Semester Highlights: Growth and Analysis/Top 10 Tweets

Posted on by Keith Bremer

Part 1: Influence

Starting number of followers: 434

Ending number of followers: 491

Percentage change: 13.13%

Over the course of the semester, and in growing my followers from 434 to 491, there were many factors that lead to my increased influence, including content, voice, and appearance, among others. Especially since the fall of this year, I followed the advice of professors to make my Twitter account “professional” and use it for posting content relevant to my field, as well as networking.  At first, this translated to me posting far less tweets than I had before, and carefully considering what kinds of messages I was sending online. However, I quickly learned in class that there are still plenty of ways to maintain a professional twitter account while still expressing yourself to the fullest.

Tweeting twice per class was an extremely beneficial way to learn this, because I had to formulate content that sent whatever message I was trying to, while still being relevant and somewhat professional. Once I started posting more, I found that more accounts started to follow me, particularly those associated with social commerce.

Voice was also an aspect from class that truly stuck with me whenever I went to post. I had to stop and think whether the wording was authentic and engaging. When I used the account in high school, my voice was far too casual in comparison to what I have now. When I switched to using it professionally, it shifted to a more formal tone, and now I find myself somewhere in the middle.

In terms of appearance, I could tell that my profile needed updating right from the start of class. I changed my profile photo from a high school picture to one that was far more recent, added a cover of an overhead SU campus photo that I felt tied into who I was and what kind of information I was sending out. My bio originally said “Newark, NY      Syracuse University.” This was very casual and uninformative, and did not do much to incentivize users to follow me. I updated it to say “@SyracuseU Class of 2018 | Sport Management Major @SUSportMgmt | Public Communications Minor @NewhouseSU | All opinions are my own” and included my hometown as the location below the bio. In doing so, I still had all the previous information but made my bio more detailed while still being fairly brief. These appearance adjustments allowed other users to see more of my personality and style reflected in my account, which certainly helped me get more followers.

Original Klout: 38.35

Ending Klout: 41.62

Having no idea what a Klout score was before the semester, I was quickly taught about the benefits of quantifying my social media presence. Three months ago, my score was 38.35, and I concluded the class with a score of 41.62. I do think that this score is relatively low, considering that both my Facebook and Twitter accounts are connected to the site. At Klout.com notes, 79% of my activity is on Twitter and only 21% is on Facebook. Having a platform that I rarely check and rarely post on could definitely be bringing the score down. Overall, the score trended upward throughout the duration of the class. Looking back, one thing that I could have done a better job of on Twitter is joining other conversations. A majority of my tweets are original or retweets, as I rarely reply to tweets that are not specifically referring to me. This could be one way to improve my Klout score in the future. Posting more frequently could also help in that regard.

Selecting areas of expertise on the site was a beneficial tool for me, as it allowed me to view accounts that could be beneficial to follow, as well as made me aware of accounts similar to mine. Seeing how those users engaged with their audience shaped me in how I constructed my posts throughout the semester.

 

Part 2: Execution

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This tweet was successful for a few reasons, one of them being timeliness. It was posted just before the ACC Tournament took place, which made the tweet more relevant to my audience. The main reason why this tweet was so successful was because it got interaction from Eric Devendorf, who was the subject of the photo. Devendorf, who once played for SU, is now a coach for the team and has over 6,800 followers. Since I tagged him in the photo, he subsequently liked and replied to it, which pulled in his followers. The community hashtag of #CuseMode also likely pulled in some engagement from Syracuse fans on Twitter.

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We talked in class about how the gif seems to be a highly interactive form of media on Twitter. This, along with my inclusion in the gif itself, drew in many of my followers. In turn, this made my surprised face gif such a highly engaging tweet. I also worked to avoid the imgflip watermark on the gif, which made it feel more genuine and authentic than it would’ve been if the watermark was present.

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This tweet was relevant right after Syracuse upset Florida State in a big win. It picked up steam after being retweeted by @Cusememes, an account that previously followed me. The account has over 5,000 followers who all share a connection to Syracuse. Having this pull in during a period where the Syracuse community was presumably active on Twitter was a big help for promotion of the tweet. It reminded me of the influencer assignment, thinking that if someone with a lot of pull picks up your post, it can be very beneficial.

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The use of the Ngram Viewer through Google Books drew in an audience for this tweet. As someone with many followers who are interested in sports, a simple comparison of NBA and NFL mentions got many of them interested in the tweet. It also helped that the tweet featured a screenshot, rather than a link to the Ngram that many would not have taken the time to click on. We discussed in class that graphs have a visual appeal to the audience, which certainly drives them to read the information.

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While this tweet did not have as many engagements as many of the others I have posted throughout the semester, those who did engage were very interactive. With only 21 total engagements, the tweet still received 5 likes. I also ended up with two new connections on LinkedIn as a result of this tweet. This seemed to be because the tweet resonated strongly with those who engaged, possibly because they are in a similar stage as I am professionally. This was a trend across our class, as students who promoted their LinkedIn accounts via Twitter earned good engagement across the board.

 

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This tweet had a relatively high engagement rate, which could be derived from the fact that users like being asked their opinion on a given topic, especially when it is fairly anonymous and they can see the opinions of others as well. Using #NBADraft was a big help as well, because people who are interested in the topic were able to see the tweet and join the conversation. In retrospect, I could have included even more hashtags to pull in a bigger audience around the topic.

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After reading Amy Jo Martin’s book about social media, I felt that it would be a good idea to tweet out an excerpt that resonated with me, as an attempt to not only share the information, but spread my reach and see if the author would engage. My attempt was very successful, as I got a like, reply, and follow from the author. I consider this one of my top tweets because it got me a follower who is a Twitter influencer with 1.15 million followers. A big positive of this tweet was also the many different type of engagements I received, such as detail expands, profile clicks, hashtag clicks, and so on. Going back to our influencer assignment, my results were even better this time than the first, as I transferred my skills from earlier in the class in regards to reaching out to these people through Twitter.

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The visual element of this tweet was huge. As demonstrated in our Periscope Heart Challenge, those broadcasting on the platform want to create a video that people are gravitated toward. In my case, I did a fair job of this while broadcasting from my house during winter storm Stella. While it wasn’t too crazy of a topic, 127 people viewed it, probably because of the interest and timeliness surrounding the storm. By putting in #Stella, I got retweeted by a user who did not follow me, so my broadcast audience was expanded to those who follow him. Another reason as to why it was engaging likely had to do with the feeling that users could see firsthand what the impact of the storm was on my particular area.

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The engagement generating factor for this tweet was the way the Twitter moment combined varying forms of media in order to tell a story. I combined photos, videos, and text to recap the game, which reminded me of our class lesson on telling a cohesive story about a situation through a Twitter moment. It was my first time creating one, but I had seen them many times before. I constructed it based on what I liked and disliked about other ones I had seen.

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This was my first time creating a card on Twitter, so it was crucial to learn in class the setup and process for creating one. A big takeaway I got from the card creation, as well as the Viral Content Challenge as a whole, was to tease users with what content I wanted them to see. In this case, it was the meme that I wanted to click on, so I made sure that the top portion of text was shown in the tweet, but the bottom portion was hidden so they had to click. This proved to be successful as even though it was promoted, it got more organic impressions and engagements than my other tweets of the Imgur link. The paid portion was fairly successful as well. I targeted users in the surrounding area, but narrowing down even more users could have led to increased engagement on the promoted side.

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