Growing Within the Social Media Community

Posted on by Alexa Torrens

Social Media Influence

During the majority of my time as a student in the Newhouse social media course, my follower count on Twitter expanded by 15.4 percent. I began the class on Aug. 28, when I had 240 Twitter followers, and rounded out the class on Nov. 29 with 277 followers, gaining a total of 37 followers throughout the semester.

Although I saw growth in my Twitter reach via followers over the course of the semester, my Klout score decreased from 38.21 to 31.17 over a similar time frame. I first used Klout on Sept. 6. There were small increases in my score for the first few weeks of September, but come October my Klout score began a relatively steady downfall broken up by some other positive blips.

In analyzing my strategies for increasing my influence and network on Twitter this semester, I believe something that worked for me was catering to the network I know comprises most of my network on the site, which is people associated with The Daily Orange or the college journalism sphere. I follow and am followed by my current coworkers at The D.O., my former coworkers there, “Daily Orange University” alumni and student journalists at other college newspapers across the country. Most of the thoughts I think to tweet are related to The D.O. or to journalism, so these tweets are often appealing and engaging to the many people I’m connected with on Twitter who are also connected to these entities. I believe this strategizing is why I saw so much engagement with many of my #NHsmc tweets this semester.

On the flip side, I think I fell short — as evidenced by the decline in my Klout score through the semester — in expanding my influence on Twitter due to my inconsistent and infrequent usage of the platform. I am an avid Twitter consumer who gets the news through my timeline and “likes” tweets that amuse me, but when I do take the time to add to my own timeline it’s usually in the form of a retweet. This lack of original content on my end definitely inhibited my growth this semester on the platform, and moving forward I will make more of a concerted effort to tweet more often.

 

Social Media Execution

For this assignment to create an original hashtag, I used my environment for inspiration and decided a play on the term “snack wrap” — my lunch that day — would be a good fit for a hashtag. I wanted to use rich media in the tweet and thought a picture would be the best bet. I thought it’d be awkward to just take a photo of myself eating a snack wrap, so I grabbed my friend, Tomer Langer, who is well-liked among my Twitter following — as the analytics for this tweet indicate. This tweet had 1,216 impressions and 129 total engagements, including 27 likes and one retweet.

This tweet is another example of me using rich media and targeting my audience to increase my engagement. Unfortunately, many of my Twitter followers know I have a penchant for fast food, and McDonald’s in particular. Visiting McDonald’s after production is somewhat of a recent tradition at The D.O., so most of the 18 people who liked this tweet were related to The D.O. in some way, and the three who replied to it are friends who also share my love for McDonald’s. This tweet received 1,287 impressions, 264 media views and 122 total engagements.

Like the previous tweet, this tweet both employs rich media and plays into my network. Many of my friends on Twitter know I love geography and can name all the countries in the world. I put my knowledge to the test for #NHsmc and published my results to engage with my friends and tell my new classmates something interesting about myself, and the tweet received 17 likes and one reply from a friend who has a verified Twitter account. The tweet received 611 impressions and 108 total engagements.

For my first #FollowFriday shoutout on Twitter, I chose to acknowledge and support some of the head editors at The D.O. I received a lot of love for this tweet from those editors, our friends and the alumni community at The D.O. who may not have followed them before seeing this tweet. This tweet received 14 likes, one retweet and one reply from a D.O. alum. The tweet earned 854 impressions and 82 total engagements.

I knew how to handle the assignment to create a Twitter list immediately after receiving it. I decided to tap into the recent additions to The D.O.’s alumni community. These Syracuse University Class of 2016 students are doing great work at their various roles at media organizations across the country. I included a screenshot of the newly created list to employ rich media and increase engagement with the tweet. Like the #FollowFriday shoutout, this tweet resonated well with D.O. alumni interested in the doings of recent graduates of Daily Orange University. The tweet received 10 likes, one retweet and one reply from Professor Grygiel, who suggested an addition to the list. The tweet earned 1,175 impressions and 130 total engagements.

My love for Panera Bread is well-known among both my crop of friends from high school and my friends at Syracuse University, so I knew this tweet would do well with my following. My inspiration for this tweet was my real-life earning of a Panera reward, and I decided to create a GIF from this scene of “The Cat in the Hat” to demonstrate my excitement upon receiving a free You Pick Two meal. I think it was smart for me to mention Panera in this tweet, but I think it could’ve been made better by including a bread or coffee emoji — or both. This tweet received 10 likes, 398 impressions, 75 media views and 28 total engagements.

This recent assignment to post a Snapchat location filter on Twitter did well with my followers — many of whom know I plan to attend law school. Although this tweet definitely resonated with my following, I think it did well in terms of likes because it included an aesthetically pleasing piece of rich media that includes a blue sky and pretty flowers in addition to a popular emoji. The tweet received 10 likes, but did not do well in terms of impressions. It received only 50 impressions and 11 total engagements.

Like the previous tweet, this picture collage is centered around my law school ambition and desire to attend the University of Chicago. I think this picture resonated well with my following because they understand my drive to attend law school and also my love for the city of Chicago. This tweet is also engaging because of the amount of rich media and visual entry points — beautiful photos and emojis — it includes. The tweet earned eight likes, 401 impressions and 43 total engagements.

This quote tweet received decent engagement because it played into my love of fast food by mentioning Taco Bell and using the #NationalTacoDay hashtag, and because it used an emoji to further engage my following. My devotion to fast food is well-known among my Twitter following, who — like I previously described — are also fond of the person I mentioned in the tweet, Tomer Langer, who is a senior staff writer at The D.O. This tweet received six likes and one reply from Tomer, whose reply — a photo of us “cheers”-ing our food and drink — earned seven likes. The tweet also earned 668 impressions and 37 total engagements.

This Twitter Moment was probably my smartest use of the platform this semester. The Moment is centered on the mumps outbreak at Syracuse University, which was at the time a hot topic in the campus community. I took a journalistic approach to responding to the outbreak by compiling tweets from trusted media outlets, including the one I work at, and tweets from members of the SU and Syracuse communities, including students. I learned this semester that rich media is always a smart addition to a post, and the preview photo used for this Moment of the SU Health Services building enhanced the rich media of this post, as did the emoji I used in the body of the tweet.

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