Personal Influence Growth & Analysis: From NHsmc Influencer to Beyond

Posted on by Elizabeth Stewart

PART 1: INFLUENCE

As COM 427 has come to an end, it is time to see if I really do have what it takes to be Newhouse social media communicator and potential influencer. At the start of the course, I only had a personal Twitter that was merely for funny and occasionally borderline inappropriate retweets. So, I decided it was about time to make a professional Twitter in pursuit of finding my own professional “voice” and Twitter identity in the communications world. Due to the fact that I made a brand-new Twitter account, my follower benchmark started at 0. However, over the course of the semester, my follower base amassed to 60 followers, indicating a 6,000% growth.

This journey of targeting micro-influencers, quote-tweeting, tweeting out polls, gifs, and  trying out other ways to engage with my fellow peers let me experiment many different styles of tweeting and find my tone within the platform. It also helped me to better understand what worked for me as well as what didn’t.

So, what worked?

Overall, the biggest things that worked for me were relevance, relatability, and visual components. Whether my tweets were directly relevant to me or to others, a certain relatability drove engagement with my profile and with my tweets. Additionally, I found that tweets that included visual aspects always garnered more engagement. It came to no surprise that my tweets which included gifs, pictures, videos, and other types of graphic content were better received than those without visual components, as we have thoroughly discussed the importance of visually appealing and enticing content with regard to increasing participation and engagement. I also found that, when applicable, utilizing a variety of hashtags can help increase overall reach and engagement. Lastly, I found that by tagging other content creators (whether they be major, micro, or macro influencers) definitely added to the success of my tweets, especially in cases where they responded back to me in some way, whether that be by quote tweeting, retweeting, replying, or liking. 

 

PART 2: EXECUTION

Using Twitter Analytics to look at my tweets from September 1st through November 30th, I was able to identify the following tweets as my top ten tweets thus far!

 

  • Impressions: 800
  • Engagements: 61
  • Engagement Rate: 10.4%
  • Likes: 6
  • Replies: 2

It was no shock that my Imgur Meme / Twitter Webcard earned the most impressions, as it incorporated college humor and the worlds’ love of dogs to create the #StudiousDog campaign. This campaign ran under my $5.00 budget on Twitter Analytics and specifically targeted a variety of dog and ‘college life’ accounts. I believed that this meme would garner engagement because twitter analytics has consistently  shown me that many of my followers are college students who heavily engage with content that includes dogs. Furthermore, it’s widely relatable to a large audience that helped in driving the meme’s virality! Although the success from this tweet was partially paid for, I think it’s important for me to include because from this experience, I not only learned how to create and execute a Twitter campaign, but also how to target audiences that will lead to the most exposure possible. As I continue to post and create content, this is a very beneficial skill to have if I were ever to promote myself or my own tweets again in the future. Lastly, by adding the various hashtags, I allowed for even more discovery of the tweet as fellow profiles search for things like #Dog #Meme and #College.

 

 

  • Impressions: 438
  • Engagements: 51
  • Engagement Rate: 11.6%
  • Media Views: 87
  • Likes: 2
  • Replies: 2

This was a post I shared when practicing using Twitter’s “Live” recording feature for the first time. I thought capturing a fun moment in my knitting class would not only be a great visual, but created the opportunity for conversations to arise around knitting and said class. In fact, by posting this, I received several replies from fellow Syracuse students asking for the course code so that they could sign up next semester! This allowed for a unique opportunity to directly communicate with my followers who have similar interests and to continue forming deeper relationships with my follower base. Here, the only thing I wish I had done differently was tag my classmates in the knitting class, as well as @SyracuseU and @SUHonors, because that would’ve allowed for the opportunity for more retweets, replies, likes and exposure overall. Nonetheless, I was happy with the turnout of my first tweet using Twitter Live and I will definitely utilize this feature in the future!

 

 

  • Impressions: 1,433
  • Engagements: 58
  • Engagement Rate: 4.0%
  • Likes: 2
  • Retweets: 1
  • Replies: 2

Tweeted in early September, this tweet my very first attempt at reaching out to a fellow classmate and follower over Twitter. Although Emma is in no sense an influencer, this tweet pushed me out of my comfort zone to re-engage with someone I had briefly run into over the weekend and bonded with about the course. I believe tagging Professor Grygiel definitely helped in earning those extra impressions because their actions of liking and responding to the tweet allowed for their large follower base to potentially see the thread. Additionally, Emma not only responded, but retweeted the tweet, and as a result, many more of our classmates followed me. This really showed me that by pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, even just to say, “Hey!” it can really pay off. 

 

 

  • Impressions: 284
  • Engagements: 31
  • Engagement Rate: 10.9%

Tasked with the assignment to take more notice of the “social media” that exists before our very own eyes, it was during a weekend in Seattle that my friend laughed from the porta potty, “Someone put their Snapchat codes on the wall!” Immediately I screamed back, “Take a picture for my social media class!” I love this tweet because it connects the  ideas of social sharing, community, and bringing attention to the social media that’s all around us everyday. Additionally, by utilizing the locational hashtag #TheGorge, during a 3-day Dave Matthews Band festival at The Gorge in Seattle, it allowed for more impressions and engagement with my tweet. 

 

 

  • Impressions: 518
  • Engagements: 44
  • Engagement Rate: 8.5%

In an attempt to continue growing my follower base, I decided to try promoting another one of my social media platforms to see the kind of responses I would receive. In this case, while I did have 44 engagements and 518 impressions, I was added on Snapchat by mostly creepy old men that I had to block immediately (big fail). While the fundamental marketing ideals of what I was trying to do made sense, next time I need to think about the specific platform I chose to share. In this case, I genuinely didn’t think about the fact that I don’t I want more Snapchat followers. Although this tweet still made my top 10 for engagement and impressions, it was more of a learning experience for me to understand the do’s and don’t’s when promoting my personal and professional social platforms. I do wish I had promoted my professional Instagram instead, but overall it was a learning experience and at least now I know for next time!

 

 

  • Impressions: 693
  • Engagements: 27
  • Engagement Rate: 3.9%
  • Likes: 4
  • Retweets: 1
  • Replies: 3

After hearing this podcast for another class and finding many of the insights beneficial, I decided to engage with my Syracuse University peers and classmates by sharing out content that could be helpful to them in the future. I also tagged the podcast company in addition to sharing out the link. From this tweet, I learned that by targeting influential accounts who have a medium-sized follower base (under 10k), this is where I have the biggest opportunity to receive a lot of positive feedback. Not only did the podcast account @MacsList follow me, but Mac from Mac’s List followed me from his personal account and Kirk Bauman, special guest speaker and career advisor from the podcast followed me as well! 3 big wins! Furthermore, the @MacsList account gave me a shoutout for sharing their podcast, further increasing my opportunities for impressions and engagement among twitter users, podcast listeners, and interns.

 

 

  • Impressions: 602
  • Engagements: 21
  • Engagement Rate: 3.5%
  • Likes: 1
  • Replies: 1

Tasked with the challenge of targeting and reaching out to someone within the #NewhouseNetwork, this tweet was a huge success for me personally. The mere fact that Michael Weber, screenwriter of some of my favorite movies such as 500 Days of Summer, The Fault in Our Stars, and many more not only retweeted my tweet, but also responded to it really made my heart skip a beat. It is great to see such positive feedback when you do reach out to influencers on Twitter, especially such notable alumni that I look up to. This tweet showed me the endless possibilities that can come from taking a risk and reaching out to someone (especially someone who I figured would never respond in the first place). Additionally, I think the timing of my tweet was executed well as it did help stimulate buzz for Weber’s visit to Newhouse. This made me see the importance of asking questions and being aware of current happenings / trends so that I can be sure to gear my tweet best towards whomever I am targeting. It also made me see the power of the #NewhouseNetwork, a hashtag I will definitely be using in the future. 

 

 

  • Impressions: 379
  • Engagements: 19
  • Engagement Rate: 5.0%
  • Likes: 4
  • Retweets: 2

This tweet was put out during our live stream Periscope challenge in during our COM 427 class in late October. I know that I received high levels of engagement because I not only added a graphic, but also because this tweet was directly relevant to many of my followers (most of whom are NHsmc students). Furthermore, this tweet added to the conversation surrounding the #NHsmc class’s Periscope challenge at the exact time it was happening. This was really crucial as we have discussed in detail the importance of timelines with regard to sharing content and staying up to date with the latest news, trends, and happenings on social. It also urged my followers to stay tuned with the live streams and funny content that I would be tweeting shortly after regarding the #NHsmc Periscope challenge. 

 

 

  • Impressions: 364
  • Engagements: 14
  • Engagement Rate: 3.9%
  • Likes: 2
  • Retweets: 2

After seeing a video on Snapchat Discovery about fashion designer Andrea Bergart and her amazing handbags made from sports’ balls, I knew it would be a great opportunity to capture the attention of my followers, many of whom are also fashionistas. I was sure to add my favorite photos of Bergart’s collection in conjunction with the article attached to my tweet so that even if my followers didn’t read the article, they were still able to engage with my post in a multifaceted way. Here, I wish the artist had a Twitter account so that I could’ve tagged her, but unfortunately she did not. Nonetheless, situations like these have taught me that whenever possible, it is crucial to tag whomever I am talking to or talking about, as it can increase my reach and impressions exponentially. 

 

 

  • Impressions: 538
  • Engagements: 9
  • Engagement Rate: 1.7%
  • Likes: 4

An avid fashion fan, I had been admittedly keeping up with the most recent public criticisms and twitter conversations amidst Victoria’s Secret’s CMO Ed Razek’s controversial comments regarding plus-sized and transgender models. I noticed that many ‘tweeters’ on my feed were also adding to the conversation with the #CancelVS hashtag, so I tried to garner more engagement by both stating my own opinion and raising the question as to “IF and HOW” fellow Victorias Secret models would speak out on the issue. I decided to quote tweet the article by Jezebel to share the story to my follower base, and I feel that part of my overall impressions are a result of my followers clicking on the article link to read more about the situation. Additionally, I assume that the likes are in support of my statement. However, that being said, I do think that from now on, I may refrain from quote tweeting as often and instead, start a thread or create my own tweet rather than adding to another account’s post.

 

 

So, what now?

Whereas before this professional account, I simply used Twitter as a means for entertainment, over the course of the semester I became a content creator and added value to my followers’ feeds (or at least, I hope I did). This course has given me the tools to create content that people want to engage with, and to be sure I’m staying true to my own voice on the platform. Furthermore, it has shown me the potential Twitter has in forging relationships amongst others in the communications field, as well as with my fellow #NHsmc peers and followers. Although 60 followers isn’t much of a feat, I feel that I’m truly on my way to becoming an active member of the Twitter community, and maybe one day I’ll make strides towards actually having an influence. All I can do now is continue to employ the tools I’ve learned with the hopes of gaining more followers, and making more of an impact as a digital citizen on Twitter.

 

 

 

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