Social Media: The Perfect Photo

Wait, not that photo! Post this one! Wait, this photo is perfect! Ok, post this one! Over this fall 2020 semester, I have learned there is so much more to social media than just posting the perfect photos. Social media is the language of the generation today. Social media connects audiences with you and allows you to build relationships. From communicating with childhood friends to relatives who live far away, social media has more than 300 platforms to stay in touch. Businesses decrease their marketing budget by utilizing social media.

In this class, I have learned that tracking your data is key for helping to get great results from your social media posts, blogs and surveys. If you don't track data on a constant basis, you will not reach your audience. I was challenged to work outside my comfort zone of taking and posting selfies, and challenged to create new content on various platforms such as WordPress, Wix, Facebook and Twitter. It has been a beneficial experience that I will use in the future.

My analytics findings highlight that when I shared my website link for my blog post on all social media platforms, the clicks, likes and retweets increased. When I was not as active on social media and did not share my blog and website link, there was a huge decrease in the traffic rates. My Wix website traffic had 37 views that shows Wix had 19 views direct, Twitter brought 16 views and Facebook brought 2 views. Using hashtags, such as #UTsocialjournalism, and mentioning well-known names would capture the reader's attention. Tweets that were straight to the point and easy to read also led to increased engagement.

On Wix, my top visited post was my very first blog post “The New Old”. This blog was unique because the lead in was a question. In order to understand the answer, the audience had to read the entire blog. On Facebook, a post encouraging my audience to subscribe to my YouTube channel, included a photo (not a perfect one, but cute one!) and the direct link to my YouTube channel that has several videos related to my life, received the most engagement. During this time, 176 people like my Facebook page.

My Tweets that had the highest engagement rates were the ones that included links to my latest Blog and asked a poll question. My highest engagement rate was on Wednesday, September 30th which I earned 22 impressions per day on Tuesday, October 6th when I tweeted the question “How has COVID-19 affected you?” #UTsocialjournalism. The top response was that people “developed a new outlook” which brought a positive light to mental health concerns during the pandemic. Tweets related to University of Tennessee sports also had a lot of engagement.

Now, back to the perfect photo! Yes, social media is perfect for posting the perfect photo. However, I have learned that understanding the analytics is important for understanding how your audience engages with your social media accounts. The better you know your audience, the better your social media account will appeal to them. You can observe and analyze data in order to increase your following. The data can be used to a Bloggers advantage to see what day is great to post a blog. The data also can capture how the audience is feeling, how to engage them and capture their attention in order to increase their overall following. Understanding the data allows you to know what videos, hashtags, @ tags and polls help engagement. Lastly, it would be great to to understand if that was truly the perfect photo!