And that's a wrap folks

Today marks the end of my journey analyzing the social media presence and use of three different entities -- individuals and organizations. At the beginning of this semester, I set out to monitor how three different accounts related to The George Washington University used Twitter. This consisted of the main University account (@GWTweets), the University's Office of Undergraduate Admissions account (@GWAdmissions) and the University's Dean of Student Affairs account (@GWPeterK). 

Over the course of the semester, I have highlighted weekly what I observed, including the strengths and weaknesses of each account. In the end, I concluded that while the core University and the Dean of Student Affairs accounts were effective in carrying out their purposes, the GW Admissions account lacked content that targeted its specific audience. 

That in turn has become the focus of my semester project, aimed at helping the least effective of my three audiences create a better social media campaign.

Throughout the project, I also faced some challenges of my own. When looking back to reflect, it is amazing that my posts were able to have a solid amount of views.

My posts garnered a good amount of audience and views.

Posts that touched on wider topics than my three organizations generally did even better.

I have used my blog in the past to talk about important issues in society that I feel deserve more attention. I integrated the University Writing content into my blog. My main audience, with traffic driven through my personal Google+ page and public Twitter account, probably was not looking for this content from me. Yet, because of optimization of how I shared the posts, including creating a Google+ page dedicated for the blog and describing my project, it seems as if I was able to still have an audience for the posts.

Also, establishing my ethos (credibility) in this short of a time period was another challenge. Although I use social media a lot in my life and love to keep up with technology happenings, I am in no way a social media analyst or expert. Establishing my role in the field to show that what I was saying had some foundation was something that needed to be done right away. Because of the views I had, it seems that I was able to make some headway.

Overall, I think my campaign to analyze the three accounts was successful. There was a clear evolution of the campaign from the starting point to when I realized which account was the least effective. Over time, people continued to read what I had to say. Thank you to my audience and to those who are usually on here reading my other posts!

The many brands of GW

Topic	The George Washington University	The Office of Undergraduate Admissions	Dr. Peter Konwerski
Brand Name	The George Washington University	The George Washington University Office of Undergraduate Admissions	Dr. Peter Konwerski, Vice Provost and Dean of Student Affairs
Twitter Handle	@gwtweets	@gwadmissions	@gwpeterk
Mission	CLICK HERE	To select the best applicants (unofficial, general goal)	To enhance student experience (unofficial)
Product	higher-education	acceptance into GW	responses to students
Reputation	prestigious higher-education university situated in the nation's capital that produces many of this nation's leaders	admissions office that heavily promotes the University's location in the center of DC, characterized by scandalous activity such as wrong representations for US News and need-based acceptance	constantly utilizing Twitter to respond to students and those in the community
Qualities	prestigious expensive diverse	competitive opaque deceptive	transparent friendly helpful
Logo			N/A

Focus on sex appeal and a lack of morals: why Miley Cyrus (and Lady Gaga) do social media wrong

Miley Cyrus was once the innocent teen sensation, Hannah Montana. She was deemed a good role model. But, that ended as soon as she her contact with Disney was terminated. And after that, she has taken the path that many Disney stars have infamously took -- growing up way too fast and transforming to stay relevant with an older audience.

2013 was the year that Miley Cyrus completely underwent that transformation. With her jaw-dropping performance at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) with Robin Thicke and continued press coverage, she has generated buzz like no other. Though that talk was in regards to the disgusting nature of her work, she has nevertheless had meteoric success. Her fame has continued to skyrocket in the past year. Paired with her personal tweets on Twitter and social media  where her voice shines through, it would seem she has hit all the right notes of marketing. Except for the morality. And that ultimately hurts the rest of a celebrity's mission to create a brand.

As Taylor Swift told Katie Couric in an interview in 2012, "I think a mistake that sometimes gets made when there's pressure to grow up, you look at that artist and you think, 'You didn't have to grow up ten years in a month. No, that wasn't what you had to do.'"

But that is exactly what Miley Cyrus has done. In fact, Cyrus has recklessly sold herself and her brand with whatever means necessary in an attempt to barge into a crowded music industry. In an attempt to promote her new album, Bangerz, she tweeted the following: 

Miley Cyrus used this tweet to promote her new album, slated to launch 2 hours after this tweet.

Cyrus' focus on creating a sex appeal is characteristic of what society expects from artists today. Look at the stories in the tabloids. Many celebrities have exploited the idea of sex appeal -- from skimpy clothing to sexual innuendos -- to fully market themselves. The interaction she received was not bad and the audience reach was most likely worldwide. 

The tweet showcases Cyrus' infamous body that was sure to generate buzz and stand out from the regular onslaught of tweets that merely contain 140 characters of text or a simple photo. Yet, the tweet cannot be considered a success. The penetration rate, or the percentage of Cyrus' followers that acted on the tweet, in terms of Favorites,  was only 0.066%. Still, later in the month, Lady Gaga decided to follow suit.

Lady Gaga used sex appeal to promote her album as well. 

Even with 40,000+ followers, she only received 8,699 Retweets and 7,650 favorites, even less than Cyrus.

Lady Gaga fared even worse than Miley Cyrus. She had even less clothing and sold herself and her brand on the premise of her body even more so than Cyrus. Still, in Favorites, the penetration rate here was an dismal 0.01%, even while Gaga has experienced more exposure and fame than Cyrus. 

Taylor Swift's innocent and simple photo of a cute cat generated more interaction than Cyrus and Gaga combined.

On the other hand, Taylor Swift shares innocent photos relevant to herself and her brand. Her tone is much more mature and professional and focuses less on her body or the sex appeal. In terms of social media and Twitter, Taylor Swift has done amazingly well. She has been more effective than virtually other players. In fact, Taylor Swift's penetration rate on a tweet of her famous cat Meredith was up to 0.08%. 

The tweet related to Swift indirectly, yet, fans were still all over it, pressing Retweet and Favorite.

Taylor Swift's promotion of her own album, that did not include any sex appeal, generated more interaction than Cyrus and Gaga individually.

Even for the promotion of her own album, she did not degrade herself to exposing her body. She still received more Retweets and Favorites than Cyrus' and Gaga's tweets with the same intention of promoting an upcoming album.  

As part of my University Writing class, the interaction each account received is the most important metric we must analyze. Though it is very appealing to me to continue talking about the unfortunate lack of morals Cyrus and Gaga have and my belief that the numbers don't show everything that is wrong, we must focus on that data today.

Miley Cyrus received the lowest amount of interaction, which can be reflected by the fact that she only has a little over 15 million followers. But, Lady Gaga has over 40 million followers, but consistently receives less interaction than Taylor Swift, with 36+ million followers. Clearly, something is working for Swift that isn't as well for Cyrus and Gaga.

Though the world sometimes appears to be less focused on morality and ethics, it seems to be the reverse on social media. Artists that focus on sex appeal receive a fair amount of interaction, but, may not reach as wide of an audience as those with a focus on values. Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga's marketing strategy is seriously flawed. The degradation of their self-respect has not made their tweets as effective as they could be. 

Artists and celebrities are role models for the rest of society and should remember the responsibility they have to act with ethics and morality instead of pushing themselves to the borderline of prostitution.