Leveraging Twitter Analytics to Stay Informed Effectively and Regularly
Have you sifted through countless approaches, yet still find the reach and engagement lacking? Twitter Analytics can uncover the root causes and give solutions.
Nancy J. Hassler
Leveraging Twitter Analytics to Stay Informed Effectively and Regularly
Going beyond using X to track events worldwide and news about favorite public figures, it is vital to establish primary objectives and develop a strategy. Regardless of the niche, the final pillar of effective promotion is regularly monitoring performance across various metrics to build a complete picture. While X provides a native analytics dashboard for quick analysis of the effectiveness of applied approaches, regularity and broadening the scope also yield positive results.
What Is X (Formerly Twitter) Analytics?
Twitter, now rebranded as X, has always stood out among social media platforms throughout its nearly two-decade history. Carving out a unique position in the digital landscape, it has significantly influenced the shaping and development of public discourse and online communication from the very beginning. Based on the concept of microblogging as real-time communication, the medium is known for its success in highlighting events and rapidly growing trends, largely fueled by hashtags.
Among other highlights, Twitter Analytics is a powerful tool for displaying your account's performance. This feature aims to help users enhance their marketing strategies based on the results obtained by displaying information across various metrics. While advanced analytics function packages are available only for business accounts, everyone can access key insights under individual posts in the mobile app in the lower right corner. Digging into the information is easy, whether you’re using a mobile phone or the desktop version:
1. Log in to the X website or app.
2. Tap the icon in the top left corner of the mobile screen, or click the three dots on the left-hand side of the PC.
3. Find "Analytics" in the dropdown menu or visit https://x.com/i/account_analytics directly.
4. Explore the account metrics and insights.
5. The next stop is a "Premium" tab for extra options.
With a user-friendly and intuitive interface, the analytics feature allows you to explore the overall account overview or specific content on X. You can select various options, including metrics and periods (ranging from week to year). The information is conveniently presented as statistics and charts, highlighting key indicators of growth or decline, along with additional details. In addition to the built-in X tool, third-party products like Twitonomy or Sprout Social can be pretty beneficial. They offer a range of advanced monitoring and analysis functions, including engagement metrics and audience segmentation.
What Does a Premium Subscription Offer?
While the platform enables everyone to deepen their understanding of the algorithm and refine their strategies, Premium subscribers gain access to more extensive opportunities. Audience insights include demographic data, interests, and viewer behavior, which enhance content adaptation. Published materials can also be categorized to identify the formats that resonate most with the target audience, with a focus on more detailed engagement metrics.
At the same time, users can track subscriber activity hours to identify the best times for posting on X, enabling optimized scheduling. Thanks to real-time updates, prompt adjustments will become another achievable goal on your to-do list. The new Twitter Analytics dashboard also features enhanced data visualization. Detailed charts and graphs allow for better metrics scaling over time and make it easier to switch between them.
The Value of This Evaluation
Unlike all other social networks, X motivates more people to showcase their creative potential, transforming simple expressions of opinion into an effective means of promotion and self-assertion. When it comes to influencer activity, analytics is a driving force that plays a key role in shaping strategy. The insights gained will allow us to adapt content to the target audience's needs from various angles, starting with the most preferred formats — text messages, photos, and videos — to generate engagement.
In addition to benefiting opinion leaders, the platform's features can offer advantages for brands and their development. Monitoring and applying the gathered data will primarily be done through:
- Identifying the optimal time for posting while focusing on follower activity enables influencers to engage effectively without overwhelming the audience with content;
- Specifically researched campaign effectiveness as a Twitter Analytics option, with detailed reports on engagement metrics and reach
- A/B testing enables experimentation with headlines, visuals, CTAs, and other SEO tricks, facilitating comparisons to identify the most effective approach.
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Metrics to Track on X (Twitter)
Tracking your activity metrics is a key benchmark on the journey of growth and development in any social media platform. Against the backdrop of deepening awareness regarding how platform algorithms work and the effectiveness of chosen strategies, analytical tools will broaden creators' horizons concerning social media trends, largely influencing metrics and, consequently, driving decision-making.
Starting with impressions — a key reach metric that reflects how many times your tweets are seen — X analytics equip users with the knowledge and tactics to feel like a fish in water, enabling them to promote themselves as effectively as possible. While the follower counter displays the total number of your Twitter/X audience acquired over time, tracking this is crucial for gauging the effectiveness of the strategies employed. Other follower-based metrics to track include the following:
- New followers and unfollowers shed light on the impact of your content by showing what resonates with your audience and what does not;
- Profile visits can also indicate increased interest in your account, with the potential for audience growth;
- Growth over time lets you analyze changes in follower numbers by visualizing trends and correlating them with campaigns and specific actions.
Demographic data of followers stays at the forefront when adapting published content to audience preferences. Using Twitter Analytics can significantly enhance the accuracy and impact of your marketing strategies by providing detailed insights into the age, gender, and location of your target audience.
While impressions and follower counts indicate your reach and visibility, tracking engagement is essential, as it is a key measure of content performance and effectiveness. Engagement rates are linked to trends in audience growth on Twitter/X. This is evidenced by cases where high impressions are paired with low engagement, indicating that interactions significantly fall short despite a large number of viewers. Although likes (favorites), retweets, and replies are primary metrics of engagement, there are further indicators to consider, including:
- Quote Tweets reflect how often your posts are shared with additional commentary, indicating a deeper level of engagement from users;
- Link Clicks measure the traffic directed to your website from users clicking on links within your tweets;
- Mentions occur when users tag your username in their tweets, enhancing engagement while assessing brand awareness and sentiment.
While there are metrics that allow any type of content to be filtered with shifts in various directions, some indicators are specific to particular categories. For example, when posting a poll, it's important to focus on the vote count that reflects audience engagement in such interactions, and the response distribution that reveals the interests and opinions of followers from a new perspective. Amid the rapid growth of vertical formats, attention to the effectiveness metrics of uploaded media is increasingly relevant. Creators can explore alternative approaches to leverage their skills, while the Loca App also provides an opportunity to earn extra income!
When publishing a video, focusing primarily on the number of views is essential. At the same time, the percentage of audience members who watched it to the end is reflected in the Average Watch Time. Since X differentiates between organic and promoted views, tracking these metrics is also essential for evaluation, especially regarding advertising strategies. While hashtags are central to functionality X, directly influencing the categorization and visibility of your content, tracking their performance is a priority for guiding your plan effectively.
Engagement Rate
While the follower count may often be questioned by outsiders, engagement never lies, shedding light on the true state of affairs. As a fundamental Twitter Analytics metric, it determines the level of audience interaction with the published content, calculated using the following formula:
Engagement Rate (ER) = (Total Engagements / Impressions) × 100
Total engagements include various ways users interact with your posts, such as likes, replies, retweets, media views, and different click types. Impressions, in turn, are a key metric, counting the number of times your tweet is displayed to users. It doesn't matter whether there was any interaction. The impressions metric can exceed the number of unique viewers, as one person may see your post multiple times.
The engagement rate is a reliable benchmark that fully reflects how relevant and appealing your content is in the eyes of the audience. This knowledge is at the heart of your content strategy, allowing you to concentrate on ideas and materials that resonate with your audience while enhancing creator or business performance metrics. Additionally, by continuously coordinating your content strategy based on your outcomes, engagement rates open up opportunities for analysis compared to niche metrics and competitors, providing a more comprehensive picture.
Follower Count (Gain/Loss)
Although follower-based metrics may not address all questions of interest, tracking their growth and decline is crucial. Despite potential debates regarding the validity influenced by various risks, each new follower signifies an individual's voluntary desire to join your X (formerly Twitter) audience. The gain/loss measure is designed to track and compare the number of new followers against those who have unsubscribed over a specific timeframe. This comparison can provide insights into the account's health and audience engagement levels.
Identifying spikes in engagement and unsubscribe rates after publishing specific posts will help understand which content resonates with the audience and which does not, providing a foundation for adjusting content and marketing strategies. While stable follower growth indicates the attractiveness of content and alignment with audience preferences, regular checks can provide more detailed reports and a strategy. In addition to the built-in analytics dashboard on the platform, tools like Hootsuite, Social Blade, and others can help track and apply key metrics.
New Followers
When it comes to "New Followers," it is paramount to understand KPI vs metric delineation for a comprehensive evaluation of your X social media strategy, its effectiveness, and potential gaps. When viewed through the lens of metrics, this refers to a straightforward count of fresh followers over a specific period. It serves as a basic indicator of interest in your creator and marketing activities on X, helping to determine whether your content resonates with your audience.
Shifting the focus to KPIs signifies a more strategic approach to tracking and analyzing data to align this information with your initially set goals. For example, if X is your marketing platform, the "New Followers" assessment can help track whether brand awareness is growing alongside an increase in audience size.
Top Tweets
The shift to X did not alter the core functionality and concept of the platform, keeping the term "tweets" for posts as the primary method of communication and promotion. "Top Tweets" refers to a specific measurement highlighting posts with the highest engagement levels over a particular timeframe. Although it is not a separate category, identifying which tweets garnered the best engagement metrics — such as likes, retweets, replies, and overall impressions — will serve as a reliable guide for your activities on X (formerly Twitter).
You can access data insights in the analytics dashboard by filtering and sorting posts based on performance metrics. Understanding which tweets have achieved the most tremendous success will help you determine the content that resonates most with your target audience. This focused approach will significantly contribute to refining your social media strategy.
Stepping into the realm of X (formerly Twitter) as a platform to explore your potential as a creator or marketer requires careful monitoring of the impact of your actions. This promotional practice involves a set of metrics that can help you determine if your strategy is on the right track. If you're looking to expand your horizons as a digital influencer, consider exploring innovative products like Loca App, which is valuable for both creators and small business owners. Take advantage of these yummy opportunities!