Influence and Growth Analysis

Posted on by Gabriella Jimenez

Over the last semester, I created a new Twitter account. While following the instructions of Professor Grygiel, I saw just how impactful social media can be– and while I didn’t become an influencer, I certainly learned a lot along the way.

My Influence

At the beginning of the course, I started with exactly zero followers. Now, I have 27 followers. If I calculate percentage growth starting at 1 follower (which is necessary for calculations), I had a 2700% growth over the semester. Through this total period, I earned 8.5K impressions on my tweets. In order to increase my network, I found that mentioning (@) other users and using hashtags allowed me to earn more impressions on my tweets and encouraged interaction with people that I otherwise would not have known. I also found that following people that I knew from Newhouse was an easy way to have them to follow me back. As far as engagements, I found that when I tagged famous individuals or influencers, other accounts would engage with, or even retweet the content. I found that what didn’t work was simply tweeting content without any hashtags. For example, when I tweeted a meme with a picture, I didn’t hashtag anything with it. While I believe the content was worthy of being retweeted or liked by at least five people, it only received one like. I also found that if I didn’t constantly engage with others on Twitter, my engagement rates would drop and I wouldn’t gain as many followers.

Execution: My Top 10 Tweets

Impressions: 2,103

Engagements: 23

Engagement Rate: 1.1%

For this post, I wanted to engage with influencers in the makeup industry. I found that I gained more impressions on this post than others because I tagged popular Twitter users and included hashtags. This post was retweeted by one of the influencers I tagged, @SineadyCady. I also included an appealing image to attract the eye and add aesthetic.

 

2.

Impressions: 547

Engagements: 29

Engagement Rate: 5.3%

For this particular tweet, I shared content that I not only found to be funny, but also relevant to current events. Between Two Ferns: The Movie had just been released on Netflix, so I wanted to reference the old videos that made the sketch so famous. In hindsight, I probably could have earned more impressions on this if I had referenced the movie and included another hashtag, so that the tweet would be easy to find and share. (I forgot to include the class hashtag on this particular tweet, but I posted the tweet in Slack for credit).

3.

Impressions: 378

Engagements: 38

Engagement Rate: 10.1%

I used this tweet to promote my personal Instagram account. IΒ  made sure to include a screenshot of my Instagram to give a small preview, and also included the link for easy access. Although the tweet got 2 likes, which may seem small, I had a very small follower count at this point in time.

4.

Impressions: 374

Engagements: 14

Engagement Rate: 3.7%

In this tweet, I included a screenshot of a Google Trends Analysis that I did. I made sure to hashtag #Googletrends, so that if anyone was searching that hashtag, they could find my analysis. I picked Pho, Ramen, and Soba to analyze because not only am I a foodie, but who doesn’t love a good noodle bowl?!

 

5.

Impressions: 367

Engagements: 6

Engagement: 1.6%

I tweeted this as my first meme of the class. I used a moving gif that I made with a gif-making tool online, Gif Maker. I think this tweet did well because it was relatable and humorous in nature. This reflects on a major topic that we covered during class; virality is encouraged when we promote joy and humor.

 

6.

Impressions: 327

Engagements: 3

Engagement Rate: 0.9%

This tweet likely earned engagement because it re-tagged / re-posted the same influencers and hashtags that I had included in the original tweet. In fact, this might have lead to the original tweet gaining as many engagements as it did. With this tweet, I learned that Twitter users can bring back their old content by retweeting it with a new comment. This is something that I did not know was possible or used.

 

7.

Impressions: 295

Engagements: 11

Engagement Rate: 3.7%

With this tweet, I wanted to share some cute content with my followers. Following the principles about content that we learned in class, I wanted to share something that my followers would find enjoyable and lovable. I also made sure to make the video square-shaped so that it would be easily viewable on the Twitter platform. This way, users would not have to click on the video if they wanted to watch it.

 

8.

Impressions: 279

Engagements: 6

Engagement Rate: 2.2%

Although this tweet was pre-bankrupt Forever 21 (RIP), I wanted to post something that would make my followers laugh. I think this tweet received engagements because it included two hashtags and included a popular brand name. I also included creative fonts that would attract attention.

 

9.

Impressions: 245

Engagements: 1

Engagement Rate: 0.4%

For this post, I wanted to quote a tweet about something that mattered. I follow the Bloomberg Twitter account, and I found a news post about Greta Thunberg that they posted. I chose to quote this tweet because climate change is a topic that I care a lot about, and I’m sure others do, as well. I included the hashtag #ICYMI to earn more impressions. This was my first time using that hashtag, and before this class, I was not familiar with it to bring up older tweets that might still be relevant.

 

10.

Impressions: 242

Engagements: 7

Engagement Rate: 2.9%

I was surprised to learn that this was one of my top ten tweets because I posted it when I had about 3 followers. I think using a Boomerang encouraged people to click on my tweet, which encouraged engagement. I also think the way I worded this tweet kept my voice constant. Throughout this semester, I’ve tried to keep a playful and fun voice for my followers.

 

In the beginning of this class, I made a completely new professional Twitter account. Starting from scratch was a little intimidating at first, but I wanted to see how far I could get in engagement if I started with exactly zero followers. While I didn’t have any set goals as far as follower count, I gained insight into what worked and what didn’t when tweeting. From this class, I learned that the content we distribute can have an impact on thousands of people. I often didn’t realize before how widespread content can become on social media, nor did I realize the actual positive effects of using hashtags or media on my tweets. In order to learn from this experience, I needed to experiment with tweets and different formats to earn impressions and engagements. Overall, I believe this experience allowed me to create a fun account for a small group of people, and have a small, but still meaningful, impact on the world of Twitter.

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