It’s unknown to many people that Twitter analytics is open to all Twitter account holders. Using the analytics, users can gain insights into their Twitter activity. It has been an efficient tool of estimation and self-analysis for individuals and businessmen alike. After all, how can there be a progress when there is no knowledge of the effects?

There are three major sections of Twitter analysis: for the Tweets, followers and websites.

Click counts and tweet engagement tool

Twitter has now grown into a link sharing and news aggregating tool. So there’s actual competition to get clicks on your links. There is a simple method to learn which of your links are clicked and which are overseen. By clicking the section called “Recent Tweets” on your Tweet Activity, you can see click counts beside any Tweet with a link in it. Although somewhat conspicuous, it is a valuable piece of Twitter Analytics.

Also under the “Recent Tweets” section is “show”. Change the default setting from “all” to “best”. It shows the top 15% of your most engaging Tweets. You can also see “good” Tweets. The ranking is based on how many favourites, Retweets and replies a Tweet has garnered. Facebook also offers a similar feature, called “People are talking about this”. That said, this is another cool feature of the Twitter Analytics tool.

Best time of the day to tweet

Again, the “Recent Tweets” section consists of time stamps, which can be used to determine when your Tweets are getting the most clicks. If you go through the Timeline Activity on your Twitter Analytics, you can get a reasonably accurate overview of the peaks in clicks. However, don’t build a timing strategy based solely on this feature! It is better if you can visually scan and check.

Follow and Unfollow

Coming to Follows and Unfollows, these ups and downs are minor, as they are prone to wild fluctuations! Try to match these fluctuations with the Best Time of The Day stats, and you can figure out the best way to reach your audience.

And here are some more metrics:

Total mentions

Mentions are another simple metric to track what’s successful to generate new followers, and what’s not. If the number of mentions with respect to Retweets is large, it obviously indicates a rise in the number of followers.

Reach

Potential reach determines how many users have viewed the content. Twitter Analytics calculates your normal reach, and labels some tweets as 2x, 3x, and so on signifying that those Tweets have a larger audience due to Retweets. Although knowing the actual numbers would help, you can check out how valuable your Retweets are. Look for patterns to decipher which messages are surging ahead, with high reach and click-throughs.

Similar profiles

‘Similar profiles’ is a list of users who are being followed by most of your followers in terms of percentages. It means that you and these users have some fraction of common audience, similar to the ‘Mutual Friends’ metrics in Facebook. These metrics are helpful when you want to run the ads.

Favourites

It has turned out to be a more popular means of engagement mainly because it doesn’t make the viewer Retweet or mention or give any kind of feedback, yet acknowledge his/her engagement by counting the Tweet as one of his/her favourites. It is similar to the ‘Like’ feature on Facebook.

Studies have indicated that a significant amount of user engagement has been contributed by the ‘Favourites’ option. It also allows the users to monitor how they perform with their audience. Though it is not as deep as mentions or Retweets could be, but it is still a good feature that has the capacity to resonate among the viewers.

Hashtags

Hashtags have become not only a major tool for marketers and campaigners, but also an integral part of social media culture. A simple concept of preceding a branded phrase or a statement with a ‘#’ term has seen breakthrough success on many levels for many purposes. It enables Twitter to determine the most trending topics. It allows the viewers to view and participate in relevant topics and increased the reach of a particular Tweet.

The feature has however, been abused by many marketers and campaigners lately, yet hasn’t deterred its true potential.

Potential impression

It is an important tool for advertisement management. It is nothing new to the world of advertising and has always been associated with traditional press and media to gauge their performance. In a slightly different form in the social media, it continues to serve the same purpose.

It is different from the ‘Potential Reach’ that it actually enables the users to determine how many users reached them rather than just those who viewed the content. Both take similar data into consideration, but ‘Potential Impression’ is affected by the number of followers of the user.

Featured image credit: own screenshot of Twitter Analytics