Influence Growth & Analysis: Started from the Bottom, Now We’re Here

Posted on by Abigail White

At the start of the semester I had a whopping zero Twitter followers. Since then, I have gained 18 followers. The follower growth is mainly due to networking with other Newhouse students who were also trying to grow their Twitter following. At one point I had a follower that spurred from a reply I made on a viral post, but that user ultimately unfollowed me. I found that trying to gain followers with no personal connection would be difficult unless I was able to produce viral content. Additionally, one of my followers appears to be a spam account. My most effective way of gaining followers was by following my classmates and getting a follow in return. I also followed other friends in different Newhouse courses that used Twitter for professional purposes. I think that my follower base could continue to grow if I remain active and continue to network with others using the app.

In terms of tweets, I learned that my best tweets were those that were visually pleasing and/or had relatable content and it helped if they were timely. This tweet, which had both of these qualities, was high in engagements and had four likes, which was the most likes I received:

 

Following this, I had a few other tweets that received slightly more attention. My meme had high engagement due to the high number of link clicks. I believe this was successful because I created a clever caption and utilized hashtags, as well as making sure that the media was displayed well.

Here, the use of media elevated the tweet. Additionally, I provided information that was relevant and interesting to my follower base:

Replying to viral content also seemed to create an increase in buzz because users wanted to see what I was replying to and likely found my response to be relatable:

Also, tweeting directly at famous accounts and them liking it proved fruitful for impressions:

My reply to @GreenpeaceUSA had a high number of impressions, probably in part because it was funny and in part because Greenpeace liked the response and replied to it (with a rather strange response):

Their response:

Another tweet that faired well in engagements because of hashtags, mentions and most importantly media (more specifically, food):

To my surprise, the promotion of my Instagram account received a lot of impressions. This is likely due to the use of a popular hashtag.

This timely tweet gained a higher number of impressions and engagements, but would have likely done much better if I had used a hashtag surrounding the event:

Lastly, I gained impressions by tweeted at Newhouse alumna Betsy West, who co-directed the RBG Movie, likely because I tagged her, Newhouse and the film:

After analyzing my tweets, I feel that I’ve successfully executed many strategies that I hadn’t used before. I was also able to identify ways that my tweets could have been improved if I had utilized more techniques. Overall, I am pleased with my improvement and the professional platform that I have created for myself for future use.

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