How I Became a Twitter Influencer

Posted on by Erica Halverson

I started with 0 followers.  With virtually no experience on Twitter, I set out to learn the platform and how to utilize its strengths to help promote my professional career.  Along the way I also had some fun interactions with classmates, existing friends, total strangers, and even my Professor.

With each week came several Twitter assignments that both strengthened my Twitter skills and challenged them.  Here are my top 10 tweets and I’ll discuss what worked/didn’t and how I executed them.

#10 Syracuse Remembers Its Pearl

Impressions: 78  Engagements: 1

What: During a class curator content challenge, my team quickly assembled a post on the class WordPress focused on the death of Syracuse basketball alum Pearl Washington.

How: We used Twitter Trends to find high engagement tweets centered around the trending topic in order to curate a post that was noteworthy and interesting.

Takeaway: Even though this Tweet has low engagement, the impression score is high meaning because of my use of trending hashtags in the post, many people were able to see my tweet.

#9 Dunkin Donuts Appreciation

Impressions: 113  Engagements: 3

What: My teammate Kelsey tweeted at me for the Twitter appreciation challenge to showcase my help in buying supplies for the in class Periscope challenge.

How: By including my handle in the tweet, she was able to broadcast this content to both her followers and mine.

Takeaway: This tweet had more total impressions and engagements because it reached both my and Kelsey’s Twitter followers.

#8 How to be a Michigander

Impressions: 137  Engagements: 12

What: For our second class blog post I had to create an instructional video teaching my audiences about a topic that is commonly misunderstood.

How: Because I am attending school where the population is predominantly not from the Midwest, I decided to educate them about slang terms used from my home state of Michigan.

Takeaway: I promoted this tweet using media rich content taken from my actual YouTube video which increased the engagement rate with the tweet.

#7 Kylie LipKit

Impressions: 168  Engagements: 1

What: I retweeted an AdWeek article talking about Kylie Jenner’s success in marketing her newest extension of herself – a beauty line.

How: I used the quote retweet feature to add my own explanation to the content.

Takeaway: The engagement rate is low because my followers did not find this particularly interesting, but because the topic was trending itself a lot of people saw my tweet.

#6 The Power of Slack

Impressions: 183  Engagements: 6

What: My social media class uses the application Slack to communicate back-and-forth.

How: I quote retweeted the article to my class because I found it interesting and relevant to the class.

Takeaway: The relevance this tweet had to my following was higher, hence the increase in engagements.

#5 First Saltwater Dive

Impressions: 215  Engagements: 3

What: The challenge was to Tweet out content covering an event that occurred over spring break.

How: The highlight of my spring break was scuba diving in Key Largo, FL for the first time with Horizon Divers.

Takeaway: By including both rich media, trending hashtags, and Horizon Diver’s Twitter handle in the tweet, I was able to maximize the number of people who saw the tweet (high impressions) and engaged.

#4 Britney Spears Periscope Challenge

Impressions: 239  Engagements: 1

What: The class was challenged to a group competition in “who can create the best” Periscope content by receiving the most hearts.

How: To help promote the challenge, I tweeted about one group’s Britney skit while it was taking place.

Takeaway: Because I used the class hashtag, my tweet became visible to everyone who was viewing that hashtag during the challenge – which was everyone in the classroom.

#3 Villanova is Winning #MarchMadness

Impressions: 331  Engagements: 6

What: For the Periscope challenge, my group predicated the outcome of March Madness by conducting a donut eating contest.  The winner was Villanova.

How: I quote retweeted the Professor’s original tweet regarding our Periscope challenge.  Her tweet took place while I was conducting the experiment, so by using her content I was able to provide my followers with the same information.

Takeaway: Following trending hashtags is key (high increase in impressions), but also writing provocative content in a tweet which makes readers want to click the link.

#2 #MotivationMonday Bagel Promotion

Impressions: 339  Engagements: 16

What:  The assignment was to promote an event that supports a noteworthy (good) cause.

How: My team took advantage of my sorority’s event during the coming week where we would sell bagels in Walnut Park.  The proceeds of the event would be donated to the local chapter of Girls on the Run, my sorority’s main philanthropy.

Takeaway: By using media rich content, the message was more intriguing and had a higher chance of being seen.  I also ran this tweet during the week of the philanthropy, resulting in high engagement from my fellow sorority sisters.  Finally, by taking advantage of Monday’s trending hashtag, the tweet received a higher number of impressions.

#1 Finding Nemo Goes Viral

Impressions: 1,266  Engagements: 148

What: The viral content challenge required me to create an intriguing meme and post it on Imgur hosting site.  I then had to promote the content on my Twitter page using a Twitter web card and Twitter ads.

How: I created content that was relevant to current topics, such as the upcoming Presidential nominees and the release of Finding Dory, the sequel to the beloved Finding Nemo.

Takeaway: Using Twitter ads is frustrating, but worth it.  My total impression count increased substantially, resulting in many more engagements on the actual content.

Results: I have learned both what works and what does not on Twitter in regards to my particular Twitter following.

Leave a Reply