Twitter Optimization: How To Benefit From Your Twitter Analytics Data

Twitter’s analytics dashboard is home to some of the most important data about your Twitter account. In this article, we’re going to look at how you can benefit from your Twitter analytics data.

We have a list of 12 benefits to go through, so saddle up.

Twitter analytics weren’t always so easy to use. In the past, if a marketer wanted to learn about their audience, they’d usually have to use a suite of tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, Commun.it and other services to know what was happening. Twitter was once considered a part of what marketers call the “dark social” –meaning that it wasn’t so easy to track engagement in this platform. It seems as though Twitter responded, and turned a light on.

Enter the Twitter analytics dashboard.

The Twitter analytics dashboard has grown over the years into the comprehensive social analytics tool it is today, and here are just a small handful of helpful insights that can help you gain a better understanding of your followers and engagement.

1. Find Out How Many People You’ve Reached

Twitter Analytics shows you the number of times your tweet appeared on people’s feeds. This is called impressions and the more frequently you tweet, the higher your impressions will be. You can go deeper into this data and see when and where exactly people saw your tweet.

2. Check Your Account’s Monthly Performance

Twitter Analytics gives you a summary of your account’s performance in the last 28 days. It also lets you compare that data to the previous months so you can see whether your performance has improved or declined. On the left side of the summary are some highlights such as your top tweet, top follower, top tweet, top mention, and more.

3. Get To Know Your Audience

Twitter Analytics allows you to access information about your followers such as their age, gender, location, household income, and even buying styles. You’ll have a better idea of your follower demographics which in turn allows you to conduct an effective Twitter campaign that resonates with your audience.

4. Know Your Audience’s Interests

Aside from basic data such as age and gender, Twitter Analytics also shows your followers’ top 10 interests. You can leverage this data to create and share content around topics your audience is interested in.

5. Identify Trending Topics Your Followers Might Like

Twitter Analytics shows you the trending topics at the moment and the number of engagement each topic gets. Find a trending topic that best resonates with your niche and post updates based on that topic. You can also use this information to furtherimprove your content and enhance your engagement.

6. Find Out Optimal Posting Times

Each social network has an optimal posting time. While this may be true, it doesn’t necessarily apply to all niches. Your audience may be different from the average Twitter user so it’s best to look at your own data to find out which times of the day your followers are the most active. You can use Twitter Analytics together with other third-party tools such as Followerwonk and Tweriod to get data of when most of your followers are online. You can then schedule your posts around these optimal times. You may also try posting at different times of the day to see if there are other windows of time where your followers are the most engaged.

7. Determine Your Engagement Rate

Want to know how well your account is performing in terms of engagement? Simply check the engagement rate on your Twitter Analytics dashboard. That figure is computed by dividing the number of engagement by the number of impressions. Retweets, replies, follows, favorites, links, cards, hashtags, embedded media, user name, profile photo, tweet expansion all count as engagement.

8. Distinguish Types Of Engagement

Likes, retweets, clicks, and replies are all signs of engagement but they differ in value. A like can mean that someone appreciated your post while a retweet means someone saw value in your tweet and thought they could share it with their followers. A click or reply means that your tweet was interesting enough to convince the user to take action. Find out the types of engagement you are getting and refine your strategy accordingly.

9. Find Potential Influencers In Your Followers

If you need influencers to participate in your next campaign, you don’t have to look far as they could already be fans of your brand. Using advanced tools such asSocialRank andNinja Outreach, you can find out how many followers your followers have and sort them by the most popular. Qualify them to make sure they are fit for your brand and voila! You got yourself a brand influencer who’s easier to build a relationship with since they already know and like your brand.

10. Track Your Follower Growth

Twitter Analytics lets you track the number of followers you have accumulated overtime. You can pick any day from the time you started your Twitter account and see how many followers you had on a specific date. This information is essential because it tells you what strategies work in the past and what didn’t. Were you frequently posting back then? What types of content did you post? Were you highly responsive to your followers? What times were you the most active? See if you can find answers to these questions as they might just help you improve your Twitter strategy.

11. Find Out If Your Twitter Ads Are Working

Twitter Analytics can display data of your paid and organic tweets. Just like regular tweets, you can check the number of engagement your promoted tweets get. Is it on par with your organic tweets or is it performing better? The most important metric to check is Conversions as this lets you know whether your ads are effective. You may want to setup conversion tracking so you know how much return of investment you are getting from your ad spend.

12. See What Happens After People See Your Ads

So you want to know what action people take after they see your promoted tweet. Twitter Analytics can help you with that through conversion tracking.

For it to work, you need to create a website tag. This unique code snippet will fire whenever someone lands on your site through your Twitter campaign.

You can later view these conversions which will be organized based on type such as purchase, custom, etc. Take note of this data as it will help you to optimize your future paid Twitter campaigns.

In Conclusion

Don’t forget to export your Twitter Analytics data regularly so you can check back on it later and compare your Twitter account’s performance over time.

Do you have advanced strategies for using data gathered from your Twitter Analytics? Share them in the comments below!

^{* Adapted lead image:  Public Domain, pixabay.com via getstencil.com}