Top 10 Tweets!!!

Posted on by Hannah Clary

Before taking COM 427, I was unfamiliar with Twitter. When Twitter was founded in 2006, it was among the trend to have an account, so naturally I downloaded it. My friends and I would tweet out pictures that we, personally, thought were funny and would tweet things out to one another. But, that really was the extent to which I explored the social media platform. I was unsure of what the purpose of the application was, and failed to appreciate how to use it. Today, after several months of tweeting on a daily and consistent basis, I have gained an understanding that Twitter can be used as an educational tool as well as a way to stay updated with anything and everything newsworthy. Twitter has now become a social media platform that I have grown to really enjoy using. Although I do not always receive high levels of engagement with my tweets, I try to still use a trial and error mindset, keeping track of what is and what is not working for me and what people are responding to and/or liking!

This was one of the first tweets that was specifically for the class, and one of my first times tweeting out to an account with a large following. When I went to the New York State Fair, I tried to use it as an opportunity for receiving local engagement. However, in hindsight, I now know that I should have done things like added the location of the fair as well as using a popular New York State Fair hashtag, if my goal was to try to reach people who were also tweeting at the fair. On this tweet I received three likes – two likes by accounts who do not follow my account, and one like from one of my followers.

Likes: 3

I tweeted this picture one night when I went out to dinner at Pastabilities, in Armory Square, with a group of my friends. I took this picture for the social media in real life assignment. After just a few short weeks of taking COM 427, I really starting to see how social media can be applied to what’s actually happening in the world around me, and not just what is in front of me on my iPhone. I was really excited to tweet this out because I thought it was a really subtle example of social media in real life, but one that definitely worked. This was the first time that my tweet went up on the board at the beginning of class, and I felt really proud of myself in that moment!! On this tweet, I received three likes, one retweet (Thanks to Professor Grygiel!!), and one account replied to my tweet.

Likes: 3

Retweets: 1

Replies: 1

I definitely take pride in being a “foodie” and always openly discuss my love for junk food. When I scrolled past this Cheeto video posted on Tastemade’s Twitter on my feed, I knew I had to share it with my followers. I chose to hashtag Cheeto in an effort to reach a larger, Cheeto loving audience. The only engagement I got was two likes on this tweet, and I was somewhat disappointed with my final results. I guess not everyone gets as excited about this finger licking snack as much as I do!

Likes: 2

Baked by Melissa is a company that I have absolutely loved and raved about since Melissa Ben-Ishay opened her first storefront (in NYC) and online cupcake bakery in 2009. Baked By Melissa is on multiple social media platforms and her company is known for it’s killer social media presence. I tagged Baked by Melissa’s twitter account in my post, as well as used the company’s well known hashtag (#BBM) and was excited  when Baked by Melissa’s Twitter account liked my tweet!! My tweet was also liked by an account who does not follow my twitter personally, but who followed me after this was tweeted! (Also exciting!!)

Likes: 2

Born and raised in Boston, MA, I always try to keep up with the popular Boston sports teams and their games as much as possible when I’m away at school. Twitter has allowed me to get live, real time game updates at the touch of my finger tips, while enabling me to still be on the run and not glued to a T.V. screen. I chose to tweet this out because I learned of Gordon Hayward’s injury from a tweet sent out immediately from the Boston Celtic twitter account. Hayward’s gruesome injury received a lot of twitter attention, and I thought that tweeting about it in real time may help me receive engagement. If I had to send out this tweet again, I would probably use additional hashtags, or send out a follow up tweet with similar hashtags. I did not receive any likes on this tweet, however, it was retweeted.

Retweets: 1

This was actually follow up tweet that I scheduled on TweetDeck. I was really excited when news broke of this new Broadway show since Freaky Friday was such a popular childhood movie for people of my generation. I was surprised when I did not receive high levels of engagement with this tweet. When I first tweeted about this, I received no engagement so I thought that maybe using the ‘in case you missed it’ hashtag might help people who “missed” it! Thinking back, I might have added in more hashtags – (i.e. Broadway, Lindsay Lohan, etc.) to broaden my audience. When looking through my Twitter analytics, I notice that I get much more engagement in the morning, so potentially retweeting my tweet at an earlier time could have helped with engagement.

Likes: 1

Knowing that I’m studying abroad next semester is something that I have been looking forward to and am very excited about. Initially when I sent out this tweet, I tried to think of hashtags that would relate to studying abroad, knowing that the spring is a popular time to travel and that this is the time of year that many are finalizing their study abroad plans. I chose to use #StudyAbroad, to expand my audience to those outside of Syracuse University. I also chose to incorporate Tel Aviv, Israel, since that is where I am traveling to. I only received one like on this tweet and expected more engagement due to how much I thought this tweet out. Although I was initially disappointed, I decided that I would incorporate more hashtags the next time I tweeted out something study abroad related, to see if that helped widen my engagement.

Likes: 1

The Voice is a show that gets high ratings due to that fact that it is very popular amongst a wide array of people. I tweeted this out while the show was airing live, thinking that other people would be doing the same. I only received one like on this tweet, however, the like was not from one of my followers! Although I only received one like, I think that using the voice as a hashtag was effective in this instance, as it obviously reached an someone outside of my following. I had to wonder if my tweet was found simply because of the hashtag.

Likes: 1

Planned Parenthood is currently a controversial and widely debated topic of conversation. In class we had the opportunity to tweet out to a cause, and my group chose Planned Parenthood. We researched popular hashtags that are being used and chose to quote tweet one of Planned Parenthood’s tweets that we found on their twitter account, incorporating popular Planned Parenthood related hashtags. I got really great engagement on this tweet, which was higher than usual for my account. I received 5 likes on this tweet, which for me, is a high level of engagement and was really excited about it since Planned Parenthood is an organization that I respect!

Likes: 5

I sent out this tweet on Thanksgiving, trying to use the most general and relevant hashtag that I could think of to see if I could receive engagement. I only got one like on this tweet, and I expected to receive more given that Thanksgiving is widely celebrated nationwide. I think that I should have potentially used more hashtags with this tweet, like #Thanksgiving or even throwing a hashtag on the word thankful. Thinking back, I wish that I had sent out a second Thanksgiving related tweet the day before or after Thanksgiving day, since in hindsight I believe that many people were probably scrolling on Twitter on the day of.

Likes: 1

 

Since August, I have gained 61 followers, and now, at the end of the semester, I have a total of 201 followers. I have really enjoyed gaining a better appreciation for and familiarity with Twitter this semester, and learning how to use the social media platform purposefully. I have to admit that still get excited when I successfully engage with popular accounts (especially food related ones!!), and I am eager to continue to grow my social media presence on Twitter even after this class concludes. Although I feel that I have achieved a lot of personal growth on Twitter, in the future I hope to keep expanding upon my following and to receive more consistent engagement. I hope to continue to use Twitter analytics to both improve my tweets and my engagement on Twitter!!

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