BACKGROUND: Students are usually taking midterms this time of year. They are so busy during school that they don’t have time to look at their grades. During break, they realize how bad their grades are because they actually have the time to take a step back and see it from the big picture.
My goal was for the tweet to go viral and I did several things to try to increase the likelihood that it would happen.
My objective was, at the very least, to get over 20 engagements. I measured this with Twitter analytics.
Tweet embed:
Thanksgiving break gives you time off from school to truly appreciate how screwed you really are when you get back.
— Josh Radler (@Josh_Radler) November 15, 2018
Tweet link: https://twitter.com/Josh_Radler/status/1062879727315312640
Metrics- Total Engagements: 423
Impressions: 5453
Likes: 74
Retweets: 18
I think what made the tweet do as well as it did was that it was well-timed. I tweeted it right before most people’s Thanksgiving break. Additionally, it is relatable to every college student because every college student gets days off for Thanksgiving. Students at all schools know how stressful school is toward the end. Thanksgiving break is the last chance students have before finals drown them in work. I noticed that the tweet got the most traction on the Thursday before Thanksgiving. I believe this is because this is the time when my tweet held most true for students who were just wrapping up classes for the week and were headed home.
A few things that likely limited the tweet was that, for starters, I didn’t attempt to be overly funny. As a result, the tweet didn’t stand out as much as some other viral tweets do. Maybe if I had tried phrasing it a little differently, it may have been more unique and more people would have engaged with it. I also think the tweet may have been a bit obvious. People usually retweet or like things that perfectly sum up something from a perspective that is unique or different to them. I suppose my tweet, while it is accurate, may not have provided enough of a fresh thought or idea for it to be engaging to everyone who saw it.
Going in, I thought my strategy to reach out to Buzzfeed on Twitter, Instagram and to some other accounts that were attracting a similar demographic was a good idea. Unfortunately, none of the accounts picked up my tweet. In this sense, my editorial plan was a failure. However, I am proud of how the tweet did without the help of another account. One area where I did find some success was posting it on Reddit. I got a couple of likes from people that had no connection to me or my friends twitter accounts. After trying to figure out how they found my tweet, I realized they probably saw it on the Reddit joke thread.