What to Look for in Twitter Analytics Tools

Marketing on Twitter has become all but common practice for big and small businesses alike, but it is important to know whether or not your Twitter marketing efforts are accomplishing their purpose. The concept behind Twitter may seem simple enough – draft a 140 character sentiment or link, and send it off into cyberspace hoping for the best. But if you want to get the most out of the unique social media platform and improve your marketing campaigns, it is crucial to utilize Twitter analytics tools.

Not all Tweets are created equal, after all, and Twitter analytics tools go a long way to helping you utilize the platform to its fullest. These come in all shapes and sizes; Twitter itself now has an analytics page available to all users, but many third-party tools offer more specialized analysis (many of them free). There is a sea of these Twitter analytics tools to swim through, but here are a few things to look for when selecting which providers to use.

First of all, you want to be sure that the Twitter analytics tools you use present basic insights about your account in an easily understandable way. This is crucial because marketing on Twitter involves customizing your content around your followers. The ‘basics’ for analytics include number of followers, number of followers who have not followed back, the languages and time zones of your followers, how frequently your followers are online, and how many followers your followers have. This may seem like simple stuff, but some Twitter analytics tools are better at presenting the information then others, and you need to find one that works well for your needs. If you are going to tailor your Tweets to your audience, you need to understand them first.

Second, many Twitter analytics tools provide analysis in real-time (or, at least within the last 10 minutes). These tools will tell you how many users are active and how many Tweets are sent in a specific time period. Even better, it should tell you how many impressions you received in any given hour. With Twitter, timing is nearly as important as content in maximizing impressions and encouraging interaction. Be sure that at least one of the Twitter analytics tools you are using presents this real-time information.

Finally, be sure that the Twitter analytics tools you utilize provide insight into your reach. This is slightly differentiated from above, as it includes the complete exposure that your post or URL received – including retweets and other contributors’ links to the same URL. This aspect of analytics will help you interact not only with followers, but also with influencers and competitors in your field.