which is more than my other top Instagram posts, so Instagram may have shadow banned some of them—which happens sometimes on my personal account with the use of too many hashtags. To improve the engagements of this post, I could have used fewer hashtags as I knew the post would be at risk of shadowbanned hashtags.

Analytics:

Likes: 5, Comments: 2 (@thechandlerburke: “#streetaesthetic #newyorkaesthetic #streetfashion #cityfashion #aesthetics #blueaesthetic #todaysoutfit #ootd #summerfashion #fashiontrends #fashionblogger #fashionista #lifestyleblogger #streetwear #newyorknewyork #citylife #cityblogger #NHsmc“, @classy_style_trends: “This is… chic, lovely colors💓😻 Are you interested in being featured? Contact us for more!”), Sent: 0, Saved: 0, Profile visits: 1, Follows: 0, Reach: 40, Impressions: 58, Hashtags: 39, Home: 14, Location: 1, Other: 4

While in New York City, I took a picture of the buildings while walking on the corner of W 28th st and 6th Ave. This location is very photogenic for its view of the Empire State Building overlooking the other buildings. I used the beauty of this location and picture and made it better by adding a filter. I then used hashtags related to the photo to drive views to the post. Due to the hashtags, I received the comment from @classy_style_trends, trying to drive business to their account. For further engagement on this post, I could have tagged some New York City-themed accounts, where they could have then re-posted my image–which I will do next time.

Analytics:

Likes: 5, Comments: 1 (@thechandlerburke: “#NHsmc #beauty #love #fashionblog #instagood #me #tbt #cute #follow #followme #photooftheday #happy #gotan #coffee #newyorkcity #midtown“), Sent: 0, Saved: 0, Profile visits: 0, Follows: 0, Reach: 21, Impressions: 33, Hashtags: 11, Home: 11, Location: 4, Other: 7

While in New York City, I took this picture at a cute coffee shop, Gotan. While at Gotan, I noticed that the lighting and aesthetic might drive Instagram attention–and realized that it would be the perfect Instagram post. I decided to add a VSCO filter to it to make it more appealing–allowing this post to receive 5 likes. This post received more engagement than many of my other Instagram posts, although I could have tagged my friends who were there with me for greater engagement.

Summary:

Over the course of this semester, I have gained plenty of knowledge regarding social media content–much of the knowledge coming from in-class teachings, along with trial-and-error. My current number of Instagram followers is 18 followers, and while starting my account at the beginning of this semester with 0 followers, I consider this a success. With the successes and downfalls I have obtained throughout this course, I hope to use them for a better understanding of how to fuel engagements on future social media posts.

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