Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Metrics

As I’ve mentioned previously on this blog, some of my reasons for using Twitter in the professional realm have included: (1) sourcing and passing on good content, (2) providing a quick content update for the website when my blog posts were few and far between, and (3) learning the ins and outs of the Twitter medium itself. While this last one may seem fairly basic, one cannot under-emphasize its importance. In an era of “social media” hyperactivity by brands, professionals, and consumers alike, it is critical that businesses learn how to not only use but measure their Twitter. And if anyone should know how to measure social media, shouldn’t it be web analysts?

For social media to “work” as it’s meant to, it must not only reach possible listeners (similar to traditional media “impressions”), but engage such listeners with impactful content that turns them into active participants and/or influential consumer brand evangelists. The online tactics by which you solicit reach and create content are up to you, but some simple metrics can help you gauge performance and make decisions as you go along.

Reach
Reach, at its simplest level, can be tracked via the number of followers you obtain over time and the number of lists by which your site is lumped into comparable, searchable categories. These metrics are useful in making sure your Tweets are heard, but do not ultimately matter if you are not getting effective engagement and follow-through to desired activities.

Engage
In a recent post at his website AnilBatra.com, consultant Anil Batra sets forth three basic KPIs by which Twitter can be measured [here is the original post]:

1. Number of Retweets
   The number of “endorsements” for your post that others send out to their followers, either via the direct Twitter link next to the post or use of RT @[your Twitter username]. From your Home page, these can be tracked in the Twitter sidebar, under the Retweets ”Your Tweets, Retweeted” selection tab.
   

   Your Tweets, Retweeted

2. Number of @[username] Replies
   The number of replies you receive in response to your content, indicating that someone else is reading what you write, and has chosen to respond! [Note: The @[username] ability can be both given and received…using it in reply to your consumers can allow you to engage in a two-way conversation]. The tone of the response can further be used to gauge positive or negative sentiment surrounding your brand or content.
   

   @OCAnalytics reply in Twitter

3. Visit Rate (i.e. number of visits that come from a link in your Tweets)
   The visit rate measures the number of visits to your site that come by way of whatever link you might post in your Tweets. In other words, this is web traffic driven by Twitter, measured as % Visit Rate = (Visits/Followers)*100.

According to a secondary Twitter measurement post by Anil, there are two common yet WRONG ways by which analysts (including myself) have typically measured the “visit” portion that comes from Twitter.

• Using the Referring Site/Domain report of your analytics tool – Anil says there are two problems with this:

“1.  Twitter.com is not the only way to access Twitter. A lot of people use 3rd  party tools like Tweetdeck…A click on a link from such a tool won’t show up in the “Referring Sites/Domains” reports…it will be listed as “Direct Traffic” or “No referrer”.
2.  You can’t see the how each individual link (tweet) performed. Without this information, how do you know what works and what does not? How do you know what words trigger your followers interest?”

• Using the click count in your URL shortener (i.e. Bit.ly) – In this case, clicks do not necessarily mean visits, as some clicks could be non-human, i.e. bots or spiders. Additionally, click counts limit the information available as to post-user behavior on your site.

So what is the RIGHT or more accurate way? Anil recommends treating “every link posted on Twitter as a new campaign”, tagged with proper campaign variables that can be tracked as such in your web analytics tool.

Tools

Twitalyzer – Comprehensive engagement metrics
Think of this as the Google Analytics for Twitter – dashboards and reports of 20+ unique-to-Twitter metrics, a recommendation system of tactics to improve said metrics, and the ability to “Twitalyze” any Twitter user (perhaps a key competitor) to see how they stack up.
-    Takeaway? Multiple metrics at the touch of a button. That said, metrics for metrics sake can easily overwhelm…as with any analytics tool, focus on those metrics pertinent to your site’s goals/life stage and use Twitalyzer to learn basic tips and tricks by which to improve them.

URL builder – Proper link tagging
As mentioned above, Anil recommends treating links as tracked campaigns, and this can be done with use of the campaign tracking capability in your analytics tool. Anil and Google Analytics both have a URL builder by which you can generate a URL containing the source (i.e. twitter), medium (i.e. tweet), and name (i.e. whatever identifier you want to give to your Tweet) by which visits can be properly attributed to the source (Twitter) and direct tweet by which they come to your site. Anil goes through this process in more detail in his post.
-       Google Analytics URL builder tool
-      Anil Batra URL builder tool