Influence Growth & Analysis – @elundin3

Posted on by Emily Lundin

Part 1: Influence

As someone who has created nearly all of their social media profiles at the same time the platforms themselves had been introduced, it was quite challenging for me to ‘start over’ and create a new Twitter profile. Although I have been an active user of the platform since February of 2014, opening up to an empty feed and follower-less profile was extremely intimidating, especially when the intention for this new account is to experiment with a voice I had never portrayed on social media before.

Over the span of 87 days, my new account, @elundin3, had gone from 0 to a total of 20 followers (a 20% increase). I found the most success in gaining followers by adding the #nhsmc hashtag to my Tweetdeck and following my peers who sent tweets that included the hashtag. Other than my classmates, my followers mainly consisted of friends and family outside of Syracuse. I think I would’ve attainted a larger following if I had followed more smaller, relevant people within my industry. I’ve found that following larger accounts (such as big name production companies and those in higher up positions) do not have a large impact on my engagement or following. When I did mention or reach out to alum and people starting out in my industry, they had a tendency to engage with me and even follow back.

Something else I wish I had done was follow more people. I tend to keep my follow to follow ratio’s equal across all of my social media, only following people that I know/followed me back. However, this wasn’t the right approach for a profile where I am trying to engage with people I normally wouldn’t as well as build my network. Perhaps a tactic I should’ve experimented with would be to follow someone relevant to me, engage with them, and then follow someone else they are following or have interacted with. This would quite literally make an entire network of weak ties.

Something I would also suggest when trying to foster a new voice online is to be yourself, while simultaneously including rich media that reflects the message you are trying to get across. If you are taking a conversational tone like I did, you will most likely be more successful if you include a casual meme or relatable GIF. I’ve also noticed that having a consistent tone generates a more loyal following. People will recognize you and your brand and continue to interact with you.

 

Part 2: Execution

During this four month period, my 27 tweets have earned over 7.2K impressions, averaging at about 88 per day. There had also been a gradual increase in my monthly impressions, beginning with only 89 in August and ending with over 3,000 in November! Despite this, my tweet activity had not been as consistent, leaving my engagement rate extremely sporadic from tweet to tweet. The following 10 tweets are listed as my ‘Top Tweets’ on Tweetdeck, appearing from most popular to least popular according to the amount of impressions they received:

1. This tweet, posted during the halfway point of my Twitters lifespan, has the most impressions (911) and engagements (38) of all my Tweets. Though it does not have the highest engagement rate (4.2%) or likes (4) ,this tweet had done exceptionally well. This tweet attempted to engage with a micro influencer in the Newhouse network and earn a follow. I believe this is my most successful tweet for two reasons: One being this person has a large following that are more likely looking through her mentions and saw my tweet. The other reason being that she herself engaged with the tweet, causing it to appear in her ‘likes’ that anyone can see. Perhaps if she didn’t engage with this tweet, it wouldn’t have been as successful. I could’ve improved this tweet by including a screenshot of one of her videos, or even embedding a link to my favorite one.

2. This tweet was scheduled to post via Tweetdeck after analyzing when my followers were the most active. It was also curated to resonate with them, which I was able to do with the help of FollowerWonk. I found that the majority of my followers were somehow associated with politics, and also were engaging with other tweets about voting during that time. This tweet was relevant and was one of my first posts to include rich media. As I mentioned, including a GIF that mimics your tone typically sparks engagement and makes your audience stop to appreciate your post. I also included emojis that aid my followers in reading the sentence as I intended them to. This post generated 722 impressions, 8 engagements and had a 1.1% engagement rate.

3. As my first Twitter Collage, this post most directly reflects something I would include on a personal Twitter account. It is casual, funny and takes on a conversational tone. Although the media could’ve been placed a bit more accurately within the provided space, the images are easily identifiable and definitely rich. Who doesn’t love a good cat collage? Becoming my most liked tweet with 7 likes, this post had an 8.4% engagement rate (my third highest). It also generated 476 impressions and 40 engagements.

4. This post was an effort to share something that would make a difference on my timeline. With the bushfires becoming a full on outbreak in eastern Australia, I wanted to share a simple way you could help if you were not in close proximity to the fires themselves. By quote tweeting a verified page that included rich media, this post definitely caught the eye of my followers. I also mentioned The Salvation Army Emergency Services and included a link that would take you directly to their donation page. Although I should’ve tagged their account directly, they still were able to engage with my tweet, boosting its credibility and impressions number of 393. It also acquired an engagement rate of 1.8% and earned 7 total engagements.

5. Have you ever had a thought cross your mind and then immediately think, “Hey…I should tweet that”? Well, this was one of those moments. This post was just a quick little personal thought that I figured would be relatable as well as a good reminder of my personality. A few of my peers liked this post, giving it a total of 4 likes and 384 impressions. I think it was fairly successful because its quick, short and to the point. Perhaps it might have gained more attention if I had thrown another hashtag in or tagged the actual VSCO Twitter account. Despite this, it earned 12 engagements and had an engagement rate of 3.1%

6. This is another great example of me experimenting with my voice and tone on social media. Although I am reporting on a certain event that is fairly related to my industry, I am doing so in a casual and conversational tone. By including an emoji and hashtags, I am conveying emotions about the topic at hand. Because I tagged people and included hashtags, someone who I do not follow was able to see this post and leave a comment about the premiere. This tweet received 327 impressions, 5 total engagements with a  rate of 1.5%

7. This tweet was an attempt to emulate the voice of someone I admire on Twitter which was Chrissy Teigen. With over 12 million followers, Chrissy is a model, American television personality and arguably one of the most relatable celebrities on social media. This is due to her extreme transparency, casual delivery skills and universal content that anyone can enjoy. Many of her tweets adopt a conversational tone and include simple rich media such as emojis, which is exactly what I attempted to convey in my own tweet. Because of its relatablility, my tweet gained 2 likes and 4 engagements. It also received 302 impressions and had a 1.3% engagement rate.

8. By experimenting with Google Trends and the Google nGram chart, I was able to analyze the way society has defined the female gender since the 1800s. Because gender is such a relevant topic and I was able to speak about it by utilizing rich media such as this graph, I believe more people were inclined to engage and really take some time to look at the information provided. Earning my highest engagement rate of all time with a 9.2%, its clear that my followers are interested in media such as this and are more inclined to share it. It also gained 4 likes, 294 impressions and 27 engagements, leaving it as my third most engaged post.

9. In an attempt to engage with a micro influencer in my industry, I tweeted at Kathryn Newton who starred in Dective Pikachu this past Spring. Although she didn’t engage with me, I have reason to believe that my own followers were inclined to click on her name and inform themselves on who she is. Perhaps this tweet would’ve been more successful if I included a picture of her or the Detective Pikachu poster. This tweet only received 5 engagements with a 1.9% rate, 256 impressions and 1 like.

10. Finally, I tried to cross promote another one of my social media accounts on Twitter. I think this is my least successful tweet out of the 10 because there is a lack of rich media and relevant hashtags attached. Although the caption is presented in my true, conversational voice, people were less likely to engage with the link because they weren’t exactly sure what it was. I believe if I had included a preview of what kind of content I post on my instagram, my followers would’ve been more likely to engage. This post received 256 impressions, 7 engagements and had a 2.7% engagement rate.

 

Conclusion

Overall, I was generally impressed with the large amount of impressions and engagements I had acquired with only having twenty followers. Analyzing these tweets has really opened my eyes as to what happens behind the scenes on social media.

By the end of the semester, I believe I found a healthy balance of incorporating my voice into what I was attempting to say in my tweets, whether they be informative for conversational. When I included rich media, the likeliness of attaining more impressions and engagements dramatically increased, especially when it was relatable and funny. There were times that I could’ve dove deeper when it came to mentioning someone or including hashtags, which I will attempt in future Tweets. Despite this, I enjoyed getting to know myself in a new light and playing with social media as a different personality.

 

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