This is an updated version of a post that first appeared on the Hootsuite blog on July 28, 2014. 

Businesses are using social media to increase customer engagement and drive business goals. As social media efforts increase, so does the need to measure ROI, which means understanding the analytics tools available. Knowing how you’re doing and reporting on social media success is important, however, understanding what to measure and how to use analytics can challenging. Twitter has just updated its analytics offering, and it’s a powerful tool if you know how to use it. This post is going to focus on what are Twitter Analytics, how to use them, and provide you with some Twitter Analytics tips.

What are Twitter Analytics?

Twitter Analytics is a free analytics platform found natively on Twitter. It provides Twitter users with information that can be used to tell how promoted and normal Tweets are performing. Inside the platform, reports showcase how engaging Tweets have been over the last 28 days. That engagement is captured by tracking the amount of link clicks, Tweet impressions, retweets, favorites and replies each Tweet produced.

Businesses can use this data to determine whether or not their current social media strategy is working by reviewing if their Tweets are resonating with their Twitter audience. This information can be used to quickly change initiatives that aren’t working or can be used to plan out future content strategies.

Twitter Analytics is not accessible to every Twitter user. In a recent update, Twitter announced that the updated platform is available for Advertisers, Twitter Card Users, and Verified Users.

Twitter recently announced they made the Analytics Dashboard available to all Twitter users.

Twitter Analytics dashboards for business

1. Tweet Activity

As a business owner using social media, there are several metrics that can be looked at to gauge success. Retweets, mentions, link clicks and the amount of times a Tweet was seen are all good metrics to view.

The Tweet Activity dashboard provides basic stats for normal and promoted Tweets. One can compare how Tweets have performed month over month or how each individual Tweet has performed in real time. Users can click on any Tweet in the dashboard and view how many link clicks there were, how many people saw that specific Tweet, and how many retweets or favorites it got. This information can be used to see what kind of content elicits the biggest reaction from your audience.

2. Followers

Providing the right content to the right people is a recipe for high engagement. Therefore, knowing exactly who you are engaging online is crucial to the success of any social media strategy. Twitter Analytics has a dashboard specifically dedicated to provide information for a brand’s current audience. Brands can see their followers broken down by demographics, by location and even by interests. The Followers dashboard also provides a graph measuring follower growth over the last year. Businesses can use this information to curate content tailored specifically for a given audience in order to maximize the probability for engagement.

3. Twitter Cards

Twitter Cards are exclusive to Twitter. By using Twitter Cards, businesses can control how the content being shared is displayed in Tweets. This increases the opportunity for higher click-through rates. Adding Twitter cards also increases the amount of space each Tweet uses. With more Twitter feed real estate, the probability of a Tweet being seen increases. Twitter Card analytics allow users to track how Twitter Cards have affected click rates, retweets and even app installs. These insights can help shape alterations to a social media strategy.

Twitter Analytics tips

Twitter Analytics provide great insights into how one can measure success from a Twitter profile. Here are some tips to get you started:

Tip #1: Find the most engaging Tweets. Do the Tweets include pictures or videos or maybe links? Are they funny or serious? Using this data will help ease the process of composing future Tweets that will have a bigger reach on social.

Tip #2: Gain knowledge about your audience. Use this information to generate content that your audience will like. Appealing to a specific audience with the right content will ensure an increase in retweets, replies, and mentions.

Tip #3: Compare how your Tweets are performing over time. Keeping an eye on these insights can prove that your social media efforts really do pay off!

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