Navigating the World of Twitter

Posted on by Lucille Dunn

The Influence

At the start of the semester I created a new Twitter account. I had a very old account that hadn’t been used in years so I figured it was better to make a new one. With having to start a new account I started off with no followers and ended up with 14 followers by the end of the semester, this was a lower percentage growth, but something for a newer account. I did not achieve as many followers that I was hoping for in the beginning of the semester, but I believe overall I was more focused on the content of my tweets then gaining new followers. With myself not having too much experience on Twitter I think my overall goal was getting comfortable using it, which I did achieve. I got comfortable posting and learned along the way how to make tweets more engaging. What did not work was my obvious lack of focus on building a larger influence and network. But what I believe went right was the addition of more hashtags and emojis than I ever really add, so that got me thinking outside my normal social media bubble. Overall, I believe that this entire semester has been a learning curve for myself adjusting to Twitter and understanding what makes for a good tweet. My focus was on the content of my posts more so my followers, but I think if I were to move forward with this account I would make more goals on creating a larger network. 

The Execution

This is a collection of my top tweets over the course of the semester. They are classified by their impressions, engagements, engagement rates, likes, comments, and retweets.

This tweet totaled to 1,227 impressions, 8 engagements and 0.7% engagement rate. This tweet was a retweet that I did in response to Syracuse University’s NotAgain SU movement that was happening on campus. I had seen the post a number of times on my feed so I thought it was something great to retweet with a comment. I did not add my own photos, I let the ones from the post speak for themselves and my tweet was more of a reaction to the events going on. My tweet was retweeted, which was great. I had been new to retweeting, so this was one assignment that allowed me to develop those skills. 

This tweet totaled to 540 impressions, 25 engagements, a 4.6% engagement rate and had a total of 6 likes. This tweet was the first time I was creating my own Gif, I developed the skills of the type of content that resonates well, the applications to use when making one, and the right type of audience you are targeting. I went with a Seinfeld video because I thought that was very relatable to people, I have seen many memes involving Seinfeld characters so I believed it was a relevant topic. Overall, I liked this post, the video was a little blurry but I think my connection to receiving paychecks connected with people and come out as a lighthearted Gif. 

This tweet totaled to 385 impressions, 6 engagements, 1.6% engagement rate, one comment and one like. This tweet was part of my effort to connect with someone who has a larger network and following platform. Iskra is a model and spokesperson for Arie and has this entire campaign around body positivity so I thought she was a perfect person to connect with because she has such a strong message. The whole point of this tweet was to engage with her and hopefully receive a response. Even though I did not review any engagement from her, I still believe this was a great tweet because I was showing my support for her entire message and campaign. 

This tweet received 272 impressions, 3 engagements, 1.1% engagement rate and 1 comment. The entire goal of this tweet was to engage with someone in our class and start a conversation on Twitter. At the time of this tweet, one of the biggest things in the news was the devastating loss of Kobe Bryant. I happen to see the post that ESPN sent out sharing the loss of Kobe and so I engaged with one of my classmates to see if they had seen the news. I got a comment back from my classmate on the Kobe Bryant news in which she also shared a post of artists honoring Kobe Bryant at the Grammys. Overall, I believe this was a successful conversation on Twitter. 

This tweet totaled to 266 impressions, 5 engagements, 1.9% engagement rate and one like. This tweet was another practice of meme creating. With memes being so popular on social media right now, there was significant practice to meme creating. I created this meme on a Sunday, dreading that it was Sunday and tomorrow was Monday, and that is exactly where I got my inspiration for the tweet. I used a photo that is pretty often used for memes, but with the emotions I wanted to express I thought it was the most appropriate. I had #Sunday mood added, which seems to be a largely used hashtag, which gave me a little more engagement.

This tweet totaled to 265 impressions, 26 engagements, 9.8% engagement rate, and one like. This tweet challenged my skills of posting a photo on my twitter, for this post I got a picture of the Dunkaroos from Google and attached it to my tweet. I practiced tagging the Dunkaroo account to the tweet along with multiple relevant hashtags and emojis that made the post light hearted and fun. The engagement rate on this tweet was a lot higher than I expected but I believe what made for that was the Dunkaroo account and the multiple hashtags that I incorporated. 

 This tweet totaled to 248 impressions, no engagements, 0.0% engaged rate and no likes or comments. Along with this tweet, we practiced scheduling tweets for a month in advance relevant to the tweet that we were posting. At that time, the new season of Survivor had just started so I thought it would be perfect topic to schedule another tweet in a month later because the show was still going on. I retweeted the survivor accounts post and added my own comment. I was surprised that I got 0 engagements, but I believe that the topic may not relate to my followers and I may have been one of thousands of posts on their Twitter so mine might have gotten lost in the pack. 

This tweet received 247 impressions, 3 engagements and 1.2% engagement rate and one like. This tweet was all about creating a chain of tweets, starting off with one and adding another to form a chain. This tweet came after the big reveal of Baby Nut during the Superbowl. I started off with a reaction post on the reveal of Baby Nut and then I responded to my own reaction with a Gif that represented my reaction to Baby Nut. At the point in which I posted this tweet, there were thousands of tweets going out about Baby Nut so I believe that mine got lost in the thousand others, but I did learn how to create a chain tweet. 

This tweet received 236 impressions, 18 engagements, 7.6% engagement rate, 2 likes and one comment. This was my very first post on my new Twitter so I was not expecting any kind of engagement as I haven’t grown any kind of network yet. The whole meaning of this post was to act as an introduction. I was asked to introduce myself on social media, I used the addition of tags to hopefully grab more engagement. The overall point was show who I am in a very quick and brief statement on social media. 

This tweet received 236 impressions, 0 engagements, 0% engagement rates, and no likes or comments. The whole premise of this tweet was to create some kind of voice in my tweets. I had to find someone with a successful Twitter and research their kind of voice and try to create my own voice. I was aiming for a more lighthearted and funny voice so I went with a Gif and a comment that I thought was funny. I had not created or established a specific voice yet so this was a trial run on my thoughts on my voice, but it allowed me to develop skills in adapting certain voices to ones social media and ultimately establishing ones own voice. 

Conclusion 

Overall, I am proud of the content that I put out in the ten posts shown above. I have developed many skills around Twitter and social media in general that I never knew before this semester so I am walking away with new skills and knowledge. Social media is apart of everyones day to day life now and understanding how you can utilize it to make yourself an influencer is incredible. Social media, Twitter specifically, may seem very simple at first, but there are many skills that I never knew before but now do that I can take to my own account. I may not have achieved a thousand more followers in this time period but I developed the skills and knowledge to work towards in the future.

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