Klouty With A Chance of New Followers

Posted on by Lucy Sutphin

I have been an avid Twitter user since 2011. In the early days I used the platform to Tweet out song lyrics and go on emotional rants. Entering college, I had a comfortable Twitter following of around 500 people, however, I knew that employers would like to see more carefully curated content and less posts about how much I love Beyonce. In response, I created a “professional Twitter” that I planned to use to comment on the industry, guest lecturers, and my career. A few of my friends generously followed it, but it was nothing I was excited to show off as it lacked something that my original Twitter had formed: my voice.

Flash forward four years to the first week of Com427. I had made the executive decision to clean up my “personal Twitter” and use it going forward in the course as I had a comfortable follower base. However, while I meant to clear out Tweets from over a year ago, the application cleared out everything. Absolutely every Tweet I had ever curated.

This incident happened to occur on  the same day I broke up with my boyfriend of two years. I received dozens of texts that said, “I’m so sorry for what happened”….I can tell you more than 75% of the comments were referencing my Twitter account given my well-known attachment to the platform.

With only 70 followers on my professional Twitter, I decided to take the risk and make it my sole account where I would be humorous, intelligent, and professional all in one!

Now, nearly four months later, I am happy to share that I have 206 followers, meaning my followers increased by 194%!

A large number of these followers came from my pleas via Facebook and my other Twitter account to follow my revamped professional account. However, a few other techniques helped raise the number. Most importantly, interacting with networking connections. By quote Tweeting those I had spoken with from the Newhouse Alumni Base for informational interviews, or those who I had seen speak at Newhouse, I was able to gain followers such as Stacy Minero and Ashly Oerhl, two woman who work in my dream positions at Twitter.

Having Followers like this helped increase my influence in the advertising community as I would receive interaction from my new and popular Followers, encouraging others to see my Tweets.

Despite the success, one technique that I found did not work very well was trying to engage directly with people I never had talked to before without a real reason. Often, my Tweets went unanswered.

Looking at how my Twitter has evolved it is also important to look at my Klout score. My Klout began at 35, a very low (and upsetting) number. Now, I have bumped this up 6 points to 41. I am working to continue to keep this number up by engaging with those with a heavier follower base and making sure to interact via Favorites and RTs. My goal is to bring this number up 10 points by the end of the summer.

Looking back over the semester I have tried my best to let me personality show in my revamped Twitter. I have chosen ten posts that have taught me how to create interesting and professional content, while not cutting out my personality.

1. The Panera Gift Card

Some of my favorite Twitter users are brands. To this day, my Valentine’s Twitter exchange with @PaneraBread remains my favorite brand-loyalty example of all time. As an AVID Panera customer (so avid that they are tagged in my bio), I make sure to interact with them often on Twitter as they are known for their quick responses. On Valentine’s Day I Tweeted a love poem to Panera. While I expected I would receive some Likes, the brand went as far as to ask me to DM them so they could send me a present. I made sure to update my followers (via a Thread) of the interaction. A few weeks later I receive this lovely letter in the mail, along with a $15 gift card to my favorite spot. By threading this to the original Tweet, it reminded my followers of the original encounter (or allowed those to see the original exchange who may have missed it). This Tweet received 17 Likes, 428 impressions, and 72 engagements, making it a huge success.

Lesson Learned: Make sure to interact with brands as you never know the good that will come of it! Additionally, threading Tweets can be helpful when wanting to provide an update on a topic.

2. Cher-ing the humor

After losing all of my content I knew I had to make sure my first few Tweets on my revamped Twitter were going to introduce my new voice. I was not going to be too stuffy, and I wanted to create relatable content. I was scrolling through Twitter one day and noticed on obscure Tweet from Cher. Reading through her timeline I was lost in typo-filled cryptic messages from the singer. Her comment on her career hit too close to home given the impending doom of my graduation. In response, I chose to utilize it to my advantage. Quoting the singer garnered 10 Likes. Before adding humor to my “professional” account my Tweets were lucky to get 2 Likes. This was the first time I felt like my presence was being established. This Tweet received 436 impressions and 10 engagements, making it a successful first step.

Lesson learned: Providing your own twist on celebrity-produced content catches the attention of followers as it takes someone who is not particularly relatable and makes them feel more real.

3.  Food Art

This Tweet performed unexpectedly well. Here I attempted to create a hashtag that had never been used. While Instagram is the hub of “food porn”, I figured that Tweeting a delicious meal from my favorite Syracuse chain might attract the attention of alum and current students alike. This post received over 529 impressions, 140 engagements, 11 Likes, and 1 reply! An alumni who currently works at Twitter responded how much she missed Dino …proving the success of the post.

Lesson learned: Tweeting with a certain audience in mind can often increase desired engagement. Additionally, create a hashtag that makes people curious to click into your content and see what you are talking about!

4. Free Falling

This Tweet performed well receiving 331 impression and 64 engagements. In hindsight, I wish I had condensed the text in the Tweet. However, utilizing the #ICYMI hashtag to call attention to a rough time in my life, in addition to having the media preview not reveal the best part of the photo, luring in people to click the post, was a perfect combo to attract 10 Likes.

Lesson learned: Keep Tweets short and sweet. Also provide an interesting caption, asking people to click into your pictures and engage.

5. #OrangeNation

This Tweet was scheduled ahead of time via TweetDeck as I knew that I would be too busy watching the game to create content! I used a photo taken from a previous game to show my support. This Tweet received 498 impressions, with 75 engagements, and 11 Likes. I believe this Tweet received a good amount of engagement because it did just what Twitter is supposed to do, provided relevant and timely content that connected to what was going on in my community. It also called for Likes given that no Syracuse student wanted to see UNC win!

Lesson learned: If you can, plan ahead timely content that will warrant attention from your follower community. While Twitter is a great place to live comment on a breaking story, when you can plan ahead, take advantage of it!

6. Four Years of Advice

This Tweet is one of my favorites as it makes me emotional. While humor is heavily utilized on Twitter, appealing to the emotions of your followers in the form of nostalgia is also a powerful tool. Here, I chose four photos that summed up some of the best advice I received in college. Many of my followers are also seniors, scared to move to the next stage in their lives. I knew this Tweet would warrant engagement as my fellow seniors could relate to the words of wisdom. This post ended up with 737 impressions. Because of the multiple photos, it received 136 media engagements. It was Liked 13 times and Retweeted once.

Lesson learned: Providing multiple photos encourages followers to click into the post and take the time to figure out how they all relate. Additionally, appealing to emotion makes a Tweet more relatable, and therefore encourages engagement.

7. Read my blog please

This post was the first time I shared anything I had written! While the impressions were slightly lower at 362, I got 6 link clinks, making the post a success! Additionally, I received 1 Retweet and 5 Likes. I think this post could have been improved by adding rich media. However, by using the well-known #ICYMI hashtag and tagging Facebook, I believe that it caught the attention of those scrolling through their timelines.

Lesson learned: Use rich media to make sure users don’t miss your post. Include popular hashtags and when you mention a company, tag them, because you don’t know how they will interact!

8. Common Mark!

This Tweet did particularly well for a few reasons. This Tweet accompanied the hearing of Mark Zuckerberg before Congress. Twitter was extremely inundated with live comments on the hearing. This Tweet received 6 Likes, 13 engagements, and 561 impressions very quickly as many were trying to see differing opinions on the hearing. I threaded this Tweet with other comments on the hearing, making it easy for people to follow along on my commentary.

Lesson learned: Tweeting during a popularized event and providing threaded commentary helps tell a story for your followers.

9. Follow back? (please)

 

This Tweet utilized a popular hashtag as an excuse to interact and gain attention from influencers in my industry. By calling them out and making sure they know I followed them I received 8 Likes, but more importantly, 3 new followers! Additionally, one of the people I mentioned even commented back that they were honored to be mentioned! This technique was something I was scared to try but I highly recommend it and have used it since.

Lesson learned: Use trending or popular hashtags as an excuse to connect with influencers. Also, including a simply GIF or other example of rich media helps the success of your Tweet.

10. A bagel named Stanley.

This Tweet is an example of a brand engagement. I decided to Quote Tweet Panera, who asked their followers to “Name that bagel”. Instead of identifying the type I gave the bagel a name, receving 13 Likes, 34 engagements, and a whopping 1,351 impressions! More so, I had 2 Retweets and 2 separate replies, including one from Panera themselves! This post, by adding a little humor, rich media, and a popular brand, proved that commenting-in can gain attention!

Lesson learned: Interacting with popular brands using humor can attract the eyes of their followers!

Over the past four months I have learned an array of new skills, helping to create more steady interaction with my Tweets. Now, I am proud to show off both of my Twitter accounts as I believe they capture my voice in a strong and humorous way. This course has taught me to not be afraid to take risks with a new technique- and that the risks often pays off. I plan to continue to use many of the skills I learned going forward in my Twitter career. From #ICYMI to using rich media as often as possible, I am proud to say I feel like I have a lot more weight in my Twitter world.

 

 

Leave a Reply