Blog #8

  After I first read the syllabus for my social media class and saw that I was going to have to tweet daily, I immediately started to panic slightly because I figured I would forget to tweet some days. On my real Twitter account, I never post because I seem to care too much about what other people think. I will retweet some tweets, but I mainly scroll through and see what other people post. So, initially, I was scared that I would not come up with anything to post or anything that is worthy of posting. The first few weeks were a little challenging. I had to get in the groove and figure out what kind of tweets Dr. Bernabo was looking for. Also, I had to remember to use the class hashtag, #cnusocialmedia, which I forgot at least once. I eventually got used to tweeting every day. I found out that remembering to tweet on Fridays was the hardest because once classes were over, I only thought about the weekend. I did not find having to retweet 10 tweets challenging because I would just retweet a bunch early in the week. These tweets usually contained funny content or content that I could relate to or agree with.

  I enjoyed creating polls as my tweet of the day because I could post my opinion, but also allow others to chime in without actually having to post something. I did this a few times. I also enjoyed when my classmates would comment on my tweets or interact with them. I found more joy in tweeting when I was interacting with others rather than just making a daily tweet. It was also hard to create a tweet that would provoke others to respond or create some sort of a discussion because something that I find interesting, others may not. Sometimes I found it easier to just tweet about something in the readings because that usually sparked more of a response. The image to the left shows my first tweet which so happens to be a poll. This was the poll that got the most votes (38). Also, it received a few responses and retweets. Surprisingly, Twitter was the number one vote on which social media platform was used the most. I was surprised because it seemed like most of the class mentioned that they did not keep up with Twitter as much before doing this assignment.

  To best reflect on my experience tweeting daily, I decided to explore my tweet activity analytics. This is a really cool feature that I did not know Twitter offered. I was able to discover my most popular tweet, the average responses I received, the average amount of retweets and likes, and much more. During the last 28 days, I have earned an average of 208 impressions per day. Impressions mean that my tweets have shown up on someone's timeline. My top tweet was about the Fyre Festival, and it received 10 retweets and three likes. This tweet also encouraged four people to click on my profile. According to Twitter analytics, I received an average of two retweets a day and two likes per day. Overall, I believe my tweets were successful and original. I tried to tweet something different every day, so it would not be the same topics related to what other classmates were tweeting.

  Before this social media class, I have never had to maintain any type of online social community. I am not an active user and do not really interact with others when it comes to posting on any social media site. According to Whiting and Williams (2013), social interaction is one of the most popular themes for using social media, as well as entertainment, pastime, and relaxation. I mainly use Twitter for pastime because when I am bored, I always find myself scrolling through my feed to look for anything that may catch my eye. Sometimes I even scroll through Twitter just to take a break from my homework. However, even though I was browsing through my feed, I was never taking the initiative to tweet myself. So, tweeting daily was definitely a new experience.

  I thought that the tweeting activity was fun and different! It was a new way to engage with my classmates and professor, and it seemed to be pretty successful. We could easily tell which readings other students engaged in based on their tweets, what shows people were into, and where people stand on more serious topics. I do not think I fell short in one main area of this exercise. However, I would have liked to engage with my classmate's tweets more. I did this more towards the end of the semester, but I should have done it more in the first half too. Engaging in other people's tweets really develops a new sense of community and opens different paths for discussion. This is one reason why I really enjoyed the live-tweeting exercise because we were all tweeting at once and about the same thing. It allowed each other to interact. I thought I did well with not only tweeting about what I thought was important in the show but also engaging in my classmate's tweets. Live-tweeting allows users to be more active in the media, and it allows for television shows to be promoted through hashtags and tweets (Harrington et al., 2013). The act of live-tweeting gets the audience involved and discussing the show together through the use of Twitter.

  Overall, I thought I did a good job with the Twitter assignment. I had daily tweets except for one time. I remember the one time I forgot, and I was mad because it seemed like such a simple task to tweet about social media every day. Also, I believe I hit the 10 retweets a week, but there is a possibility I fell short a week early on before I got really into tweeting. I tried to make my tweets relatable or about something relevant to spark discussions. Since the Twitter assignment was worth 50 points, I would give myself at least a 47/50. I took points off for the one day I missed at the beginning of the semester and if some of my tweets were not as engaging as they should have been. The Twitter exercise was a good sneak peek into what it would be like to run an active social media account and the importance of being able to interact and engage with other users.

References:

Harrington, S., Highfield, T., & Bruns, A. (2013). More than a backchannel: Twitter and 
      television. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, 10(1), 405-409. 

Whiting, A., & Williams, D. (2013). Why people use social media: A uses and gratifications 
      approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 16(4), 362–369. doi: 
      10.1108/qmr-06-2013-0041