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Content Analysis
Conor Cook
Writ 318 Web Writing
April 16, 2023
Introduction
The goal of this content analysis is to determine whether using hashtags on twitter is an effective
way to increase the amount of impressions on a post. This is important information to know, so
that when tweeting in the future, hashtags can be utilized correctly to maximize the number of
impressions of a post. This can play a major role in content strategy because it allows creators to
have a better idea of what they need to plan out to best reach their audience. This can also help
for academic purposes if someone is trying to promote something, whether that is a product or
some sort of good cause. Knowing if hashtags are useful and how they may be effective can be
valuable information. To figure this out I tracked data from three different accounts on twitter
that all post daily writing prompts.

Research Question
Does using hashtags on Twitter help increase the number of impressions on a post?

This idea came about by trying to figure out different ways in which content creators tweet. One
of those ways is by using hashtags or not using them. Number of views on Twitter is an easy
thing to track. Hashtags are commonly used on all social media platforms, so it is something that
I wanted to figure out if it could make a difference or not. Using hashtags is very simple and easy
to use, so it could possibly be very helpful to know if they are effective.

Research Findings
Posts that use hashtags typically get more views and impressions than posts that use no hashtags.
In this research, three accounts that post similar content which is daily writing prompts showed
that when using hashtags there will be more views. I looked at 10 random tweets from all three
accounts from the previous 3-7 days to find data to answer the research question.
The data collection process was very simple, I searched on Twitter for 3 writing prompt
accounts that have been actively posting writing prompts daily. I looked for 2 accounts that
posted prompts using hashtags and 1 account that posted writing prompts never using hashtags.
All 3 accounts have a similar amount of followers, so it is easy to compare. I noted the amount of
views from 10 random tweets from each account in tweets that were roughly a week old. With
the number of views for each post, it provided information about how successful it was towards
reaching an audience. After comparing the data, that would determine the answer to the research
question.
The two Twitter writing prompt accounts that used hashtags were @selectedprompts and
@_writingprompt. After doing the math to find the averages of the individual data points,
@selectedprompts averaged 61.7 views per post in the data that was collected. This account uses
hashtags on almost all their posts and also has the most followers of any of the 3 tracked
accounts. However, their percentage of average viewers per post compared to their follower
count was 0.03%. They had the same percentage as @_writingprompt, the other account that
uses hashtags every post. @_Writingprompt only averaged 24.6 views per post because of their
lower follower count. The twitter account @howboutyouwrite never uses hashtags on their
writing prompt posts. They averaged 13.3 views per post and the percentage of average views
per post compared to their follower count was only 0.01%. That number is much smaller than the
two accounts that use hashtags.
Through this data collection, it is evident that using hashtags on Twitter will help
increase the number of viewers that a post has. This is relevant because if someone is trying to
get the most possible exposure on a Twitter post, it would include hashtags.

Data Collection
Twitter Account Twitter Account Twitter Account
@howboutyouwrite @selectedprompts @_Writingprompt
1600 + followers
1900-2000 Followers 800 Followers
Never uses hashtags Uses hashtags on almost all Uses hashtags every post
Posts many times per day posts Posts a few times per day
Posts multiple times per day

Number of Views of Each Number of Views of Each Number of Views of Each

Tweet tweet Tweet
17,7,10,9,8,8,10,9,6,49 46,91,35,113,44,57,33,63,78,57 15,14,29,37,24,26,18,17,16,50
 *Each data point is from a
different tweet collect within 3-7
days from each other.

Data Analysis for Data analysis for Data analysis for

@howboutyouwrite
Average views per post is 13.3
Percentage of average views per
post compared to follower count
is 0.001 %
@selectedprompts
Average views per post is 61.7
Percentage of average views per post
compared to follower count is 0.03%
@_writingprompts
Average views per post is 24.6
Percentage of views per post
compared to follower count is 0.03
%

Example of a tweet from @_writingprompt. This shows the account using two different hashtags
after tweeting a writing prompt.

This is an example of a tweet from @howboutyouwrite. This account uses no hashtags and do
not use any on this post while tweeting a writing prompt.
The account @selectedprompts uses three hastags in this twitter writing prompt post.
Graphs

These graphs show the numbers that are discussed in the research findings section.
Summary
The question going into the study was whether or not hashtags help increase exposure on Twitter
posts. My original hypothesis was that hashtags would help the exposure increase. After
collecting a lot of data from 3 different accounts and calculating the numbers, it was clear that
using hashtags does help increase the views on Twitter posts. This is valuable information for
content creators and can help them reach their whole intended audience.