Personal Influence Growth and Analysis

Posted on by Zeena Saifi

Part I: Influence 

At the beginning of the semester, I had 191 followers on Twitter. Now, at the end of the semester I have 233 followers, which is approximately a 22% increase. As for my Klout score, I started at 15 and ended at 31, which is approximately a 52% increase in growth. Before taking this class, I didn’t really think my influence on social media was a big deal. However, I realized in every industry, and especially communications and media, it is surely a vital tool.

I never took hashtags that seriously, because I thought they made me sound annoying. I learned that hashtags not only help promote your work, but also reach a wider audience, because it is one of the major search methods used by Twitter users.

Another thing I learned to help promote my social media presence is being authentic. I found myself at first trying to emulate other Twitter accounts that were successful, but then quickly discovered it doesn’t work that way. Once I stopped thinking too much about what type of work to execute, my tweets became more successful.

Our professor stressed an important point – which is connecting with influencers. Before this class, I felt it was pointless to reach out to big people in the industry, because I thought they would never answer. I realized, however, that it is definitely worth the try, because you never know who may be looking into the conversation.

Another thing I learned was to talk about things that relate to your audience and is timely to what is happening in the world. Throughout the course, I began to analyze the types of people that follow me and tried to choose topics based on their liking. That really worked for me, and I noticed towards the end of the course, I received much more engagement than at the beginning.

I also attempted to promote my Twitter account on other social media platforms, where I was able to expand my audience and followers. My Twitter content is very different from any other social media account I have, and so I was giving my friends something new to look at.

I noticed whilst observing the analytics of my tweets that I don’t receive many retweets. I think a big reason behind this is, because my content is not that relatable to my audience. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to like a tweet, but retweeting means something truly resonated with you. And so, I realized I need to make my content much more compelling that it makes people want to click that button. I think adding more graphics and appealing imagery to my tweets will make people more prone to want to engage with them.

Although I learned a lot, I still know I have a lot to work on. My Klout score and followers number is not too high, and I think it’s because I need more practice. I was never a big Twitter/social media user, and so I never really thought about how to get creative. I think what I need to do moving forward is continue to try out things that work and don’t, as well as follow more influencers that can give me motivation and inspiration.

Part II: Execution

1.

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This was the first tweet I ever sent out as part of this class, so I still didn’t get the chance to learn a lot. However, based off a few things the professor talked about, I chose to use emojis to describe what I was trying to say. I personally love how descriptive emojis can be, and so I thought it might make the tweet look more appealing, and thus make people want to engage with it. I received a total of 22 engagements and 3 likes.

2. 

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For this tweet, I used a relevant hashtag to what was happening around the world, especially during President Trump’s first 100 days. So many protests were ensuing during this time for a number of reasons, and I chose to use that popular hashtag to promote my tweet. I got a total of 14 engagements – 2 retweets and 2 likes. I think I could’ve received even more if I included more hashtags.

3.

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For this tweet, I made the mistake of not researching more about Google graphs and Ngrams. I was trying to attract followers from Jordan, while still relating the tweet to everyone else by addressing refugees – a very timely theme during that time. I unfortunately didn’t think that Jordan the country also has the same name as a famous basketball player, Michael Jordan. Having infographics like this usually helps create more engagement, and so I learned to improve on that for next time. I believe that’s why I only received a total of 12 engagements and 1 like.

4.

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I was proud of this tweet, because I received more engagements than usual (33). I still didn’t receive any retweets, but I did get 5 likes. I think what worked here is I posted a really aesthetically-appealing image of a gorgeous view and included a bunch of hashtags. I also think people enjoy pano images of views, because you get to see everything more clearly, and it helps that they look really nice in the Twitter timeline.

5.

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As time went by, my tweets kept getting more engagements. I received 35 on this one and 5 likes – but still no retweets. I think I was able to connect with many of my followers who are from the Middle East and enjoy Middle Eastern food. In addition, adding an image of the food, I think really made them enjoy the tweet even more, because not only are they engaging in a conversation about food, they’re seeing it as well. I also noticed showing my face on Twitter could sometimes be helpful, because you are able to get to a more personalized level with your followers.

6.

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For this tweet, I tried to engage with some influencers by tweeting at a New York Times journalist. It went well, because she actually quote tweeted and replied back to me. I tagged her as well as the New York Times, which I think was really helpful. She was attending campus for an event to discuss  immigrants, and so I also tagged the Newhouse school, as well as hashtagged everything she was going to talk about. I received a total of 19 engagements (2 likes).

7.

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I enjoyed creating this tweet, because I thought all the street-view images from Google looked really cool – especially on Twitter. I also attempted to engage with my followers from Jordan and the Middle East, because that is where the majority of my followers lie. I hashtagged Google, the street-view app and the location that I previewed. I received a total of 15 engagements, 2 likes and one reply.

8.

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With this tweet, I tried to engage with my fellow Syracuse followers. It was such a pretty and sunny day outside – something we don’t usually experience. Everyone who lives in Syracuse knows this is a rare occasion, and so I felt outlining that would make people engage with my tweet. The purpose of the tweet was supposed to be promoting Instagram filters, but I think my followers would have cared more about the pretty view in the picture rather than the filter. And for that reason, I think I needed to promote the sunny day more with hashtags. I received a total of 14 engagements and 2 likes.

9.

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Almost everyone I know uses and loves bitmojis nowadays. So, I thought a good way to engage my audience was to promote something they already know and love. Along with the image of myself next to my bitmoji looking very similar, I wanted to keep the tweet simple, so it’s not too all over the place. I guess that didn’t work too well, because the image alone wasn’t enough to grab people’s attention. I think I needed to make more use of the hashtags, in order to get people looking at my tweet and engage with the image. I received a total of 12 engagements and only 1 like.

10.

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This tweet was part of my viral content challenge that didn’t go as well as expected. I tried to promote my meme as much as possible through hashtags, but I realized the content wasn’t too engaging. The biggest issue with this tweet receiving only 10 engagements and 0 likes is lack of connection with my audience.

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