Started from the bottom now I’m at 17 followers

Posted on by Gianna Prudente

Part I

At the start of the course, I had 4 Twitter followers, which grew to 17 followers by the end of the course. My Twitter follower growth from the start to finish was 13 followers, which is 325% growth. For increasing influence and network, I began by following my strong ties which included my close friends and students in the class. I found students’ profiles by searching for tweets with the #NHsmc hashtag. After following these strong ties, I went to who they were following to connect with weaker ties. What worked was that I was followed back by my strong ties, but I didn’t always receive a follow back from weaker ties. What I could have done was Twitter DM these users asking them to join my network, but since I was just starting out on Twitter, I didn’t feel confident doing this. After learning networking skills through this course, I would feel comfortable doing so today with a quick “might you have time to chat?” I also didn’t have a measurable objective for how I wanted to increase my influence and network. If I had set an objective with metrics, I would have been able to develop a strategy to reach my desired network. Just starting out on Twitter, I didn’t have a concrete goal mostly because I didn’t know what I wanted to accomplish. I had the intention of using Twitter as a way to get news, so I primarily followed large media outlets and established journalists. I now recognize the power of Twitter as a networking tool, which can create real-life connections. Looking back, I wish I had set a goal of who I wanted to network with to increase my influence on Twitter.

Part II

1. My top tweet for the semester was when I used a trending hashtag to promote a podcast I regularly listen to. Using a trending hashtag undoubtedly reaches a greater audience, which contributed to my engagement/impressions. I also included a screenshot from the company’s website for rich media. Although I forgot to tag the podcast’s page or the host’s profile, I received engagement from their page. If I had to execute this tweet again, I would have tagged the “How I Built This” page.

For this tweet, my total immpressions was 1,872 and total engagements was 38, making my engagement rate 2%. The tweet had 11 media engagements, 10 detail expands, 10 profile clicks, 3 link clicks, 3 likes and 1 reply. One like and reply was from the podcast’s Twitter page, thanking me for listening. Through social listening, especially on International Podcast Day, the company was still able to find my tweet and engage.

2. This tweet included an original GIF in reference to a well-known television series “New Girl.” To execute this tweet, I used GIPHY to create the GIF. I included the #NewGirl hashtag to reach a broader audience to increase impressions/engagement. I made sure the GIF was positioned to be viewable in feed. I knew that my strong ties in network were fans of the show, so I chose to create a relatable GIF.

For this tweet, impressions was 335. Despite these views, I received 0 engagement on the tweet. To increase engagement, I could have tagged the show’s Twitter page or the actors’ profiles or used a more trending/popular hashtag like the #GIF hashtag. The tweet only received 3 media clicks, which could be because of the quality of the GIF. Also, in feed, the GIF may have not played automatically, and viewers didn’t want to click to make it play.

3. My third top tweet was my first attempt at creating an original meme. I followed a common meme frame: “When Netfix asks ‘Are you still watching?'” To execute, I used Photoshop to make sure my image was positioned correctly in feed.

This tweet had my second highest engagement rate at 12.4% (total impressions was 332 and total engagements was 41). I had 24 media engagements, 9 profile clicks, 3 hashtag clicks, 3 detail expands and 2 likes. With 24 media engagments, I would have expected to see more engagement on my tweet. However, this meme frame is probably overdone, which would make viewers less likely to engage.

4. This tweet was the first of the semester, showing IRL social media. Including a photo is using rich media to enhance the tweet. Looking back, I should have tagged Uber, knowing the vast influence and network the company has.

This tweet had the highest engagement rate of the semester at 13.3% (total impressions was 266 and engagements was 35). The tweet had 23 media engagements, 5 detail epands, 5 profile clicks, 1 reply and 1 like. I attribute this engagment to the fact that this was the first time I had tweeted in months and I had just begun increasing my network by following students in the class.

5. My fifth top tweet was when we were assigned to target a micro influencer on Twitter (80k followers) in our industry to see if we could get engagment and/or a follow. I decided to tweet at Felicia Sonmez, a Washington Post national political reporter, who has about 65k followers. I had been following her coverage of the 2020 election, but I was not following Sonmez’s Twitter account at the time. So I first followed her before tweeting at her. In my tweet I tagged the Washington Post and used the #2020Election hashtag, which seems to always be trending. I poked fun at the fact that Sonmez was busy covering the election and probably wouldn’t even see my tweet…but I was wrong.

On this tweet I earned 254 total impressions, 5 total engagments, 3 profile clicks, 1 like and 1 detail expand. Sonmez liked my tweet and followed me back. Although she has since unfollowed me, that little win was the highlight of the semester.

6. Similarly to my last tweet, this tweet was targeting a micro influencer on Twitter (10k followers) in the Newhouse network to see if I could engage and/or earn a follow. To find an influencer to target, I searched the #NewhouseNetwork hashtag on Twitter. I had trouble finding alumna with around 10k followers, so I searched famous Newhouse alumna on Google and found Eli Saslow had 16k followers. Being that Saslow is a Newhouse celebrity, I knew that tweeting at him would be a long shot. I decided to personalize my tweet saying that I just ordered his most recent book because he periodically tweets about them.

This tweet had 220 total impressions, 2 total engagements and 2 profile clicks, sadly none from Saslow. Including the #NewhouseNetwork hashtag helped me reach my targeted audience.

7. One of my favorite tweets of the semester was this one about Game of Thrones. To execute the #ICYMI hashtag, I found a tweet from the day of the Emmy’s. I retweeted with comment a few days after the event, so my tweet was still timely. I tagged Game of Thrones in the post and used the #Emmys hashtag since the hashtag had been trending on Twitter just days before. I wanted to emulate my voice in this tweet because I felt the situation was appropriate. I wanted to express, a little dramatically, that I am a big fan of the show.

My total impressions was 214 and total engagements was 2. I earned 1 like and 1 detail expand. I’m sure that my engagements would have been higher if I retweeted this the day of the Emmy’s when the topic was trending; however, using #ICYMI hashtag signals to my network that I was in the moment but staying informed.

8. This next tweet was the link to my Imgur meme as part of my Viral Content Challenge. I included several hashtags in this tweet because I wanted to reach broad audiences to meet my objective of 500 views. Tweeting out a “deep link” generated a preview of the Imgur page, previewing my meme. It worked in my favor that the preview cut off my meme so viewers would still click the link to view the whole meme.

For this tweet, total impressions was 175 and total engagements was 10, making the engagement rate 5.8%. I earned 9 link clicks, meaning 9 views of my Imgur meme came from this tweet.

9. My ninth top tweet was a conversation with another student from class. I found Erin’s profile by searching the #NHsmc hashtag on Twitter. Since this was one of my first tweets, it is nothing special. I should have added an emoji, GIF or other form of rich media.

On this tweet I had 172 total impressions and 15 total engagements for an engagement rate of 8.8%, which is one of my higher rates. I earned 8 profile clicks, 5 detail expands, 1 like and 1 reply. The like and reply were from Erin engaging in the conversation.

10. Lastly, my tenth top tweet was a “flow” (market now) post using a trending topic I monitored in Tweetdeck. My tweet was related to the trending topic and included a “deep link” to a news article. On this day, the #foodforthought hashtag was trending on Twitter. I found a New York Times article about weeknight dinners, which I thought targeted my Twitter followers who are mostly college students. I tagged the NY Times in my post, included a “deep link” to the article and added a screenshot of the article title for rich media.

This tweet had 166 impressions, 4 engagements, 3 media engagements and 1 link click. This tweet is an example of efficiently tagging accounts, embedding a deep link, using rich media and using a trending hashtag.

Takeaways

First, from this analysis I learned that although I received almost 10 profile clicks on some of my tweets, my Twitter followers did not grow porportiantely. Each month I gained anywhere from 1 to 3 followers, which is steady growth. However, I would have expected to my followers to grow at a faster rate with the number of profile clicks I received on my tweets. This discrepency has led me to revisit how I am presenting myself on Twitter. I have primarily used my account in a professional manner, but I would like to begin being a little more informal. I’m definitely still finding my voice among millions of users, but I don’t want to be afraid to voice it. This means tweeting more and tweeting about what matters.

Second, despite high impressions, I didn’t have high engagement on most of my tweets, leading to low engagement rates. I think the first step in making my tweets more engaging is sharing my voice. Sometimes tweets for class can seem repetitive or even robotic. I want to be more relatable to my followers, which I think will lead to higher engagement rates.

Throughout the course, I received almost 7k impressions on my tweets. I will begin setting goals with measurable objectives to continue growing my Twitter influence and network. After taking this class, I know I have the necessary skills to do so.

Leave a Reply