That’s all folks!

Posted on by Rachel Schwartz

Beginning on January 17th, I created a new Twitter account having not had one since high school. I was never really into using Twitter but I figured it could be cool to get back into it, seeing as the entire world lives for their Twitter updates. At first I was nervous as to how I was going to gain any followers, but luckily I had the NHsmc class community to rely on. The one thing that I think I could’ve done better was to branch out more. Having ended on 25 followers in total, I feel that  if I had actually used my Twitter to engage with the ‘Twitterverse’ instead of simply using it for the posts assigned in class, I could’ve been much more successful. Since I was not active on Twitter before enrolling in this class I do however feel proud of my 25 follower gain seeing as in the beginning of the class I had zero. It’s funny how hard it is to actually get into using new social when you’re so comfortable with the ones that you do use. I’ve always loved Instagram, Facebook has died out a bit, and more recently I’ve warmed up to Snapchat (thank you to all my impending streaks), so using Twitter was completely new to me. In the past I never felt the need to create a Twitter account because I largely got my news from third party news apps, or Facebook, I took pictures and followed my friends on Instagram, and I would talk to my friends on iMessage and Snapchat. I do however see now that Twitter is actually a combination of all of those aspects of my life and therefore is extremely influential. I feel confident in the fact that now that I do have a Twitter account I will continue to actually use it in the future and engage with more and more communities or users around me.

My Klout score began at 16 and ended at 26. I feel that the same thing might have happened with my Klout score, as with my Twitter followers. There are so many ways to engage in social and thanks to every class session, we were constantly learning every single day about different, influential, platforms. Looking back at Klout now and realizing how helpful this site actually is I realize that I could’ve explored it more to increase my network, and simply just learn from other’s in the same field as me.

I think that at the end of the day the entire reason that we’re all on social is to learn and branch out to our communities and see what people are doing around us. Whether that be in a professional, or social settings, by using Klout and Twitter it is increasingly easier to engage with your communities and learn about them. Saying hello to someone across the world somehow doesn’t seem as intimidating anymore.

Top 10 Twitter Posts

The following are my top 10 Twitter posts of the semester. I’ve chosen to only include my Twitter posts due to the fact that there is a lot of variation in posts and engagement. Since we only created our Instagram accounts towards the end of the semester I feel that my tweets provide a more accurate understanding and snapshot of my progress throughout this semester.

**Tweets are posted in order of highest to lowest impression rate**

No. 1

Naturally, I wanted to include this tweet in my top posts because it was part of our Viral Content Challenge and Twitter Ads Campaign. We learned a lot in class about how creating an Ad Campaign can significantly boost engagement, so after creating one and watching it flourish, I was happy to see that my expectations rang true. The reason that I think this tweet was especially successfully was due to the audience that I catered it towards. When creating a Twitter Ad Campaign, you need to specify the audience and location that you are targeting, and by including @HuffPostCollege, @SUAlums, @SyracuseU, and @CollegeHumor, I was able to generate that extra 783 impressions on this tweet. I also feel that tweeting this out on Monday and using relevant hashtags helped me gain the organic impressions that I received. By including the Imgur link, which included the image of the Meme that I created, it made this tweet much more interesting to look at which likely promoted engagement as well. Thankfully, the likes and retweets on this post were from other students in the class participating in the same challenge. I enjoyed seeing how a ton of communities came together on this post and engaged with it, whether that be the students in the class or the people over at College Humor, or their followers, I enjoyed watching this Ad Campaign come to life.

No. 2

Although this tweet was not one of the tweets that we posted for an assignment I wanted to include it to show how using popular hashtags and engaging in timely events really increases engagement and impressions. The reason that I tweeted this out was thanks to a listserv sent out by my sorority. We received a link that prompted us to vote for Syracuse, so that Melissa McCarthy’s new movie “Life of the Party” would be premiered on our campus. Although I don’t think we won in the end, by using the hashtags generated by the website, and including the website link, I was able to generate traffic on this tweet. Also by connecting directly with the Syracuse community by using #LOTPSyracuse, it expanded my audience to other students in the area voting for the same thing. The tweet only received 2 link clicks, and 1 like.

No. 3

One of the trends that I’ve picked up on, since analyzing my tweets is the importance of current trends and timely topics. I tweeted this out after seeing what Ellen’s wife did for her for her 60th birthday. I tried to then further boost engagement by retweeting it out to my followers. 60 is a major birthday to be celebrating and Portia deRossi, Ellen’s wife did something really amazing for her. Her wife donated money to create a foundation for Gorillas, something that Ellen has always been passionate about. On Ellen’s show, Ellen promoted the hashtag #ellensavesgorillas, and by using #relationshipgoals I was able to extend my reach into an audience of high school, and college students. Seeing as this was a quote tweet, I think that having Ellen’s tweet, which included the video clip of what Portia did for her, definitely increased engagement on this tweet.

No. 4

One of the assignments that we completed was to analyze Google analytics of two different events or occurrences in time. Following the Superbowl and Oscar weekend, there was obviously a lot to talk about on the Twitterverse. I chose to look at the interest surrounding two movies that were nominated for Best Picture. I feel that I could’ve executed this tweet a little bit better by explaining what the media that I included actually was, and by including a key of which color corresponded to which movie. I do think though that the use of #Oscars, and #BestPicture2018 was very helpful due to the fact that at the time of posting this tweet, those were both trending hashtags. I’m now understanding the importance of keeping copy tight on Tweets, especially when there is a lot of information being given out. For example the copy “the beloved tale of a young Elio Perlman,” is actually unnecessary, seeing as the purpose of the tweet was to direct my followers to look at the media not learn about the movie.

No. 5

This tweet was executed in relation to what was trending on Twitter at that time. I particularly liked creating this tweet because of the research behind it. I enjoyed looking through the trending topics, and seeing what I could use to relate back to our campus community. By finding the word Orange, naturally I clung to that seeing as it is our campus mascot. I was also able to relate it back to NYFW, which is an event that I’ve always been a fan of. I believe that this tweet was my most liked tweet, coming in at 6 likes, as well as 4 profile clicks, and 1 hashtag click. By using emojis, and quote tweeting the tweet, I feel that I created a story, relating Orange to fashion, as well as to the Syracuse community. I think that using emojis is also extremely helpful in creating an engaging tweet but it gives your followers something fun to look at, and adds personality to a tweet.

No. 6

Seeing as this was my second tweet on my account I’m so happy that I am able to include this within my top 10 posts. It was part of the assignment about introducing yourself, and naturally there is no better way to introduce myself than to introduce my twin sister Gabi. This past December we traveled Europe together and went to Prague, which is where the photo included was taken. Since I was just starting off on Twitter when I posted this I was able to engage with the NHsmc community and receive profile clicks and gained followers in the making. I also think that this tweet was particularly successful due to the colorful nature of the image that I included. It makes the tweet much more interesting and engaging, and therefore people would hopefully feel more inclined to click on it. It received two likes from other students in the class. I also think that this tweet gained 322 impressions because of the inclusion of Professor Grygiel’s handle seeing as they is well established in the Twitter community.

No. 7

This tweet was particularly interesting to create because it was part of our social action assignment. My group and I chose to create a poll surrounding the controversy behind the clear backpack initiative following the Parkland Shooting. One of the reasons that I think that this tweet gained a lot of engagement was due to the timeliness of the event and the severity of the event. The Parkland Shooting affected the entire country, and by using those specific hashtags, we were able to engage with a certain audience. In total this poll tweet received 9 votes, 1 retweet by a member of my group, and 3 likes. The term ‘detail expands’ which received 4 engagements, refers to the amount of times people viewed the details about this tweet. I’m happy to see that there were 4 people that looked into the details of this tweet because that was the exact reason that we created this poll. We wanted to raise awareness and start a discussion about this controversy, so it’s exciting to see that we actually did manage to do this.

No. 8

One of the reasons that I think this tweet was successful was by tagging John Oliver, and including the youtube link to his segment on Brexit. Especially now in America’s political climate we often forget that there is a whole world of news out there, and having comedians like John Oliver explain the big news in a way that captures our attention, and makes us laugh, is extremely helpful. #Brexit is the main hashtag that I used and it did garner two clicks. I’m happy that I tweeted this out because it allows anyone that visits my profile to potentially learn about something they weren’t familiar with before. One thing that I think was especially successful was including the Youtube link. You are able to directly view the video without being rerouted to Youtube which allows for easy and fast access to the information provided.

No. 9

ICYMI is a technique that we learned in class as a way to re-promote old content. ICYMI stands for “In Case You Missed It.” I decided to use this tweet as my ICYMI tweet because it originally did really well in engagement. I also think that that by tweeting this out on Valentine’s Day it helped increase engagement because it was something that had to do with love. I do think that I could’ve executed this better by including Valentine’s Day related hashtags. Something to also point out is the importance of using the hashtag #Ellensavesgorillas, because the foundation that Portia donated all the money too actually did in fact like my tweet.

No. 10

Two of the main reasons that I think this tweet was successful was due to #SpringBreak2018, and the GIF included, which is a form of rich media that we constantly discuss in class. Using rich media in tweets is extremely helpful because it clearly catches the viewers attention. This tweet was created as part of the assignment to create a unique hashtag. Creating a unique hashtag will obviously not gain any audience, seeing as it has never been used before, so it was important that I used two other trending hashtags to go along with this tweet. By using #SpringBreak2018, and #midtermspringbreakpush, I was able to gain engagement. It is also clear by the amount of media views, that using GIFs is extremely helpful in attracting audience and engagement. Something that I think could be especially interesting to analyze in the future is the specific audience that engaged with this tweet. The movie that this GIF is from is “A Cinderella Story” which was particularly popular in the early 2000s for young girls. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that most of the media clicks or impressions was from a female Twitter users.

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