At the beginning of the semester, I had a Twitter account that I had made for another class, however, as my followers and tweets showed, I did not use it regularly. I had used a personal Twitter account previously, but had not had much experience using Twitter in a professional manner. Throughout the semester I have learned how to use Twitter to network and gain influence, which I believe is apparent through both my Twitter follower growth and increased Klout score.

Below is an Infogram displaying my Twitter follower growth from the beginning of the course to the end. As it shows, I started the semester with only 3 followers, and today I have 66. Thus, I have gained 63 followers during the length of the course. According to Twitter, I have gained an average of 1 follower per day over the last 3 months, which is essentially the duration of this course.

[infogram id=”nhsmc_twitter_growth_2″]

While some of the followers that I gained were connections through NHsmc,the majority of my follower growth was made up of new followers. Many of these followers are musicians, authors, and entrepreneurs, and a fair amount of them have large followings or verified accounts. Additionally, a lot of social media accounts have followed me, many of which provide social media news, tips, and tools.

For the most part, it has been relatively clear where these followers have come from. I have noticed that using multiple hashtags, as well as mentioning highly influential accounts in my tweets has led to a quick increase in followers. Additionally, the topic of the hashtags or mentions that I have used have influenced the type of accounts that have followed me. Specifically, using the hashtag #socialmedia has tended increased my following.

The increase of my Twitter followers is also apparent in my Klout score, which has increased significantly throughout the semester. While my score of 27 is not incredibly high, I had never used Klout prior to this course, so I started with a 0 in the beginning of the semester. As the Infogram below shows, my score rapidly increased towards the beginning of the course, and became more steady towards the middle of the course until now. I have included my Twitter follower growth in the Infogram as well, as my Klout score and number of followers have increased at the similar rate.

[infogram id=”nhsmc_twitter_growth”]

Examining my Twitter follower growth and Klout score have showed me the direct correlation between Twitter activity and increased following and influence. When I have been very active on Twitter, through tweets, follows, retweets, etc. I have gained followers and influence, and I know that in order to remain relevant and influential on Twitter I need to continue to use Twitter often and professionally.

Overall, I am very pleased with my Twitter follower growth, as I feel that it represents my increased social media presence. This course has taught me how to use Twitter as a platform for networking, campaigning, activism, and expression, and my consequent Twitter activity has led me to make virtual connections with very influential people and brands.