Twitter Activity and Refelection

This is a summary of my Twitter account activity over the semester.

Twitter Activity

1. How often did you tweet?
On my personal Twitter account (@asouthernwriter), I wasn't as active as I usually was as far as making personal tweets (I did a lot of retweeting). My fan site account for Swamp People was more active, but nonetheless, I participated on my account. I usually tweeted/retweeted a few times a day, and sometimes I took a break and tweeted a day or two later.

2. How valuable were those tweets?
I mostly tweeted things related to my general and academic interests, related to my hobbies, and random things like quotes, photos, videos, some religious and political items, etc. Topics related to Southern studies, Latin American studies, technical writing, creative writing, food, cooking, and food studies, history, digital writing and technology. Among those tweets, I occasionally posted memes, trending hashtags, music, movies, celebrities, and my favorite TV show, The Walking Dead. I got a few shout outs as well. I asked questions and got a few responses from tweeters. Through all of this tweeting so far in the semester, I gained about 30 new followers. It seems like a small number, but this course was only six weeks and that's progress as I usually don't get that many followers within that amount of time. Unfortunately, I didn't utilize the #ENC4416 hashtag as many students did, but as I learn more, I will definitely use it as a reminder of what I learned.

Why #Southern #writers still captivate, 55 years after 'To Kill a Mockingbird' http://t.co/HlV0HJ2fHe

— A Southern Writer (@ASouthernWriter) July 11, 2015

High fives all around @whatsherface9 @yikesks @katz_emma @GosaliaM @ASouthernWriter @passthesushi @phenixvin @FoodPhotoAward & @meljoulwan!

— Leite's Culinaria (@leitesculinaria) July 24, 2015

Finished #GoSetAWatchman last night. I honestly expected a bit more, but nonetheless still a good book. The mock revival had me in tears! 😂

— A Southern Writer (@ASouthernWriter) July 16, 2015

How I feel after re-watching a season of #TheWalkingDead... pic.twitter.com/rVxcw2DWAN

— A Southern Writer (@ASouthernWriter) July 3, 2015

3. Are you following people that will provide valuable information to you?
I'm following a lot of people who provide tons of valuable information, as far as my general and academic interests. Among my followers list are current, past, and possibly future professors, some I have connected with whom I've never met, academics in a specialized field, students from different universities, various companies, and the other contains hobbies and interests.

Twitter: A Reflection

So, I've been an avid “tweeter” for years now. Throughout those years and depending on the online project, determined my level of usage. Besides using twitter for personal tweeting, sometimes I would work on a long-term project, a short-term project, other times it was promotional and/or for blogging purposes.

What I Learned Then... I’ve worked on and off on fan pages and groups for well over a decade. Working on fan sites, of course, you had to be up-to-date with sharing the latest news, projects, TV/Tour dates, and any other important information. In addition to that, you also had to make sure you had some kind of content going on to keep the interest of your visitors. Twitter allowed me to provide the glue to ensure the “stickiness” of the content. I was able to take advantage of internet memes and hashtags such as #ThrowbackThursday (#TBT) or #MusicMondays and use them to the fullest extent to promote the person or brand I was trying to get out there. Having content (and finding new ways to create content) was a key factor, especially if you had competing fan sites, you wanted to be able to stick out from the rest, which could sometimes be a difficult task due to your level of understanding your audience, web design, using social media, and finances.


What I Learned Now...
Since taking this course, I learned more about content strategy and how certain elements are important to generating readership and gaining followers on social media (I’ll be talking about this more in my 500 word reflection). Twitter has been significant in doing this because it’s not only used for personal use, but a way to spread news and messages from various topics and from people of different demographics. Twitter has become more than just a social media site, but a social platform all on its own. Overall, even though I didn’t get to use Twitter to the fullest in this course, my experience with Twitter this semester has shown that if you reach out with good content, they will read, listen, and follow.