Social Analysis and Top 10 Tweets

Posted on by Mitchell Jones

Before this class, I hardly used Twitter.  When I did, I was a “dipper”–someone that will read other posts, maybe favorite a few tweets, but rarely post myself.  Therefore, my follower count was steady, as there was no content to draw in new followers; however, this class forced me out of my comfort zone and pushed me to experiment with new content, increasing my activity and follower count.  I started the semester with 188 followers on Twitter–a number that hadn’t changed in about a year due to my lack of social media participation.

However, now being almost May, my follower count is up to a modest 223–nearly a 16% increase.  This is due to my increased usage, but also because of my use of hashtags and mentions to target specific audiences and other users.  I started to engage with people outside of my own network, which I had rarely done before.  Sometimes I got too cocky and tried to target bigger influencers, like celebrities or IMDb, which limited my ability to grow my follower base because of the sheer size of their following.  I was just another number.  Nonetheless, the positives outweighed the negatives, as my follower count did increase by 16%.

As a result of my increase in social media usage, my Klout score has increased from 40 to 44, with a 90 day high of 48.  While a four point difference seems low, I am proud of it.  I have never been an avid social media user, but this class has started to shift me into one.  While it was higher a few weeks ago, the end of the semester and the work that comes along with that has limited my time on social media, naturally lowering my social media influence and Klout score.

Due to the variety of assignments, my tweet content was diverse.  Some worked, many failed.  I found that my best received tweets came when there was rich, humorous media attached to it.  Like these:

1.)

Flip Tweet

Most of my followers are still my close friends.  They’re people I know personally, from school, work, etc., so this tweet performed well because it’s more personal.  People that know me get my sense of humor and know that I am a pasty-white kid, so by making fun of myself, I was encouraging my friends and family to participate, resulting in 363 impressions, 158 media views, and 54 total engagements.

2.)

Joey Gif Tweet

This is another one that worked well because of the simplicity of the post, accented by the humor of the GIF.  Friends is a show that most people have at least seen, and many enjoy, so I knew the GIF would be appreciated.  As for the copy, I was trying to come up with a new hashtag and was having trouble, so I typed in #newhashtagsaretough, only to discover that it was, in fact, original.  Problem solved.

3.)

Connor’s Gif

When we were assigned to create a GIF, I texted my brother, Connor, and said “make that stupid face you always do, record it, and send it to me.  You’re going viral.”  He didn’t go viral, but with 905 impressions, 310 media views, and 159 total engagements, it was still pretty successful.  He always makes me laugh, so I decided to use that humor to engage with my followers, who (mostly) also know Connor.

4.)

SU Basketball/Facebook Live

This was one of my first tweets, and one of my most engaging ones, with 597 impressions and 96 total engagements.  I believed it worked because of the snarky humor and the relevance at the time.  Syracuse basketball was just hitting its stride in the ACC, while Facebook Live was becoming more prominently used.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work well enough to go viral.

5.)

Final Four

Like the previous tweet, this post played off the (disappointing) March Madness hopes, reminding them of the Final Four excitement from the previous year.  The hashtags and @SyracuseU worked to bring in Syracuse fans to increase engagement.

6.)

Give Me Summer

This post did not have any rich media, but it did work because, like me, many others were fed up with winter conditions.  Thus, they could relate to its content.  Had I incorporated Emoji, a GIF, or another source of media, it could have been even more successful–my bad.

7.)

Can I Go Back To Hawaii?

Similarly, this tweet worked well because it related to my followers’ craving for sunshine, summertime, and vacation.  While it did not receive as many impressions, it did have better engagement due to the vibrancy and richness of the photographs.

8.)

Pumped For Dunkirk

Like many people, I am anxiously awaiting Christopher Nolan‘s next movie, Dunkirk.  This post worked in reminding the fan base of the upcoming movie, sparking excitement and engagement.  Mixed with its diverse, Nolan-themed hashtags and “explosive” article, the tweet was bound for success (success on a 200-followers-scale).

9.)

Twitter Polls Are Cool

This tweet had moderate success, but I am including it because the media is different from anything else I have ever posted.  I had never known how to create a poll.  I had just assumed that you had to pay for it, so this was a good skill to learn.  I think my hashtags was used well, but perhaps I could have included a few more to drive more engagement.

10.)

Pillowpets Will Never Go Out of Style

I typically don’t like posting videos of myself online.  It just feels strange.  So, this post really pushed me out of my comfort zone.  It took me a long time to come up with a good idea, and this was a last-ditch effort because I got irritated with my lack of ideas.  Surprisingly, it was fairly well received, although I did get some sarcastic comments from my friends and family.

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While my tweets were diverse, my main successes came from the variety of media used throughout the course.  Pictures, videos, GIFs, polls, and articles are all great ways to spark interest and engagement, as they are fun and eye-catching.  My main downfalls came from a lack of media within my tweets, but also from poorly timed or executed tweets.  Some weeks I posted my tweets just to get them out of the way, putting little thought into the content or the time I posted it, which limited their success.  My successes were thoroughly thought out, resulting in better reception.

All in all, my Twitter skills have vastly improved from just last semester.  The class pushed me outside my comfort zone, taught me networking skills, and basic social media skills that I was lacking previously.  I thought I knew what I was doing before taking the class, but I was wrong.  There’s always more to learn, and when it comes to the ever changing social media world, this couldn’t be more true.  The skills I learned in this course have made me a better communicator, and even played a part in me landing an internship this summer with the NBC Golf Channel.  I am much more confident in my social media abilities now than I was in January, which is all you can ask for in a college class.

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