Personal Influence Growth and Analysis

Introduction

It’s come to the end of COM427 and I want to reflect on what I have learned throughout the course.

Part 1. Influence

At the beginning of COM427, I had 546 Twitter followers. By the end of the semester, I reached 616 Twitter followers, with a peak of 632 last week.

I believe that the “trick” to increasing my number of Twitter followers was reaching out to new people and introducing myself. It helped tremendously to identify advertisers that I wanted to get to know and target my tweets toward these people. However, sometimes this just didn’t work. I would reach out to a user with a friendly message and it would go ignored. However, I didn’t feel bad about these ignored messages. A quick mention is easy and harmless, so there’s really no risk.

It also helped to use popular hashtags, so that when others are searching for the same hashtag, they found me. When I released a series of 6 tweets around #BigData, I received over 30 new Twitter followers, some of which shortly unfollowed me. A mistake I made was not trying to continue engaging with these #BigData followers. Had I produced more tweets, perhaps I would have remained part of their following. The final trick to increasing my Twitter followers was by getting to know the students in our COM427 class. By introducing myself to each member of the class and then sending them a quick Twitter follow, I received many followers in exchange. By being consistently active on Twitter, followers remain fairly loyal.

Additionally, at the start of the class, I had never used Klout to find out my influence score. I started off with a score of 10, which I believe to be the base score. Shortly after, I went up to a score of 60. Now, I have a score of 61.5. I am proud to be an influencer to my social media following!

I also checked my Sysomos Map Authority score recently and saw that I am ranked as a 5, half way between an amateur and an expert! I explored many aspects of my account on this site as well and got a feel of where most of my engagement comes from. Almost 90% of my engagement comes from the New York area. I may have to branch out a little bit more!

I checked to see who the most authoritative Twitter followers who engaged with me over the semester. These people helped me become more authoritative in return.

Part 2. Execution

Over the course of the semester, I learned about how to create meaningful tweets, which therefore led to an increase in impressions and engagement. The following ten tweets received the highest number of impressions (in chronological order from highest to lowest among my 10 most popular tweets with the #NHsmc).

Tweet Number 1:

It’s funny to note that my very first tweet in #NHsmc received the most impressions. This is because I tagged three influential sports broadcasters, one of which retweeted me. @RochieWBZ has over 35 thousand followers and his retweet meant more eyes were on my tweet. Tagging people who can relate to a tweet is a quick way to drive activity, the first lesson we learned in this course. The #FollowFriday is a great tool as well. It’s a day dedicated to reaching out to new Twitter accounts! The first time I ever tried engaging in this #FollowFriday, it paid off.

Tweet Number 2:

I wasn’t surprised that this tweet received a high level of impressions and engagement. This tweet was part of a class project: the Viral Content Challenge. This campaign tweet incorporated an important skill: Twitter Ads! Twitter Ads helped me target more users and send my meme to their timeline. The hashtags, especially #NHsmc, worked as well. A lot of the impressions came from other COM427 students. The visual of the Twitter card also helped drive engagement. The picture made people more inclined to click.

Tweet Number 3:

The following tweet is one of my first #NHsmc tweets! I think one of the biggest skills incorporated here was using visuals to tell a story. I received a lot more impressions by giving my followers something to look at. Pictures and videos are always a great tactic. @WhitmanatSU also retweeted my tweet, which meant 4,000 fresh eyes were viewing my tweet. Having an authoritative account display my tweet was a great method.

Tweet Number 4:

No surprise here that a picture of my Chipotle meal received many impressions. It’s Chipotle. Enough said.

However, a real trick here is that @ChipotleTweets engages more than ever with customers after a series of bad months. I knew that by tagging this account, I would most likely get a reply in return. Lucky for me, I did, which made this tweet even more successful.

Tweet Number 5:

As mentioned earlier in this post, my tweets about #BigData were very popular. There are many Twitter users who dedicate their accounts to tracking news about Big Data. This issue has become so widely discussed. Many of the engagement received on this Tweet came from accounts focused on Big Data. It was beneficial to use a popular hashtag to further integrate myself into the conversation. I knew that many new eyes would see my tweet with this hashtag and I was right. Including the article also created another visual to attract users. I received a Retweet from a Big Data company.

While the number of impressions is high, the number of engagements is quite low. While people were seeing it, I don’t think many of my followers were actually interacting with it.

Tweet Number 6:

The tweet was for a Twitter assignment incorporating another social medium site into a Tweet. I used Snapchat to document this delicious Varsity salad, a local favorite among Syracuse University undergraduates. I also love the #foodgasm hashtag, which is incredibly popular in today’s society. There are numerous social media accounts dedicated to the FoodGasm concept. The incorporation of this popular hashtag and a local Syracuse hot-spot helped drive traffic. I even received a few replies by other students in COM427. I think the use of a photo helped drive traffic. Just looking at this picture now makes me hungry, so I can see why this is one of my most popular tweets. Creating tweets that resonate with my target audience is no easy task.

There was a relatively high number of engagements here, which I think is due to the incorporation of the delicious looking photo.

Tweet Number 7:

This tweet was related to the Twitter assignment where the class had to create an original hashtag. I thought of #NoIInTeamRoom because it’s my biggest pet peeve when a single Whitman student hogs a team room. When I saw an example IRL, I decided that a photo would be a nice touch. All Whitman students, as well as all college undergraduates, can relate to the frustration of not being able to find a quiet place to study. I think this tweet resonated well with my following and I believe that the hashtag raised the interest of my peers. The seven favorites informed me that my peers did relate. Creating an original, funny hashtag is a great skill learned throughout this semester.

Again, there was a high number of engagements, probably due to the photo!

Tweet Number 8:

This was a trending topic in London, where I spent four months abroad last semester. It was a day dedicated to asking this singer, Josh, anything that users wanted to know. I decided to play along and I made impressions on Twitter users outside of the United States. One of the favorites on my tweets came from a London teenager! It is important to keep in mind that news and trends exist outside of the United States. Although it may be hard to track, it is a great skill. Social media have created an integrated world and it’s exciting to realize this and take advantage by targeting by region. The photo also helped drive impressions because this attractive singer perked the interest of my following.

Tweet Number 9:

I interviewed my friend Zoe, who is low-key social media famous. She gave great advice in a Twitter video, an important tool, about how to successfully use social media. I was fascinated by her words and wanted to share it out on my Twitter platform. I was also hoping that Zoe would retweet or interact with this tweet in order to connect with her big following. She gave me a favorite (along with 3 others), which was kind, but disappointing. I can’t always assume that people will interact with tweets the way I want them to. I think the video preview on the tweet perked the interest of my following as well.

Tweet Number 10:

This tweet is when I first learned to create a GIF! I had never really understood GIFs before this lesson and I was excited to try it out for myself. This tweet took several takes, but eventually I got the concept. I also related my GIF to the other students in the class who I felt could benefit from the GIF. Over the semester, we went over many new concepts that I wrote down in my notebook. It is difficult to catch every important detail, so I hoped that some of the COM427 students would see my GIF and reach out. Before posting this GIF, I didn’t know anyone in the class and I was really hoping to just meet new friends. Although no one reached out to me, I thought it was a fun experiment. I received many media engagements and a retweet from Professor Grygiel. GIFs have since became a favorite concept of the class and I continue to argue with my friends about the correct pronunciation of the word.

Conclusion:

There is no right or wrong way to use Twitter, but as we learned throughout COM427 course, there are ways to better integrate into the social media platforms. By using the right hashtags, incorporating visuals, and making introductions to authoritative accounts, I increased my following and authoritative/ influence score. I am proud of my 10 most popular tweets receiving such a high level of impressions and engagement. I look forward to conducting a similar experience in the future and seeing if I can reach a personal record for number of impressions.

Newhouse

SOCIAL MEDIA

Personal Influence Growth and Analysis

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