Influence and Growth Analysis

Posted on by Sari Kamp

Influence:

  • Twitter followers before COM 427 – 52
  • Twitter followers after COM 427 – 88

Over the course of the Fall 2019 semester, I was able to utilize the skills and techniques I learned in COM 427 – Social Media for Communicators to grow my Twitter following by 69.2%. Though growing from 52 to 88 followers might not seem like a large leap, it represents a shift in the content I was creating for Twitter. Professor Grygiel and COM 427 taught me how to leverage the followers I do have to reach the most people on Twitter by using Twitter Analytics data, TweetDeck and various Twitter tools.

Throughout the course of the semester I worked hard to find my Twitter voice. At first, Twitter did not come as naturally to me as other social media platforms such as Instagram or Facebook. Putting my thoughts directly out there for anyone to read freaked me out, and because of that, the content I was creating (and the engagements – or lack of) suffered. Once I realized the content I put out on Twitter could be exactly what I am interested in, I gained followers, got more engagements, and found a community of like-minded Tweeters.

Below are my Top 10 tweets of the semester. Though during the semester I had tweets that performed better than some listed here, they were not tweets that were tagged #NHsmc either because they weren’t class assignments, or because even though they were class assignments, I didn’t want those I was tagging or responding to to know I was doing so as an assignment. These tweets range from confusing (#7, my original Viral Content Challenge meme) to comical (#3, David Dobrik NOT enjoying food) to serious (#1, a retweet of #NotAgainSU’s initial demands). Each tweet did well for its own reasons, and each helped me to become the tweeter I am today! Without further ado, my Top 10 tweets of the semester…

Execution:

  • Impressions – 1598
  • Engagements – 13
  • This tweet did particularly well, I believe, because it is a quote tweet that tags a large account, and because it contains a hashtag (#NotAgainSU) that had a large following at the time. The original tweet from @CaseyDarnell_ contains rich media, which also influenced the impressions my retweet got.

  • Impressions – 350
  • Engagements – 4
  • This tweet is one of my favorites that I wrote this semester. By combining my love of food with the internet’s love of the Obamas, I was able to gain 350 impressions. Though this is significantly less than my best tweet, it is on par with the other 8 tweets in my top ten. As well, the #ICYMI assignment was at the beginning of the semester, so I was still gaining followers and learning to post at the right times to gain the most impressions and engagements.

  • Impressions – 287
  • Engagements – 6
  • My gif tweet, featuring YouTuber David Dobrik and Bon Appetit’s Food Director Carla Lalli Music, was one of my first tweets that felt like ‘me.’ I was able to combine my (probably unhealthy) obsession with Bon Appetit and its editors with the internets (probably unhealthy) obsession with David Dobrik into a loop you just can’t stop watching. This tweet was also a #NHsmc #IRL moment, because I had multiple friends mention how much they loved it #IRL, as opposed to on Twitter. I consider this tweet to be especially successful because of that.

  • Impressions – 235
  • Engagements – 7
  • Anytime I got to incorporate something I love (aka food or dogs) into my tweets I found that they performed better. This puppy tweet to my classmate and friend Lauren was no exception. By tagging Lauren I was able to reach a larger audience, and the incorporation of rich media enhanced the number of impressions as well.

  • Impressions – 192
  • Engagements – 10
  • My poll tweet did not garner as many votes as I would have liked, but those who did vote did so correctly (bucatini forever!). Something I have noticed about my set of followers is that they don’t like, retweet, vote or click on something unless they are fully interested. Perhaps if I had phrased my question differently or added a form of rich media I would have been able to reach a larger audience.

  • Impressions – 189
  • Engagements – 6
  • Rich media (and the Kamp family) are the best! By creating a collage of three separate photos, I was able to gain 189 impressions and 6 engagements using only 1 hashtag. This tweet perfectly shows how the inclusion of rich media can help get impressions.

  • Impressions – 181
  • Engagements – 4
  • As my original Viral Content Challenge meme, I am surprised that this tweet made my top 10. After not getting any ‘likes’ during our class dot voting exercise, I decided to create an entirely new meme for the project. However, my tweet with my original meme still lives on, apparently as number 7 of my top 10 tweets of the semester. I liken this placement on the list to this tweets utilization of rich media, especially because memes are so popular currently.

  • Impressions – 178
  • Engagements – 8
  • Though this tweet is from the beginning of the semester, it is one of the tweets that best represents my voice. Even though it is a simple tweet, it explains an opinion that most of us likely have in a comical way. By replying to my own tweet and creating a thread, I was able to gain more impressions, and by using rich media in that second tweet, I was likely able to gain even more impressions.

  • Impressions – 172
  • Engagements – 5
  • One of my favorite ways that we learned to use Twitter this semester was networking. I love making new connections and learning about the industry I plan to go into, which is why reaching out to Daniel Taroy, a Newhouse alumna who I had previously met at a social media panel, was something I felt very comfortable doing on Twitter. Though I didn’t get a reply, I was able to reach 172 impressions and should I reach out to Daniel again in the future, I am glad he might see this tweet.

  • Impressions – 159
  • Engagements – 6
  • This final tweet of my top 10 of the semester is another example of rich media enhancing content. Though I cannot track if anyone used the link in this tweet to connect with me on LinkedIn, my connections have been growing on the platform, and advertising myself on Twitter was likely one of the factors in that. As well, the upbeat tone of this tweet drew readers in as it didn’t seem like it would be a ‘networking’ tweet given the gif attached.

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