From Social Media Novice to NHsmc Influencer

Posted on by Crystal Hawley

Before taking this class, I fell into the dipper category of social media user. I would check my social media every few days without stress. That changed once this class started as I couldn’t continue my infrequent use when my assignments were tweeting. If I am being honest at first it was very stressful. I wasn’t used to regularly checking Twitter and Instagram. What I found most interesting was how quickly I started to mimic those around me scrolling through Twitter or Instagram aimlessly when I wouldn’t have before. At the start of this course In January, I had 0 followers on Twitter. By April 18th that number had increased to 34 followers resulting in a 100% growth rate. When I first benchmarked my Klout it was at 25 but by the end of the course, it had risen to 43. Given that the average Klout score is 40 I am pretty proud of my final number.

I found that tweeting about content I was passionate about increased my influence more than posts that were forced. I would live tweet shows I was watching, review products I was loving and engage with content I enjoyed. As a big Broadway fan, I often found myself tweeting about favorite actors or shows. I think my excitement translated into the tweets as I often got more impressions and engagements on these posts. The more forced posts for assignments that I didn’t tie into my passions often fell flat. I think again my lack of enthusiasm must have translated into the impressions and engagements I received.

Top 10 Posts From the Semester:

1. Phantom of the Opera

3,844 Impressions & 67 Engagements.

For this post, I tweeted a video of my favorite performance of Phantom of the Opera. I made sure to include all the handles of the people in the video as this class taught me that is the best way to get engagement on a post. I also made sure to include hashtags that were relevant to the video in order to draw in more impressions. In the end, I got 2 retweets, 3 likes, 67 engagements and 3,844 impressions. A highlight for me was getting both a like and retweet from Earl Carpenter, a former Phantom in the West End’s Phantom of the Opera.

2. Shonda Thursdays

1,334 Impressions & 21 Engagements.

I was watching the How to Get Away with Murder & Scandal crossover and enjoying the episode so much I wished that it wasn’t just a one-time event. That inspired me to tweet at Shonda Rhimes asking if the crossover could become a weekly event. I made sure to include Shonda Rhimes handle as well as hashtags relevant to the show. It seems like many other fans agreed with me as I got 16 Likes, 3 Retweets, 1,334 Impressions & 21 Engagements. Shonda never got back to me but I still have hope that the crossover will continue someday.

3. Quoka Cuteness

1,195 Impressions & 13 Engagements

This was my first time creating a Twitter Moment. I decided to create a post that I would want to engage with. I think Quokas are an adorable animal and their pictures alone can cheer up anyone’s day. In my tweet I made sure to include #adorable and #pickmeup but now looking back I probably should have used more hashtags to get more traffic. While this post got no likes or retweets, it still managed to receive 1,195 Impressions and 13 Engagements. After posting this Twitter Moment I know I am more prepared when I create my next moment in the future.

4. Glossier Review

1,162 Impressions & 29 Engagements

I created this post as I was loving a new facial cleanser that I had just started using. I am a big fan of waterproof mascara but I often find that no matter how hard I try to remove it at night I always wake up with raccoon eyes the next morning. For the first time that was no longer happening so, I decided to take to Twitter to share my newfound love and try to engage with the brand. I used Glossier’s handle and included hashtags that were relevant to my review. I received 5 Likes, 1 Retweet, 1 Comment, 1,162 Impressions & 29 Engagements. The brand Glossier even liked my tweet which was exciting given that I am a Twitter newbie and didn’t think my tweet would even reach their radar.

5. Grammys Ben Platt

1,090 Impressions & 4 Engagements

While watching the Grammys I was taken aback by Ben Platt’s performance of “Somewhere” from West Side Story. As a big musical theatre fan I was already well aware of his talents from Dear Even Hansen, but seeing him perform at the Grammys made me realize he was the perfect Tony for West Side Story. Given that Steven Spielberg is remaking West Side Story and currently casting the leads I decided to tweet out that he had found his Tony in Ben. I included Ben Platts twitter handle and hashtags related to the Grammys and the musical in order to gain impressions. I got 1 Reply, 1,090 Impressions & 4 Engagements. I was excited about the reply as it allowed me to engage with a fellow Ben Platt fan.

6.Graduation Meme

1,027 Impressions (269 Organic, 758 promoted) & 64 Engagements

This post was created for the Viral Meme assignment. The goal was to engage with college seniors who are stressed, may not have solid post-grad plans and are frustrated at being asked what they are doing after college. In the post, I used hashtags related to graduation, college and senior year to best engage with the target audience. I got 1 Like, 1,027 Impressions (269 Organic, 758 promoted) & 64 Engagements. While much of the traffic on this tweet came from paid promotion I found that this was a crucial aspect of learning the ins and outs of Twitter. Now I know when I next create a promoted Tweet I will be better prepared.

7. Jesus Christ Superstar Live

701 Impressions & 5  Engagements.

I was watching Jesus Christ Superstar Live on NBC when I decided to look more into Andrew Lloyd Webber. This led me to discover that he was 22 when he wrote the music for the show. Here I am sitting on a couch in awe of this beautiful musical meanwhile at my age Andrew Lloyd Webber had written the music for this very show. I decided to tweet out my feelings to see if others felt the same way. I included both the musical hashtag as well as the Live performance hashtag. The tweet gained 5 Likes, 701 Impressions & 5  Engagements. I took the likes as other 22 year olds sympathizing with me.

8. Black Panther

679 Impressions & 14 Engagements

I watched Black Panther the night that it premiered in theatres and loved it so much I decided to take to Twitter to encourage others to see the film. I included hashtags related to the movie and given that there already was such a social media buzz this helped to draw traffic to the tweet. The post got 1 Retweet, 2 Likes, 679 Impressions & 14 Engagements. I was excited to see engagement with the tweet because I found that due to such social media frenzy around the movie many tweets were quickly lost due to the sheer number of people tweeting about Black Panther.

9. Oscar Nominees Timothée & Daniel 

653 Impressions, 103 Media Views & 43 Engagements.

I often say that Award Show season is my favorite season, so when it was approaching Oscar time I had lots of opinions on who should win. I am a big fan of both Daniel Kaluuya & Timothée Chalamet in their Oscar-nominated roles so I decided to tweet out a gif of them. We learned in class that tweets with photos or gifs tend to be more engaging. I incorporated hashtags related to the award shows and categories that were relevant. I also made sure to include the handles of both the actors and the films. The tweet got 3 Retweets, 6 Likes, 643 Impressions, 103 Media Views & 37 Engagements. I was especially excited to see media views given that I created the gif used in the post.

10. Wishing away Capstones

80 Views, 46 Likes & 5 Comments.

Towards the end of the semester, we started posting more on Instagram for class. At this point, I was quite stressed with school work as I was completing both my Advertising and Honors Capstones. I decided to take this opportunity to post a throwback photo from when I studied abroad in Italy. This showed me making a wish into the Trevi Fountain. I included a caption about how I was wishing these Capstones would end. The post got 80 Views, 46 Likes & 5 Comments. Given that I am not an avid Instagram user these results were high for me. I enjoyed that the comments were mostly from friends I had made abroad. Engaging with them acted as a pleasant study break during an otherwise stressful time.

Leave a Reply