Digital and social media afford businesses of all sizes a plethora of data that, if used correctly, can positively impact workflow, performance and profitability. In this guide, we’ll cover how measuring your Twitter presence and your audience’s response to it can turn seemingly random social interactions into strategy-changing insights. Explore These Themes: -A reference guide that includes definitions for Twitter metrics. -Tips to determine objectives, align strategies and pick the right Twitter metrics for your brand. -Strategies for tracking performance and transforming analytics into actionable insights.

1. Maximize Your
Twitter Metrics
A guide for SMBs by

2. LET’S GET STARTED
Digital and social media afford businesses of all sizes a plethora of data
that, if used correctly, can positively impact workflow, performance and
profitability. Many small and medium businesses focus on creating and
publishing content to generate a larger Twitter audience and drive
valuable engagement with their current and potential customers. While
engagement and publishing are critical components of a successful
strategy, a third component, analytics, should not be underestimated.
By measuring your Twitter presence and your audience’s response to it,
you’ll turn seemingly random social interactions into strategy―
changing insights. Whether it is identifying which messages resonate
with your audience, determining successful campaigns, or spotting holes
in your customer service, smart analytics can change your social media
game. Simply test, learn and adjust your strategy using all the data
literally at your fingertips.
Big data doesn’t have to mean big headaches. Identifying a few key
goals and using metrics to measure against a short list of objectives will
make social media much more manageable for you and your team. In
this guide, we break down what each metric means, provide
suggestions for determining which metrics make sense for your
business and also offer tips to help you analyze what it all means for
your business.
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MA XIMIZE YOUR TWITTER METRICS

3. UNDERSTAND THE TERMINOLOGY
Let’s be honest, social media has its own language. As a small and growing business,
you’re likely forging unknown territory, so it’s easy to get confused and overwhelmed by
mentions, hashtags, impressions, interactions and the like. The bottom line is you can’t
measure something you don’t understand. We’ve compiled a handy reference to help you
translate the terms that matter for your business and better navigate Twitter.
Direct messages (DM)
Private messages sent between two Twitter users,
consisting of 140 characters or less.
Engagement
A Twitter user’s interaction with another user. This can
come in the form of mentions, Retweets, favorites and
new followers.
Favorite
An instance where user marks a stand-out Tweet by
clicking the yellow star next to a message—like a virtual
high five.
Follower Count
The number of Twitter users that are subscribed to your
updates at any given time.
Hashtag
Clickable words or phrases that can be used to categorize
messages and foster conversations around topics or
events. Can be used for tracking campaigns.
Mention
Users mentioning your brand in a Tweet by using the @
symbol, followed by your brand’s Twitter username.
New Follower
Twitter user who was not previously subscribed to your
Tweets that becomes a subscriber.
Retweet
An existing tweet that a user shares with their followers
that also retains original attribution.
@
See Mention.
#
See Hashtag.
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TWITTER TERMS
MA XIMIZE YOUR TWITTER METRICS

4. Follower Demographics
Descriptive information about a Twitter user that follows
your updates, such as gender, age and race.
Increased/Decreased Interactions
When a Twitter user directly engages with your brand in
the form of a mention, Retweet, follow, or favorite.
Individual Performance
Data showing an individual’s response rate and time to
messages on social over time.
Number of Click-Throughs
The total number of times a link was clicked in a Tweet.
Number of Impressions
The total number of times any user could have potentially
seen a brand's name or message.
Number of Incoming Messages
The total number of messages received in either the form
of a brand mention within a Tweet, or a direct message.
Number of Mentions
The total number of instances where a Twitter user that is
talking to you, or about you, mentions you in their tweet.
Number of Replies
Responses to messages you’ve published from other
Twitter users; done by including the user’s Twitter handle,
prefaced with an @ symbol.
Number of Retweets (RT)
The total number of times Twitter users shared your tweet
with their followers.
MARKETING TERMS
Number of Unfollows
The amount of Twitter users that unsubscribe from your
Tweets in a given amount of time.
Optimal Send Time
Days of the week (and times of day) your messages are
most seen by your audience; based on historical data.
Reach
The number of users who saw an impression of your
post in their timeline.
Response Rate
Percent of inbound messages you respond to that
warrant a response.
Response Time
The amount of time it takes your business to respond to
inbound messages.
Sent Messages
Outbound messages sent from a Twitter account, either
in the form of a Tweet or direct message; factors into
response rate calculation.
Team Performance
Average of all users’ performance data measuring
response rate and time.
Unique User
See Reach.
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MA XIMIZE YOUR TWITTER METRICS
Specific to Sprout Social

5. ENSURE OVERALL IMPACT
Now that we’ve dropped the dictionary and you’ve learned the lingo,
let’s talk about how to make these metrics work for your business. You
don’t have to keep track of every single data point at your disposal. In
fact, we suggest you focus on just a few that detail performance and
shed light on your overall businesses strategy.
We offer three simple steps to help you determine the metrics that will
make a difference for your business.
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6. 1 DETERMINE OBJECTIVES
Social media can’t live in a silo. In order for Twitter to have a
meaningful effect on your business, your purpose for being on
social media needs to roll up into your overall business
objectives. First, determine what business objectives you have
that can be complemented by Twitter. Here are a few questions
to consider as you map it out:
• How do my social goals support
greater business goals?
• Have the right stakeholders
contributed to setting objectives?
• What resources (human or tech)
do we need to flourish?
2 DEVELOP & ALIGN STRATEGIES
Now that you’ve determined overall business goals, focus on
the Twitter tactics that can support them and drive results. For
instance, if you’re overall business goal is to promote a new
product launch, you can find industry influencers to seed with
the product or create a hashtag campaign around the new
product. You can also use Twitter’s Lead Generation Card to
collect info about users who might be interested in your product
launch. A few questions to consider as you plan and implement:
• Are the social stategies and tactics
outlined attainable?
• What are the best days and times
to engage our brand’s audience?
• What content and tools do we
need to successfully manage our
strategy on a daily basis?
3 FOCUS ON METRICS
Alright, now it is time find those metrics that actually matter to
you. Based on your brand objectives and social strategy, you
can find metrics that will help you track progress, uncover holes
and basically give context to all the work you’re doing on
Twitter. On a broad scale, consider a few of these questions as
you analyze:
• What factors caused increases or
decreases in performance?
• Is our audience active and
engaged on an ongoing basis?
• What processes are in place to
test, learn and adjust as necessary?
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7. DETERMINE THE RIGHT METRICS
Here are a few overarching social objectives along with correlating metrics. You don’t need
to track them all, but let this be a jumping off point for your own Twitter measurement.
Brand Awareness & Visibility
Using Twitter to promote your business and gain
market traction is often a primary objective, common
for businesses of all sizes and industries.
SUGGESTED METRICS
• New Followers
• Retweets
• Mentions
• Hashtags
• Click to Site/CTA
• Direct Messages
Sales & Conversions
The influence of Twitter for driving sales, product
recommendations and encouraging potential
customers to convert (both online and offline!)
continues to rise.
SUGGESTED METRICS
• Click to Site (including Twitter’s conversation tracking)
• Engagement
• Sales Leads Generated
• Promotions
Customer Service & Care
The lines between various customer service
channels continues to blur and Twitter is quickly
becoming a primary channel for both reactive and
proactive social customer care.
SUGGESTED METRICS
• Response Time
• Response Rate
• Day/Time Trends
• Team & Individual Performance
Audience Growth
Increasing your Twitter community base through
smart, relevant and engaging conversations can be
beneficial to building your brand online and offline.
SUGGESTED METRICS
• Messages Sent
• Increase in Followers
• Mentions
• Retweets
• Impressions
• Reach
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8. ANALYZE PERFORMANCE
Compared to other forms of marketing and communications, not to
mention other business functions, it’s easy to adapt your social media
tactics on the fly. Your business is changing and evolving daily, and
there’s no need to feel locked in to a certain social strategy for months
and months. Analyzing your social performance regularly enables you to
find out what works and what doesn’t work which, ultimately, means you
can make smarter business decisions. In a small business setting, being
able to quickly pivot is always a plus.
Once you’ve aligned goals and determined which metrics are key for
your business, it’s time to start tracking. Don’t let the numbers or
seemingly massive amounts of data scare you—with proper preparation,
the right tools and a few “best practices,” you’ll get the biggest bang for
your buck when it comes to tackling Twitter.
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9. TIMING IS EVERYTHING, PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE
First and foremost, determine a length of time for your business to track social goals.
Setting these parameters will ensure you can actually track week over week, month over
month. Plus, it will give you a goal to work toward. If your brand is just getting started on
Twitter and doesn’t see a ton of engagement right off the bat, don’t fret—just start with a
longer range, such as monthly or quarterly. You’ll benefit from a more comprehensive view
of patterns and trends in your social engagement.
For instance, say you’ve just joined Twitter. Day 1, you gain five followers. Days 2 and 3, you
gain two followers, then on Day 4, ten new followers. Because the number of new followers
is being measured daily, the numbers are sporadic—completely normal for early-stage
Twitter followings. But bottom line, it’s not telling you a lot about what you’re doing right or
wrong. However, if you gain 20 new followers during your first week, 30 during your
second, and 40 during your third, this is a sign that your social strategy is working, since the
rate of new followers is steadily increasing every week.
FOCUS ON RATES RATHER THAN RAW NUMBERS
For a short time, social success was determined by the answer to one question: How many
followers do you have? You’ve only got one thousand followers, well...you’ve got work to
do. You’ve hit one million...hooray, you made it. When it comes to social media metrics,
know this: sheer volume should never trump ongoing value. In order to truly get it right on
Twitter, it’s best to focus on rates rather than raw numbers.
Just because you acquire new followers every week, it doesn’t necessarily mean your
social strategy is working. For instance, your number of followers might be increasing, but
the rate at which you’re acquiring those followers could be decreasing. Instead of focusing
on how many unique brand mentions or followers you’re gaining every week, measure the
rate at which you’re acquiring those followers.
Specific objectives and benchmarks will vary for each business, but set goals that will prime
your business to steadily increase (or at the very least maintain) growth rates over time;
whether that be the acquisition of new followers, increasing amounts of replies to your
Tweets, or any other goals that you’ve set for your brand.
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10. CONCENTRATE ON QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
Oftentimes, businesses that are new to social media are focused on gaining as many new
followers as possible, getting as many brand mentions as possible, and so on. Audience
volume growth is certainly important, especially in your business’ early days on Twitter.
However, as you grow your follower base random people that have no interest or stake in
your business will unfollow you sooner rather than later and provide no real business value.
Quality trumps quantity on social. If you earn 50 new followers that are brand advocates
and super engaged, those followers are likely more valuable than, say, 500 followers who
are not engaged and don’t care about what you have to say. Likewise, if you get 20 brand
mentions that are not relevant to your brand, those mentions are not nearly as valuable as
10 brand mentions that are positive and in favor of your business. Always keep your quality
controls on whether you’re just starting out or have a more advanced Twitter presence.
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11. 11
FINE TUNE YOUR ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
If momentum is slowing in terms of Twitter engagement, it might be time to rethink your
strategy. Sometimes it takes a few rounds of trial and error to figure out what’s working and
what’s not, especially when getting started and finding out what engages your audience.
While it may delay you for a while, replacing an underperforming strategy with a
new-and-improved one will not only foster your brand’s Twitter success in the long-run, but
also contribute to the success of your overarching business goals. Consider these
scenarios as a signal its time to revisit your strategy:
Followers aren’t engaging with content:
• Add calls-to-action to your Tweets. Instill a sense of
urgency, or provide an incentive, and your followers are
more likely to act.
• Vary your content. The same type of Tweets over and
over again is boring. Mix it up with original Tweets,
Retweets from users or other brands, and relevant,
third-party content.
• Utilize multimedia. Many consumers respond to visual
and interactive media from brands, so don’t
underestimate the value of adding a picture, GIF or
video every once in a while (don’t overdo it).
You aren’t acquiring new followers at a
steady or increasing rate:
• Strategically follow users who are likely to be
interested in your brand. Click on hashtags to
determine who’s talking about topics relevant to your
brand, or do a general keyword search.
• Look at profiles of industry leaders and identify who
they’re engaging with on social and start following
those users.
Twitter users are talking negatively about
your brand:
• Determine if you’re responding to negative Tweets in a
timely and professional manner. The longer you ignore
negative messages about your brand, the more prone a
user is to share complaints with their entire network.
• Look at what users are complaining about and try to
identify trends. Pinpoint the issue and address it, let
them know you’re working on a solution.
• Avoid dismissing a customer complaint, even though
you don’t agree with it. Show that you care about
unhappy customers and genuinely try to find a solution,
and it will go a long way with your audience.
MA XIMIZE YOUR TWITTER METRICS

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