Complete guide Twitter analytics

The Complete Guide to Twitter Analytics
How to analyze the metrics that matter

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION • 01
Defining the Statistics

DEFINITIONS • 05
Engagement
Retweets
Mentions and @Replies
Favorites
Hashtags
Potential Reach
Potential Impressions
Potential Reach versus Potential Impressions
Response Rate
Response Time
Interactions per Person

BASIC ANALYSES • 21
How to measure your account engagement
How to measure your audience
How to measured Share of Voice
How to measure visual content
How to time your Tweets

ADVANCED ANALYSES • 34
How to optimize for site traffic
How to measure customer service
How to measure campaigns
How to measure influence

TOOLS • 51
Example Reports

ABOUT SIMPLY MEASURED • 52

INTRODUCTION
Twitter is a green field for content marketers and social media managers.
With more than 241 million active users, 500 million Tweets, and 2.1 billion searches every day,
online marketers have an active and informed audience to engage with. But many ask questions
like: “What’s the best way to engage my followers? How often do I need to tweet or reply to
stay relevant? What’s the best way to leverage my brand’s Twitter account?” The answer lies in
a few key metrics that you should be using to gauge your performance, all accessible through
the Simply Measured Twitter Account Report.
In this definitive eBook, we’ll walk you through the different Twitter metrics which are measurable
through the Simply Measured Engagement Megaphone, and explain several specific ways to use
them to create actionable Twitter tactics. Finally, we’ll give you the tools to do the analysis and
reporting yourself.

3

Defining the Statistics
If you want to be able to effectively leverage Twitter actions, you must first understand what they
are, how they work, and the ways they’re calculated. In this section, we’ll outline the actions, or
the different ways that users interact with your brand. We’ll also give you insight into how they
affect your brand’s Twitter visibility.

Twitter Engagement Megaphone

What started it?

207

Tweets Sent by
@delta

How many unique
people engaged with
your Tweet?

How many times did
these people engage?

How many people
could have seen
these Tweets?

How many impressions
could have been
generated?

What happened?

1,337

18,750

28,793

53,493,020

127,884,074

Unique People

Total Engagement

Potential Reach


People that interacted
with you on Twitter

Organic mentions,
@Replies, Retweets
and Favorties

Combined followers of
people tweeting about
your brand (6/1/13 to
6/30/13

Potential times served in
all follower’s needs

bit.ly Clicks

1.5
Interactions Per Person

2,853
Avg. Followers Per
Person Engaging

12,741
Followers Added

2.4
Impressions Per
Person Reached

The graphic above is our Engagement Megaphone, which shows how content is amplified in
social media channels. It provides an analytic breakdown of your brand’s engagement on Twitter,
giving you an idea of how your Twitter efforts resulted in clicks or new followers. In fact, the
Engagement Megaphone is the entire reason you create content on Twitter. You can reach
massive audiences when your followers, influencers, and advocates engage, both spreading your
content and increasing brand awareness. Great content leads to engagement and amplification.
In turn, you increase your reach as more fans opt-in, which adds more fuel to the machine.
With our Engagement Megaphone, there are metrics for each step of the process. Brands can
use these to track and analyze their performance, and optimize and prove the value of social in
their marketing efforts.
The Engagement Megaphone gives you insight into how many unique people engaged with
your content and how many times they engaged through mentions, @replies, and retweets.
From this, we’re able to calculate the total possible users your content reached and how many
potential impressions it generated.
This calculation may seem complicated, so to help understand this better, we’ll break down and
define each component that plays an active role in your brand’s Twitter visibility.

4

DEFINITIONS
Engagement
In an industry that pairs web activity and bottom-line ROI with brand awareness and overall
market penetration, engagement can be one of the best ways to demonstrate success and
brand activity. It tells the story of who is talking to your brand, about your brand, and why. This is
why engagement is one of the most important Twitter metrics used today.

Engagement: @Replies + Retweets + Mentions + Favorites

What does engagement mean to you?
Engagement on Twitter accounts for every way followers can interact with your brand to make
it show up in their timeline. It incorporates one-on-one conversations as well as promotion to
their circles of influence. This interaction is what makes Twitter such a powerful tool. Brands of
all sizes have the ability to converse with users, respond to their questions, and promote their
message in real-time.
The followers with whom you’re engaging present several opportunities: they can act as
advocates for your company, provide feedback on products or services, purchase products, and
help you better understand your customers. Understanding how your brand engages users on
Twitter is the first step to learning, developing and growing your Twitter marketing campaigns.

5

How is engagement calculated?

Twitter Engagement Breakdown
3.5k

Mentions

@Replies

Retweets

Favorites

Total Engagement

3.0K
2.5K
2.0K
1.5K
1.0K
500

3
8/

26

/1

3
8/

25

/1

3
8/

24

/1

3
8/

23

/1

3
8/

22

/1

3
/1
21
8/

8/

20

/1

3

0

Engagement is the total of several components during the given report period:
@Replies: When a user talks directly to your brand on the Twitter timeline by using your
brand handle at the beginning of the Tweet. This will only show up in your feed and the
feeds of users who follow you both. Example: “@SimplyMeasured Your reports rock!”
Retweets: When a user directly shares your brand message with their audience.
Example: “RT @SimplyMeasured: We’ve made some great updates to our Twitter
Account Report. Check it out!”
Mentions: When a user includes your brand handle, but not as a direct @reply.
Example: “I really love that @SimplyMeasured charts are dynamic within Excel!”
Favorites: When a user stars a Tweet from your brand without having to retweet
or reply to the Tweet, or mention your brand.
Many businesses focus on retweets and mentions because they have reach, appearing in the
timelines of your followers’ followers, accessing a Twitter segment that may not be following your
brand. This is not to say that @replies or favorites, which don’t have reach, are not worth looking
at.. With thousands of Tweets being posted every second, examining which Tweets foster more
engagement will give you insight into the types of Tweets that have the most impact.

6

Retweets
Retweets are a great way for users to let their followers know
that they are actively engaging with your brand by republishing
your content. A retweet is a repost of a Tweet sent by another
user. These Tweets are marked with the retweet icon and
include the author’s information, and the name of the user who
retweeted the content. They are one of the most commonly used
tools on Twitter and can be very helpful in identifying web trends,
content that interests your readers or their followers, or Tweets
that have the capacity to go viral.

Retweets: A retweet is a repost of a Tweet sent by another
user, marked by the retweet icon.

Example:

7

Mentions and @Replies
The difference between mentions and @replies seems simple at first, but many business
Twitter accounts aren’t leveraging them properly. Mentions and @replies have very different
impacts for your brand, and both are extremely important when it comes to engagement metrics.
Understanding the difference between mentions and @replies will help you determine how to
best use both to your advantage - to help your brand’s Twitter account stand out from the crowd.

Mentions: A Tweet including your @handle at any
point other than the beginning.
Example: “I really love that @SimplyMeasured charts are dynamic within Excel!”
Mentions are when a user includes your brand handle, but doesn’t begin the Tweet with the
@handle. These Tweets show up in your stream, the user’s stream, and the stream of anyone
following the user. As we mentioned before, these Tweets have the potential to reach Twitter
users who may not be following you.

@Replies: Tweets that BEGIN with your @handle.

@Replies are when a user talks directly to your brand by using your brand handle at the
beginning of the Tweet in the Twitter timeline. This will only show up in your feed, the user’s
feed, and the feeds of users who follow you both.
Example: “@SimplyMeasured Your reports rock!”
An interesting side effect of the difference in visibility for @replies and mentions is the .@reply
(note the period before the @ sign). Twitter users use this method of engagement to overcome
the less public nature of @replies. If a user wants their followers to see their replies to your
brand, they will use an .@reply in place of a regular @reply. Because the Tweet starts with a
period, it’s not considered an @reply, and will show up in their timeline and the timelines of
anyone who follows them. In addition, because the Tweet starts with something other than your
brand’s Twitter handle, these types of replies count as a mention.
Example: “.@SimplyMeasured Your reports rock!”

8

What do Mentions and @Replies mean to you?
@Replies and mentions account for two-thirds of your engagement and demonstrate two very
different things. @Replies tell a story of users looking to engage in conversation with your
brand. Mentions are more of an endorsement of your brand.
The key difference between mentions and @replies is where they appear – who automatically
sees Tweets that use your brand handle. With mentions, your brand handle has the potential
to be seen by a much larger range of users than it would in an @reply, allowing you to reach
potential new followers. @Replies have a much smaller audience, but are important in building
a strategy to retain followers through mutual engagement. An .@reply will be seen by your
followers and your followers’ followers, and can help both gain and retain Twitter followers.
Focusing on the types of mentions and @replies, the number of each, and patterns for each
type can help you understand your audience and the relationship they have with your brand.
This is important in the type of messaging you put out, the way you interact with various users,
and the way you measure success.

3.5k

Mentions

@Replies

Retweets

Favorites

Total Engagement

3.0K
2.5K
2.0K
1.5K
1.0K
500

9

3
8/

26

/1

3
8/

25

/1

3
8/

24

/1

3
8/

23

/1

3
8/

22

/1

3
/1
21
8/

8/

20

/1

3

0

Favorites
Favoriting is becoming an increasingly popular way to engage on Twitter. In fact, favorites have
grown to represent a significant portion of the engagement mix on Twitter. Favorites are similar
to Likes on Facebook. With a single click, you can engage with content to either bookmark,
show your appreciation, or simply let the author know you’ve seen their Tweet. This has made
favoriting an attractive form of engagement.
Favorites are trending:
We measured engagement for some of the top automotive brands on Twitter and found that
favorites accounted for 8% of their total engagement.


3.5k

Total Engagement

3.0K

Mentions

@Replies

Retweets

Favorites

2.5K
2.0K
1.5K
1.0K
500

3
8/

26

/1

3
8/

25

/1

3
8/

24

/1

3
8/

23

/1

3
8/

22

/1

3
/1
21
8/

8/

20

/1

3

0

Many automotive brands received nearly as many favorites as replies. In fact, in just one week
@VW actually received 367 favorites, compared to only 276 replies.

4.5K

Twitter Engagement Details Comparison

4.0K

Mentions

@Replies

Retweets

Favorites

Total Engagement

3.5k
3.0K
2.5K
2.0K
1.5K
1.0K
500
0
@Honda

@Ford

@Toyota

@NissanUSA

@VW

It’s clear that favorites represent a significant volume of total engagement, and tracking them
ensures that brands are getting the complete picture of how users are choosing to engage with
their brand.

10

How Favorites are different:
Favorites are a preferred form of
engagement because they allow users
to engage without having to retweet
your content, provide feedback with
a reply, or mention your brand. Users
often want to engage without having
to voice their opinion or broadcast
something to their audience.
Favorites benefit the user and send a signal to the author; as such, they’re the only form of
Twitter engagement that doesn’t reach other users’ feeds..
The benefit for your brand:
If favorites aren’t often seen by others, why should you care?
Although favorites don’t create awareness the same way that retweets and mentions do, they
are still another important indicator for measuring how your content resonates with people.
If certain types of content are receiving more favorites than comments or retweets, you may
need to deliver your content in a way that encourages more users to retweet and share.

Percentage of Engagement by Content Type
60%

@Replies

Retweets

Favorites

50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Photos

Videos

Links

Normal Tweets

Measuring favorites will also give you a better understanding of your ability to engage your
audience. It’s inevitable that a portion of your audience will be more interested in consuming
content rather than engaging with it.
Favorites show a more complete picture of how users of how users are consuming your content
which can inform your decisions on how to best optimize your content on Twitter.

11

Hashtags
Another important method of engagement on Twitter is the use of hashtags – a form of earned
engagement as opposed to the owned engagement we outlined above. They are one of the
greatest tools social marketers have at their disposal. Yes, some marketers abuse the feature.
Yes, there’s a relatively steep learning curve and some confusion when it comes to using
hashtags as a tactic. But when it comes to campaign management, organization, and branding,
it’s hard to top the simple power of the hashtag.
Hashtags are terms used in Tweets (and now on Facebook and Instagram as well) that are
searchable, clickable, and measurable.

Hashtags: Clickable terms within Tweets that begin
with the “#” sign
What do Hashtags mean to you?
Hashtags should be a part of any Twitter strategy, because they allow marketers to engage with
users they otherwise wouldn’t be able to and to build branded campaigns of their own. You can
use hashtags to build easily monitored campaigns in a variety of ways:

Campaigns: When conducting a specific campaign, hashtags can be used to distinguish
engaged Tweets and users. They can be searched to see activity and interest, and branded
to promote your cause or company. For example, if Simply Measured wanted to promote a
giveaway of a t-shirt and some stickers, we could use the hashtag #SimplySwag and ask users
to tweet using the hashtag for a chance to win.

Increased Reach: Hashtags of specific topics are often searched and monitored by marketers
and users with specific interests. For example, if we tweet a link to our Twitter eBook with
the hashtags #SocialMedia and #Twitter, we increase the chance of reaching social media
marketers who are interested in learning more.

Chats: There are countless regular “Twitter Chats” out there that use specific hashtags to allow
users to organize the conversation. For example, if we wanted to host a regular conversation
about social media measurement, we might choose the hashtag #MeasureChat. This allows us
to promote a searchable term that allows users to view and interact with anyone getting involved
in the chat or conversation.

Discovery: When doing research, hashtags can be searched to discover interests, sentiment,
attitudes, and demographics of the users engaging with the hashtag.

Comparison: Different hashtags can be measured and compared to identify trends, growth, or
disparity. This is important for recurring campaigns and competitive analysis.

12

Potential Reach
Potential reach is an important metric for any social media marketer. On Twitter, we aren’t just
focused on engaging the people already following us, we’re trying to grow and expand our
audience. Potential reach is one of the best ways to tell if we’re doing that successfully.

Potential Reach: The sum of all users mentioning your brand + the
sum of their followers.

User A, who has 5 followers, posts a Tweet that mentions the @SimplyMeasured Twitter handle.
In this example, we’ll calculate the potential reach of this Tweet for Simply Measured.
User A • 3h

I love @SimplyMeasured
reports!

+ users mentioning your brand (@UserA) = 1
+ sum of their followers (@UserA) = 5

Potential Reach = 6

What’s the potential reach of @UserA’s Tweet if it’s retweeted by @UserB, who has 9 followers?
User A • 3h

reports!

User B • 1h

RT @UserA I love
@SimplyMeasured reports!

users mentioning your brand
=2
(@UserA + @UserB)
+ sum of their followers (@UserA) = 5
+ sum of their followers (@UserB) = 9

Potential Reach = 16

NOTE: Potential Reach will always include your brand followers since they are part of the
audience you are reaching on Twitter. When calculating the reach of just a mention (like in
the examples on this page), your followers are not being engaged so they are not part of the
reach calculation for that specific tweet. But when we calculate the overall reach of your Twitter
activity, your followers are added to the equation. If @SimplyMeasured has 20 followers, in
example one the total potential reach will be 26 and in example 2 it will be 36.

13

What does Potential Reach mean to you?
The potential reach metric allows you to quantify not only the users you engaged with, but
also the followers of those users who may have seen your @handle or Tweet. This is important
because the focus of social marketing is to expand your audience and promote your message
to a wider segment of the population.
The reach metric is a good indicator of the content that’s working to grow your audience and
ultimately “reach” new people. This is a true look at the audience you have the potential to
engage with.

Potential impressions have always been an important metric for advertisers. For traditional media
like newspaper, radio, and TV, it has been one of the only metrics available to gauge success.
Its relevance has stayed just as prominent throughout the advent of social media.

Potential Impression: The total number of times a Tweet from your
account or mentioning your account could appear in users’ Twitter
feeds during the report period. It includes your Tweets, Tweets that
mention your brand handle, and retweets of your content.
What does the Potential Impressions metric mean to you?
Potential impressions are an important part of measuring your brand impact. If content you’re
creating has a viral impact – for example Tweets that earn a large number of retweets and @
mentions - your potential impressions are the quickest way to identify that trend, allowing you to
focus your efforts on the content that is drawing the most attention.

Potential Impressions Analysis
Brand Tweets

800

User Tweets

Total Potential Impressions

18M

14M

Total Tweets

600

12M

500

10M

400

8M

300

6M

200

4M

100

2M

14

12
5/
6/

12
3/
6/

12
1/

2
/1
30
5/

6/

2
/1

2
/1

28
5/

2
26
5/

/1

2
24
5/

22

/1

2
5/

/1
20
5/

8/

12

2
51

16

/1

2
5/

14

/1

2
5/

12

/1

2
5/

/1
10
5/

8/

12

0

5/

5/

6/

12

0


16M

700

What makes Reach different from Potential Impressions?
Reach accounts for the possible number of people who may have seen your content, whereas
impressions calculates how many times the people you’ve reached have seen your content. If
you think of reach as how many screens your Twitter handle appears on, and impressions as
how often your Twitter handle appears, it’s easy to get an idea of how far you can potentially
spread your message and grow your brand.
How are your Potential Reach and Potential Impressions calculated?
Both potential reach and potential impressions are calculated based on mentions and @replies.
When it comes to mentions, there’s an overall consensus on how to calculate that portion of
potential reach and potential impressions based on the number of author’s followers:
Potential reach and potential impressions for @simplymeasured
Type

Author Followers

Potential Reach


Mention

10,700

10,700

10,700

Mention

10,700

10,700

10,700

TOTAL

10,700

21,400

User A • 3h

reports!

User A • 1h

Thanks @SimplyMeasured
you guys are the best!

The nature of @replies is that they show up only in the feeds of users who follow both handles
(the original author and the @reply author). Unfortunately, there’s no consensus on how to
calculate the potential reach and potential impressions for @replies; whether to assume no
overlap (the authors share no followers) or assume some percentage of overlap (the authors
share some of their audience).
Based on feedback collected from our customers, our analysts were able to develop three
different formulas for calculating this metric to accurately cover the widest spectrum of needs.
At Simply Measured, we’ve focused on the most “conservative” calculation for @replies as the
go-to model, because the majority of our research supports this method.

15

In this calculation one @reply results in one person reached. This will likely give you a lowerthan-actual reading, but makes a fair assumption that @replies won’t generate the full reach of
the author’s followers. @Replies are typically 1-to-1 interactions, where reach and impressions
aren’t as relevant.
Potential reach and potential impressions for @simplymeasured
Type

Author Followers

Potential Reach


@Reply

10,700

1

1

@Reply

10,700

1

1

TOTAL

1

2

User A • 3h

@SimplyMeasured your
reports are the best!

User A • 1h

@SimplyMeasured you
guys rock!

If you want to assume some amount of overlap in followers, Simply Measured’s Twitter Analytics
supports modified reach calculations at the push of a button. We can help you determine which
solution is best for your brand.
Knowing how to best calculate your potential reach and potential impressions will give you
insight into your virality statistics and brand exposure.
Imagine @UserA mentions the @SimplyMeasured
handle in 2 separate Tweets that reach his 5 followers...
User A • 1h

User A • 3h


...The @SimplyMeasured handle appears
twice on each of their news feeds.

Wow! @SimplyMeasured
your reports are amazing!
User A • 1h


User A • 1h

User A • 1h

User A • 1h

News Source • 2h

News Source • 2h

News Source • 2h

User A • 3h

User A • 3h

Weather tonight is cloudy
with a chance of rain

User A • 3h

News Source • 5h

News Source • 5h

News Source • 2h

News Source • 5h

User A • 1h

News Source • 2h

User A • 3h

User A • 3h

News Source • 5h

Wow! @SimplyMeasured
your reports are amazing!

User A • 1h

News Source • 2h

User A • 3h

News Source • 5h

News Source • 5h

Tune in tonight at 8pm for
the latest #worldnews

Number of Potential Reach x Number of Appearances = Potential Impressions
5 followers x 2 appearances = 10 Potential Impressions

16

Response Rate
Response rate is becoming more and more important to social media teams. On Twitter,
focusing on outbound promotion just doesn’t work anymore.
Customers reach out with issues, questions, and requests on a daily basis. It’s our job as social
marketers to act as first responders in these situations – answering questions, directing traffic,
and sometimes just saying no. Whatever your policies and tactics, measuring customer service
success boils down to a few specific metrics. Key among them is response rate.

Response Rate: Total # of Mentions Replied to
Total Mentions - Retweets

What does Response Rate mean to you?
Whether you’re a customer service rep, a community manager, or a marketing manager who
handles everything for a smaller company, Response rate can help you identify successes and
holes in your social strategy.
Maintaining company image can be as simple as keeping your engaged customers happy. This
means responding to the highest percentage of inbound @mentions and @replies.
How is your Response Rate calculated?

@fordservice Activity and Engagement
Tweet Sent

Retweets

Mentions Excl. RTs
400

150

300

100

200

50

100

1/

1/
1/ 13
2/
1/ 13
3/
1
1/ 3
4/
1/ 13
5/
1/ 13
6/
1
1/ 3
7/
1/ 13
8/
1/ 13
9
1/ /13
10
1/ /13
11
1/ /13
12
1/ /13
13
1/ /13
14
1/ /13
15
1/ /13
16
/
1/ 13
17
/1
1/
18 3
1/ /13
19
1/ /13
20
1/ /13
21
1/ /13
22
1/ /13
23
1/ /13
24
1/ /13
25
1/ /13
26
/
1/ 13
27
/1
1/
28 3
1/ /13
29
1/ /13
30
1/ /13
31
/1
3

0

17

0

Tweets Sent

Retweets & Mentions

200

Response rate is the number of inbound mentions of your brand handle that you’ve responded
to, divided by the sum total of all brand mentions (excluding retweets). This equation gives you
the percentage of inbound Tweets that you’ve responded to.
With Simply Measured, this can be calculated using both our Customer Service Report and our
Multiple Handle Customer Service report – designed specifically for brands with a dedicated
customer service handle.

Response Time
Customers reach out to brands constantly. Whether it’s a question, concern, or gratitude that
they are trying to convey. that they’re trying to convey, it’s our job to engage with them in a way
that shows our company cares. An industry standard for customer service success. Response
time, similar to response rate, is an important way to measure your social activity for both brand
engagement and the customer service.

Response Time:
Time of @Reply to inbound Tweet

Time of inbound Tweet

What does Response Time mean to you?
For many brands we’ve talked to response time is calculated in different ways. Direct messages
and replies to Tweets that didn’t mention the brand handle (through a hashtag campaign for
example) are just some of the factors that come into play.
This can be a frustrating number for many brands that often don’t staff a Twitter account
outside of normal business hours. A few dozen Tweets on a Friday that don’t see a response
until Monday drastically skew your average response time. A recommendation that we make to
Simply Measured users is to open the Excel version of the Simply Measured Customer Service
Report and look at individual Tweets. This allows social media managers to identify and remove
outliers, like the Friday evening mentions, to get a more realistic picture of their efforts.

18

How is your Response Time calculated?

Response Time: In Minutes
Avg Time Per Response

Minutes Per Response (Goal)

90

400

80
70

300

60
50

200

40
30

100

20
10
0
2
/3
/
11 12
/4
/
11 12
/5
/
11 12
/6
/
11 12
/7
/1
11
2
/8
/
11 12
/9
11 /1
/1 2
0
11 /1
/1 2
1
11 /1
/1 2
2
11 /1
/1 2
3
11 /1
/1 2
4
11 /1
/1 2
5
11 /1
/1 2
6
11 /1
/1 2
11 7/1
/1 2
8
11 /1
/1 2
9
11 /1
/2 2
0
11 /12
21
11 /1
/2 2
2
11 /1
/2 2
3
11 /1
/2 2
4
11 /1
/2 2
5
11 /1
/2 2
6
11 /1
/2 2
11 7/1
/2 2
8
11 /1
/2 2
9
11 /1
/3 2
0/
12

/1

11

/2

11

11

/1

/1

2

0

The simplest way to measure response time is by subtracting the time of the original inbound
Tweet from the time of your response. Take this difference in time from each of your responses
and average them for your average response time.
If the numbers don’t add up or don’t represent your effort the way you expected, open the Excel
file and identify the responses that are skewing your average. This can help you identify holes in
your strategy, ways to optimize your responses, or reinforce what you’re already doing.

There are many ways to measure the impact you have on your Twitter audience - whether
through engagement, clicks, or favorites. One metric you can use to sum up your audience
health is interactions per person.
What are Interactions Per Person?

Interactions Per Person: Total Interactions
Total Audience
What do Interactions Per Person mean to you?
This metric is great for understanding how involved your audience is as a whole. It’s one thing to
see a total number of retweets or @replies that you’ve earned through your social campaigns,
but understanding how that number stacks up to your audience size can give you a much
clearer idea of your social media success..

19

This metric is important in identifying the appropriate level of saturation and gauging whether
the amount of content you distribute to your audience is too little or too much. Study this metric
as you test your cadence to find the highest level of interaction per person, before it plateaus
(a sign of over-messaging). The goal is to find the sweet spot where multiple impressions are
making an impact and engaging your audience, without spamming them.
How to measure Interactions Per Person:

Twitter Engagement Megaphone

What started it?

207

Tweets Sent by
@delta

How many unique
people engaged with
your Tweet?

How many times did
these people engage?

How many people
could have seen
these Tweets?

How many impressions
could have been
generated?

What happened?

1,337

18,750

28,793

53,285,030

127,884,074

Unique People

Total Engagement

Potential Reach


with you on Twitter

with you on Twitter

Combined followers of
people tweeting about
your brand (6/1/13 to
6/30/13

Potential times served in
all follower’s needs

bit.ly Clicks

1.5

2,853
Avg. Followers Per
Person Engaging

12,741
Followers Added

2.4
Impressions Per
Person Reached

Interactions per person should be measured in context with your other KPIs. In the example
above, @delta has earned 28,793 mentions, @replies, retweets, and favorites. Since their
audience is 18,750 people, this equates to 1.5 interactions per person. It’s important to note
that this metric isn’t saying each of those 18,750 people engaged 1.5 times, but rather giving a
snapshot of how that total engagement relates to @delta’s audience size.

20

BASIC ANALYSES
Now that we’ve gone over all of the metrics definitions, we’re going to show you how to put
those metrics to work to analyze your Twitter campaigns and make better decisions. We’ll be
working out of our own software, but you can conduct the same analysis no matter which tool
you use to pull Twitter data.

Measuring Engagement
One of the most important goals for social media marketers on Twitter is increasing
engagement. Through simple interactions, engagement helps grow awareness of your brand
and helps increase traffic to your social profiles and your website. Remember, we defined
engagement as the sum of @replies, retweets, and mentions. These three Twitter actions
directly amplify your brand’s share of voice as your brand’s handle reaches the timelines of
users who may not be following your brand on Twitter for regular updates.
To measure your engagement look at your audience and how you retain followers. Is your
audience growing? Do these users follow you during promotions, but unfollow shortly
thereafter? What is the industry standard for number of followers and how do you stack up?
Now, look at how those followers and their circles respond to or share your content. Do you
have a surprisingly low number of retweets for the number of followers you have? Are there
certain times that are better for engagement? Have you recently published any Tweets that
have had success in regards to mentions or retweets?
We’ve provided a few different metrics you can use to benchmark your campaign performance
and assess your engagement strategy.

9 ways to measure Twitter audience beyond follower count
Follower count is an important metric for measuring the performance
of a growing audience on Twitter, but too often it’s the only audience
metric that marketers focus on. With each new follower gained, the
characteristics of your audience change.
Over time, substantial follower growth can result in very different type
of audience and just measuring change in follower count can only tell
you so much. There is more you can do to understand your Twitter
audience and find more effective ways to grow your audience.

21

1. Measure your followers’ followers
Your follower count is just the first step to understanding your potential to reach. The followers
of your followers are your secondary network. They determine how much potential there is for
sharing content downstream.

Users

Followers’ Follower Count Distribution
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

413

200
87

0-100

101-500

61

501-1,000

26

2,001-2,500

>2,500

Follower Count

2. Measure your competitors’ followers
Comparing competitor audience growth rates to your own growth will give perspective on how
effectively you’re growing your audience - letting you know whether you’re ahead of the game
or playing catch up.

Twitter Comparison: Total Followers
Total Followers
250K

0.5%

200K

0.6%

207.6K

0.5%

150K
100K

Growth Rate per Day

117.1K
72.8K

50K

0.3%

0.1%

0.4%

0.3%

51.8K

77.5K

0.3%
0.1%

0.1%

0

0.6%
@sap

22

0.2%

@ciscosystems

@oracle

@ibm

@accenture

3. Track engaged users who are not yet followers
Identify users mentioning your brand by name or retweeting your content who are not already
following you. These users may be unaware of your handle or are following your followers. Create a
connection with these users to encourage them to follow you directly.
4. Measure share of voice for online properties
Follow influencers who engage with your brand or your competitors. Monitor their Tweets for
opportunities to engage with them directly.
5. Segment your followers by location
Are your social goals tied to specific markets? Segmenting follower growth by location enables
you to measure your share of voice on Twitter with respect to regional markets.

Follower Distribution By US Metro Area
% of Followers

% of Population

Los Angeles, CA
Chicago, IL
New York, NY
Miami, FL
Atlanta, GA
Houston, TX
Boston, MA
Washington, DC
Las Vegas, NV
Detroit, MI
Dallas, TX
Portland, OR
San Antonio, TX
Tucson, AZ
Fresno, CA
0%

1%

2%

3%

4%

5%

6%

7%

8%

9%

6. Segment your followers by how they engage
Segment your followers by how they engage with your brand. Create “archetypes” for followers
who frequently retweet your content, and those who often mention you on Twitter. Social
archetypes for these users will help you better understand who your followers are and why
they engage with you on Twitter.
7. Compare your new followers to your old followers
Significant changes in follower count mean that you have more to learn about who your
followers are. Comparing new followers to your previous followers can help you determine
the value of new followers gained and whether you’re retaining old followers as you grow
your audience.

23

8. Measure engagement relative to your followers
Is your engagement scaling as your followers grow? Engagement as a percentage of followers
(engagement rate) shows how much of your audience you are able to engage. Change in
engagement rate can indicate the value of fans gained or lost.

Twitter Comparison: Total Engagement
Total Engagement
3.0K

2,562

Engagement % of Followers
4%

3.5%

4%

2.5K

2.8%

2.0K

1,601

1,575

3%
3%

1,433

1.5K

1,178

1.3%

1.0K

1.5%

2%
1%

0.8%

500

2%

1%

0

0%
@sap

@ciscosystems

@oracle

@ibm

@accenture

9. Know how active your followers are
How frequently your followers tweet indicates how active they are as users on Twitter. The more
active your followers are, the more likely they are to see and engage with your Tweets.

Followers by Date of Last Tweet
33%

35%
30%
25%

20%

18%

20%
15%

11%

10%

10%
5%

5%

2%

1%

24

r
>

1

Ye
a

Ye
ar
1
La
st

s
th
La

st
6

M

on
La

st
3

M

on

th

s

th
M
st
La

W
ee
2
st
La

on

ks

k
W
ee
st
La

La
st

24

H

ou

rs

0%

6 ways to measure Twitter share of voice beyond brand mentions
Share of voice is one of the most regularly used metrics for measuring social media performance,
but are you really getting the full picture? There’s more to it than just brand mentions.
There are ways to take share of voice a step beyond mentions to measure not just how much
share of voice your brand has, but how different types of conversation impact your brand relative
to your competitors.
With data from our own social media reports, we’ll look at different ways (besides brand
mentions) to measure how share of voice impacts brand perceptions, regional markets, site
traffic, and more.
1. Measure keyword share of voice
Measuring your brand’s share of voice against specific keywords provides context for how users
discuss your brand compared to your competitors.
Depending on the keywords being compared, you can gain insights related to specific product
categories or brand attributes. This data is particularly useful for measuring the performance of
initiatives aimed at building product awareness or shifting consumer perceptions of your brand.

Keyword Share of Voice Within Brand Mentions
@nissanusa

@kia

@honda

@toyota

ic
Ec

on

om

e
bl
lia
Re

st
Co

d
ee
Sp

y
fe
t
Sa

rid
yb
H

yle
St

SU
V

er
Po
w

Se

da
n

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

2. Segment share of voice by location
Share of voice by location can indicate which regional markets are most aware of and engaged
with your social brand presence. Regional share of voice data can be helpful for distributing
relevant content, planning location-based social media efforts, and measuring your brand’s
ability to increase awareness in specific markets.

25

3. Compare potential impressions and reach
Share of voice typically measures brand mentions as a percentage of total Tweets in order to
gauge the level of consumer awareness. However, share of voice as a percentage of mentions
doesn’t account for how many unique users are discussing your brand or how many followers
they have.
That’s why comparing potential impressions and reach are also important. Reach measures how
many users were potentially exposed to Tweets mentioning your brand. Impressions can tell you
how many times those users were exposed to mentions of your brand.

Twitter Comparison: Impressions and Reach
Potential Reach
Impressions and Reach

120M


103.3M

100M
80M

31.7M

17.7M

12.8M

20M

22.1M

4.8M

26.5M

3.9M

V
SU

Se

Po
w

da

er

n

0

yle

40M

St

60M

4. Measure share of voice for online properties
Segmenting Tweets that link to your website and the sites of your competitors can enable you
to measure the share of voice responsible for driving traffic to your website. The share of voice
for your online properties can serve as a performance indicator for how shareable your site
content is and how well social media accounts and marketing efforts have been integrated
with your site.

Distribution of Links to Brand Sites
All Links

@Nissan

@kia

@honda

@toyota

26

1
5/
4/ 3
20
1
5/
5/ 3
2
5/ 013
6/
20
5/ 13
7/
2
5/ 013
8/
2
5/ 013
9/
5/ 201
10
3
/
5/ 201
11
3
/
5/ 201
12
3
/
5/ 201
13
3
/
5/ 201
14
3
/
5/ 201
15
3
/
5/ 201
16
3
/2
5/ 01
17 3
/
5/ 201
18
3
/
5/ 201
19
3
/
5/ 201
20
3
/
5/ 201
21
3
/
5/ 201
22
3
/
5/ 201
23
3
/
5/ 201
24
3
/
5/ 201
25
3
/
5/ 201
26
3
/2
5/ 01
27 3
/
5/ 201
28
3
/
5/ 201
29
3
/2
01
3

13

20
3/

20
2/

5/

5/

5/

1/

20

13

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

5. Track hashtag adoption
Many brands have hashtags they routinely use to provide context for specific conversation
themes. Comparing share of voice for your brand’s primary hashtags with those of your
competitors can reveal how successfully your hashtags are being adopted and reflect your
brand’s ability to shape the way others discuss your brand.

CES Year/Year Twitter Comparison: Days 0-1
Tweets from 2013

Tweets from 2012

Tweets from 2011

9.0K
8.0K
7.0K
6.0K
5.0K
4.0K
3.0K
2.0K
1.0K

(

)

(

PM

PM

0
:0
10

PM

00
8:

PM

00
6:

00
4:

00

PM

PM

DAY 1

2:

AM

0

0

:0
12

AM

:0
10

AM

00
8:

AM

00
6:

AM

00
4:

00
2:

0

AM

PM
0

12

:0

PM

:0
10

PM

00
8:

PM

00
6:

4:

00

PM

PM

00

0

DAY 0

2:

AM
12

:0

AM

0
:0
10

AM

00
8:

AM

00
6:

AM

00
4:

00
2:

12

:0

0

AM

0

)

All Times PST

The above chart compares three consecutive years of Tweets using the Consumer Electronics
Show’s branded hashtags. When trended over the same amount of time, we’re able to identify
growth trends and determine the events that caused specific spikes and drops in activity.
Hashtags are easy to track using the Simply Measured Twitter Activity Report or Stream
Snapshot report and can be trended over time to measure volume and activity. This can be
important for researching opportunity, identifying successes, and measuring causes of peaks
and lulls in activity.
This technique can also be effective for measuring the share of voice driven by hashtags used
in TV advertising.

27

6. Identifying conversation overlap with competitors
The percentage of overlap in competitor conversations measures how frequently your brand
is mentioned in Tweets that also mention competitors. Conversation overlap can measure how
uniquely your brand is being discussed. A small degree of overlap can indicate brand loyalty or
unique product discussion, while a high degree of overlap signals frequent brand comparisons,
which are typically seen between highly competitive brands.

Overlap in Competitor Mentions vs. Share of Voice
@Nissan

Competitor Overlap

6%

38%

0%

10%

20%

@honda

@toyota

14%

34%

Share of Voice

28

@kia

21%

30%

40%

41%

16%

50%

60%

29%

70%

80%

90%

100%

How to measure visual content
“Pics or it didn’t happen.”
That’s the general rule when dealing with a friend who went fishing…or to Vegas. It might as
well be the motto for social media too. Visual content has become more and more impactful as
a way to reach potential customers, fans, and followers. But with so many options, services and
types of visual content, how can you tell which works the best?
Here are some quick ways to analyze your visual content and create a strategy based on past
success. All of this analysis can be done using Simply Measured reports.
Measure engagement by content type
The starting point for your Twitter content analysis should be the type of content: photos, videos,
or links. Measure the engagement as well as the number of Tweets you’ve sent for each content
type. This will give you a solid understanding of what you should be focusing on.

Brand Tweets by Content
Tweets Sent
72

Photos
Videos

25

Links

27

Normal Tweets

29

Engagement per Tweet
188.3

47.3
72.3
14.8

573

Measure engagement by media type
Next, identify which service helps your brand see the most success. If you’re posting videos you
may ask if Vine clips perform better than YouTube. For photos, are Instagram pics as successful
as Twitpics?

Media Types in Tweets
Engagement per Tweet

Potential Impressions Per Tweet

2.3M

2.1M
20.9

2.1M

1.8M

27.8

14.8

4.5

Vine

Instagram/Path

7

Posts

YouTube/Vimeo

4

Posts

81.4

2.1M

Other Photos

8

12

Posts

Posts

Other Links

30

Posts

Measure competitor success by content type
Finally, measure your engagement against your competition. Where are other businesses in
your industry finding success? If they’re seeing much higher engagement with photos, you can
perform a content analysis to find out what they’re doing with their photos that you might be
missing.
Type Comparison: Engagement on Brand Tweets (size of bubble = number of posts)
Links

Normal Tweets

MOST ENGAGING CONTENT TYPE
Photos
6 interactions [4.5% of interactions on all sent tweets]

MOST COMMONLY POSTED

s
el

ls

rh
co
@
ac

ho
ice

ot

te

r...
ie
ch
o

sid

nc
@

tc
o
@
hy
at

in
sp
g
@

eb

es

tw
e

st

er

...

...
ld
@
th

nw
or

ay
in

n
lto
@
hi

lid

zz
wo

st
ar
@

@

m

ar
ri

od

ot

bu

tin

in
nl
no
lto
hi

@
ho

tl

Normal tweets
780 tweets [74% of all sent tweets]

@

30

Videos

CONTENT TYPE PERFORMANCE

e

Engagement per post

Photos
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
-0.2
-0.2

BEST PERFORMANCE: @marriottintl
Photos
2 interactions [4.1% of interactions on all sent tweets]

6 types of analysis to time your Tweets
Do you know how timing impacts the performance of your Tweets? There is no universal
answer. The best times to tweet are unique to your brand audience and the type of content that
you deliver.
Because the lifespan of any given Tweet you send is limited, it’s important to determine when
your audience is most active to find the best times to share your content.
There are steps you can take to understand when to tweet and when to engage your followers
through different types of content.
1. Analyze your top Tweets
Analyzing your top Tweets can be a good starting point for identifying the best times to tweet.
Identify which times are most commonly associated with top performing content. Viewing your
top Tweets by time of day displays when your brand delivers its most successful content.

Top Performing Tweets
All Sent Tweets

Top Performing Tweets

Volume of Sent Tweets

16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2

PM

PM
11

PM
9

10

PM

PM

PM

PM
8

7

6

5

PM

PM

PM

PM
4

3

2

1

AM

AM

AM

AM

PM
12

11

10

9

8

AM

AM

AM

AM
7

6

5

4

AM

AM
3

2

1

AM

0

All Times EDT

2. Measure organic mentions
Measuring mentions of your brand, your handle, or hashtags, that are not retweets or replies
of your Tweets can help you identify peak times for organic engagement with your brand.
This approach gives you insight into user activity that isn’t biased by when your brand tweets.
Measuring organic mentions over an extended time period, and taking care to avoid events that
bias posting times, can reveal when users choose to engage with your brand.

31

3. Know your audience
Knowing where your audience is located can help you identify when they’re most likely to be
active online. Viewing a distribution of your audience by time zone can give you an idea of
when they’ll be starting their day, taking lunch breaks, etc. The more broadly your audience is
distributed, the larger window you have to post and the greater the need to tailor content that
appeals to regional audiences.

Followers Top Time Zones
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%

36%

13%

15%
10%
5%
0%

12%
8%

(GMT-05:00)
Eastern Time
(US & Canada)

(GMT-06:00)
Central Time
(US & Canada)

(GMT-08:00)
Pacific Time
(US & Canada)

(GMT-05:00)
Quito

5%

(GMT-04:00)
Atlantic Time
(Canada)

3%

3%

(GMT-10:00)
Hawaii

(GMT-07:00)
Mountain Time
(US & Canada)

2%

2%

1%

(GMT)
London

(GMT-07:00)
Arizona

(GMT+01:00)
Amsterdam

4. Segment content types by time of day
Segmenting engagement for key content types can help you determine when certain types of
content are more likely to drive engagement – during different times of the day and days of the
week. For example, you might find that posts with calls to action receive better response during
peak times, but that content designed to entertain followers successfully drives engagement
during weekends or off hours.

32

5. Monitor current engagement trends
Distributing engagement by day and time shows your current engagement trends. This is an
excellent way to determine which days and times are most effective for your brand to tweet.
Viewing this data over weeks or months, excluding engagement outliers and paid Tweets, and
making a point to experiment with when you post can help you avoid identifying peak times for
engagement that are biased.

Mentions and Brand Tweets by Day and Time
Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Brand Tweets

Mentions

1.6K
1.4K
1.2K
1.0K
800
600
400
200
0
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Time of Day

6. Compare competitor engagement
Comparing a distribution of your competitors’ engagement by day and time will also help ensure
that you don’t overlook opportune times to tweet. Examining the content strategies of your
competitors can clue you in to successful post times you may not have experimented with, or help
identify content types that drive engagement during times where you’ve had limited success.

33

ADVANCED ANALYSES
So you’ve got the basics down, but now you need to assess the ROI on your time spent
engaging Twitter followers and building brand awareness. It’s time to look at how your social
strategy impacts your overall bottom line by turning Twitter followers into paying customers.
At this stage, you’ll need to consider your social strategy’s effects on your web funnel – how
those Tweets drill down to measurable web actions like clicks or purchases. In addition, if your
brand uses a customer service account, you’ll want to find out how quickly issues are resolved
and where you can improve your social customer service strategy.
In this section, we’ll show you how to use Simply Measured reports to tailor your analyses to
your brand’s needs.

3 ways to optimize Tweets for website traffic
You’ve undoubtedly spent hours crafting Tweets for your brand, but once they hit the feed you
may wonder how to measure performance for posts designed to get users to your website?
We all know that linking from Twitter to our website provides valuable cross-channel
engagement, drives campaign objectives, and gets users to the point of purchase. Despite this,
it’s not always easy or obvious how to optimize Tweets for website traffic.
Let’s take a look at 3 measurement tactics you can use to start converting your Twitter
engagement to website traffic.

34

1. Combine Twitter activity and your site’s conversion funnel in Google Analytics
Tweets & Visits to Site
78
Link Mentions

2,581,260
Twitter Potential Impressions

1.19
Impressions per Person

2,167,743
Twitter Potential Reach

307
Visits to Site

0.01%
CTR

300

Tweets with Link

Visits

250

100

200

80

150

60

100

40

50

20

0

0

Total Visits from Twitter

0.02
Conversions per Visit

7

Goal Completions

120

Visits From Twitter

1,064
@ Mentions

3/
5/
13

98
Retweets

Tweets with Links to Site

6
Sent Tweets

2/
27
/1
3
2/
28
/1
3
3/
1/
13
3/
2/
13
3/
3/
13
3/
4/
13

Twitter Activity Funnel

Tweet Driving the Most Visits

Visits from Other Sources

Are you a data geek with a passion
for writing and social media? You don’t
want to miss this opportunity:
http://bit.ly/xshu6G/simplymeasured...

307

27,129

36 Visits +1050% than Avg

How do Tweets that resonate on Twitter funnel down to site visits and ultimately to conversions?
Pairing Twitter referral traffic with Tweets linking to your website provides a much more powerful
lens than looking at trended Twitter visits on their own. Combining Google Analytics with Twitter
data allows you to see not just how much referral traffic you’ve received, but how many Tweets it
took to drive those visits.
Measure how sent Tweets are amplified throughout your network, expanding potential
impressions and reach before funneling down to visits on your site. Since getting users to your
site is just the beginning, configure goal completions to measure actions visitors took after
reaching your site.
What you have now is the ability to attribute site visits, campaign submissions, and purchases
back to specific Tweets. You can see what content is responsible for helping your brand
complete specific goals using Twitter.

35

2. Analyze content and calls to action based on website metrics
The goal is to optimize content that draws users to your website. You optimize your content
calendar to meet engagement goals, so shouldn’t you also optimize for site visits?
Tweets that Drove Traffic

Size of bubble = Avg Time on Site (in seconds)

5

Are you a data geek with a passion for writing...

4

Yup. RT @KevinSaysThings: Attention tech-sa...
What’s your favorite Excel function? If you have...

2

59% of top brands are using instagram. Is yours...

1

Retweets

3

You guys, we’re hiring a content manager!

0
-1

Pretty much. RT @KevinSaysThings: Attention...
0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Visits

Dive into the top Tweets to see what’s working. These are the Tweets linking to your site and
the top content responsible for visits from Twitter. Analyze which audiences were targeted and
what was included in Tweets that motivated users to click through to your site. Determine which
calls to action work best.
As you seek to take a holistic approach to your digital brand presence, start incorporating
existing practices for mobile, search, and display into social. When driving users to your site,
choose your keywords and calls to action carefully. Expanding these practices to incentivize site
traffic will improve your outreach tactics moving forward.

36

3. Discover website influencers
Who is driving traffic to your website? Identify which users link to your site and why.

Top People Sharing Links to Your Site



By Number of Tweets

By Number of Visits

By Visits per Tweet

facetweet1388
seo1302
hoot1388
simplymeasured
Cygfred
TwitLimericks
pigebak
marramalho
kmmpatke
KevinSaysThings
ninoscam
gabejoynt
dacort
tabithagold
resourcewater

26
24
13
6
5
5
5
4
4
4
4
4
4
3

simplymeasured
KevinSaysThings
otis
dacort
ElvisMoyaTTU
owenblacker
dixxieland
AndyLloydGordon
jakeludington
5ense
KatHolmlund
zdeluca
adamshostack
_vio_
paulabraconnot

73
14
12
6
5
5
5
4
4
3
3
3
3
3

simplymeasured
otis
ElvisMoyaTTU
owenblacker
dixxieland
AndyLlyodGordon
jakeludington
KevinSaysThings
5ense
zdeluca
adamshostack
paulabraconnot
danbrookman
mattisranting
JuritaKruma

12
12
5
5
5
4
4
4
3
3
3
3
3
2

Understand where your traffic is coming from; segment earned versus owned visits. Are your
own Tweets the primary driver for traffic to your site, or are others directing traffic for you? Your
focus should be to create more engagement with your Tweets, encouraging others to contribute
more content that links to your site.
Explore user profiles that are successful at driving traffic, especially those that frequently share
out Tweets linking to your site. Users who engage their audiences with Tweets to your site likely
have audiences with particular interest in your brand. Discover what content resonates with
these audiences, whether it’s products, promotions, or industry thought leadership.

37

4 ways to improve customer service measurement on Twitter
In a recent study, we found that 34% of top brands now have a dedicated Twitter account for
customer service. While Twitter programs are typically owned by the marketing/PR department,
customer service is a key secondary activity. Many brands are investing efforts in solving
customer problems via Twitter. The challenge is that when efforts are shifted from marketing
to customer satisfaction, measurement strategies must also change to effectively evaluate
performance.
It is important that brands establish a customer service specific approach to measurement. We’ve
outlined four strategies to help your brand do just that, using Delta Airlines as an example.
1. Measure end-to-end performance
Brands need to ensure that they are measuring success throughout the entire process.

Twitter Customer Service Workflow
How many times was
our brand mentioned
across profiles?

How many times did
our CS Account send
a reply?

How many unique
people did CS talk
with?

How many high volume
issues were addressed?
(4 or more responses)

28,334

4,104

2,263

92

Total Mentions

CS Responses

Unique People

Complex Cases

91%

14.5 %

2,343

1.54

Percent of all responses
were from CS.

Percent of Total Mentions
with CS Responses.

Avg. Followers Per
Person Engaging.

Avg. Number of CS
responses per user.

18.7 mins.
Average Response Time

Sunday
Most active Day of Week

11:00 AM
Most Active Time of Day

Work flow and processes should be analyzed end-to-end – from customer demand to how
efficiently issues were resolved.
The visual above is a high-level summary that walks through the customer support process. This
summary view provides a period snapshot that can be used for benchmarking customer service
KPIs and optimizing overall performance.
Quick response times and a high response rate are key to optimizing performance, but there
is room for improvement if brands are experiencing a high volume of complex cases, or
unexpected changes in the percentage of support responses being sent.

38

2. Capture complete coverage
Often a brand’s Twitter presence consists of more than one branded Twitter handle. For
example, a brand might have a primary marketing handle and a dedicated customer service
handle. For big brands, multiple marketing handles might rely on one dedicated customer
service account.

Coverage by Account
Total Mentions

Total Replies from @DeltaAssist

25k
19.6k

20k
15k

14.5k

10k
5k

3,176

928

0

@DeltaAssist

@Delta

Regardless of how a brand is managing customer service, it is important to measure all of its
efforts. The chart above displays total mentions for Delta’s primary marketing handle, @delta,
and its customer support handle, @DeltaAssist.
By measuring customer service activity across multiple accounts, brands can determine how
support resources are being allocated and measure customer response times specific to
each account.
The 14.5K mentions of @DeltaAssist indicate that Delta customers are directing replies to the
dedicated customer service handle and shows that many customer support issues are making it
to their intended destination.

39

3. Shift context: focus on core customer service KPIs
Measuring customer service performance on Twitter requires a different set of KPIs from
those associated with marketing performance. Follower and engagement growth are standard
marketing KPIs. However, support handles should view these metrics as potential red flags
rather than account management success.
When it comes to customer support, the goal is to respond to and resolve as many customer
service issues as possible, as quickly as possible. The KPIs that matter most are Response Rate
and Response Time.

% of Mentions With @DeltaAssist Replies
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%

12

12

9/

0/

/2

/3

11

2

12

8/

/2

11

12

7/
1

/2

11

11

12
/2

6/

12

5/

/2

11

11

12
/2

4/

12

3/

/2

11

11

12
/2

2/

12

1/

/2

11

11

12

0/

9/

/2

/1

11

2

12

8/

/1

11

11

12

7/
1

/1

12

6/

/1

11

11

12
/1

5/

12

4/

/1

11

11

12
11

/1

3/

12

2/

1/

/1

/1

11

2

12

0/

/1

11

2

/1
/9

11

2

/1

/8

11

11

2

/7
/1

2

/1

11

/1

/6

/5

11

2

12

/4
/

11

2

/1
/3

11

/1
11

/1
/1

11

11

/2

2

0%

The chart above shows the percentage of total mentions that @DeltaAssist responded to in
November. Keep in mind that not all brand mentions are customer-service related, and of those
that are, not all warrant a response. The nature of customer engagement on Twitter varies for
each brand.
Brands should identify a target response rate and set goals for improvement by conducting
ongoing monitoring and competitor benchmarking.

40

Once a consistent response rate has been established, it can act as a good indicator of whether
a brand has the resource to scale customer service to meet increases in customer demand.

% of Mentions With @DeltaAssist Replies
Avg. Time per Response

90

Minutes per Response (Goal)

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10

12

12

0/

9/

/2

/3

11

2

12

8/

/2

11

12

7/
1

/2

11

11

12
/2

6/

12

5/

/2

11

12

4/

/2

11

11

12
/2

3/

12

2/

/2

11

11

12
11

/2

1/

12

0/

9/

/2

/1

11

2

12

8/
11

11

/1

7/
1

12
11

/1

12
/1

6/

12

5/

/1

11

11

12
/1

4/

12

3/

/1

11

11

12

2/

1/

/1

/1

11

2

12

0/

/1

11

2

/1
11

/1

/9

/8

11

2

2

/7
/1

11

11

2

/1

/1

/6

/5

11

11

2

12

/4
/

2

/1
/3

11

11

/1

/1
/1

11

11

/2

2

0

Goals for response time must also be established through monitoring and benchmarking. Above,
@DeltaAssist’s daily average response time is displayed for November.
Response time measures a brand’s ability to respond quickly and is also an indicator as to
whether it can quickly meet increases in demand.
However, response time isn’t a standalone metric. Response time can falsely signal success if
brands are simply responding quickly to recent issues and ignoring aging issues.
Response Time and Response Rate must be measured in tandem when analyzing overall
customer service performance.

41

4. Identify ongoing trends
Aggregated data can be very useful for identifying ongoing customer service trends.

Twitter Account Activity By Hour
Business Hours

Response Time

User Mentions

@DeltaAssist Replies
50

Influencer Tweet

4.5K

45

0

10

:0

0

PM
00
8:

00
6:

4:

00

PM
00
2:

0
:0
12

10

:0

0

AM
00
8:

00
6:

4:

00

AM
00
2:

0
:0
12

PM

5

0
PM

10

PM

15

1.0K

PM

20

1.5K

AM

25

2.0K

AM

30

2.5K

AM

35

3.0K

AM

40

3.5K

500

Mentions & Replies

4.0K

Response Time (In Hours)

5.0K

The chart above displays @DeltaAssist’s account activity by hour in November. This trended
view makes it possible to quickly identify whether customer service response scaled with brand
mentions. It also clearly shows patterns in response time.
The 6:00PM spike in user mentions deserves attention. Replies did not scale with the increased
mentions, although response time was improved.
Mentions peaked at 6:00PM after an angry customer Tweet was heavily retweeted. Improved
response time indicates that @DeltaAssist was quickly engaging where it could, but likely
avoided mentions it did not think were worth responding to.
Identifying trends that capture complete coverage and focus on core customer service KPIs can
be very useful for spotting issues and making decisions regarding resource allocation.

42

How to tell if your Twitter campaign actually worked
You’ve spent countless hours preparing, strategizing, and planning for your Twitter campaign.
You put your plan into action, worked overtime making sure it was executed properly…and now
you’re pretty sure it went well. But in an industry that focuses on measurable goals through
specific metrics, pretty sure isn’t good enough anymore
You’re going to want to know if your efforts were worth it. Did your campaign result in an
increase in customers, better brand awareness, or more engaged users? These are important
questions in determining whether your efforts were worth repeating.
It’s important to conduct a “post-mortem analysis” to determine what you did wrong, what you
did right, and what you can do next time to improve.
As you dig into your Twitter analytics to unearth these insights, there are several key metrics
that can help you better understand your campaign and how well it worked.

Follower growth

Total Account Followers
Total Followers

6.0K

232K
230K
228K
226K
224K
222K
220K
218K
216K
214K

Followers Added

5.0K
4.0K
3.0K
2.0K
1.0K

13
4/
7/
2

13
3/
7/
2

13
2/
7/
2

13
1/
7/
2

13
0/
7/
2

13
9/
7/
1

8/
7/
1

7/
1

7/
1

3

13

0

Followers

Followers Added

The easiest way to tell if your campaign had a meaningful impact is to look at follower growth
and how it correlated with your campaign timeline. Did spikes in follower growth line up with
key messaging from your campaign? Did influencer involvement drive a significant increase in
new followers? There’s a lot of information that can be gleaned from follower trends, including
something we call “campaign lift.” Was there a sustained increase in your follower growth rate after
the campaign was over? Be sure to take that into consideration. If you saw a massive peak in fans
and then a quick return to normal, you may need to reevaluate some of your campaign tactics.

43

Engagement

Brand Tweets and Engagement
Brand Tweets

Total Engagement

45

300

40

Brand Tweets

30

200

25

150

20
15

100

10

Total Engagement

250

35

50

5

13
1/

13
7/
3

9/

13

7/
2

13
5/

72
71
/

13
7/
2

3/

13
7/
2

1/

13
7/
2

3

9/
7/
1

7/
1

13

7/
1

5/

13
7/
1

3/

13
1/

7/
1

/1

3

3

3
7/
1

7/
9

7/
7/
1

/1
7/
5

/1
7/
3

/1
7/
1

3

0
3

0

While follower growth can give you some great insight and set a barometer for your
campaign health, one of your main goals was most likely to get followers involved. Examine
the engagement trends surrounding your campaign – both before and after – to determine
your campaign lift for engagement. Set a wide sample set with at least twice the time of your
campaign period to use as a benchmark for standard engagement. If users didn’t respond to
your messaging, you need to understand why. What can you do better? If they did respond
positively, you can analyze key points from your outbound content that kept them involved.

44

Web traffic

Twitter Activity Funnel
73

95

882

38

Sent Tweets

Retweets

@ Mentions

Link Mentions

2,575,528
Twitter Potential Impressions

1.18
Impressions per Person

2,185,125
Twitter Potential Reach

62
Visits to Site

0.07
Conversions per Visit

0.12%
CTR

12

Goal Completions

This is our favorite feature of Simply Measured’s Twitter Analytics suite. With the Twitter Traffic
Report, you can tie your Twitter data in with your Google Analytics data to see how your brand
efforts during your campaign translated to actual website visits and even which goals (from
your Google Analytics goal set) were completed. This is the most concrete way to tell if your
campaign worked. If you can determine the actual site traffic driven from your efforts and, in
turn, the goal completions driven by your Twitter activity, you can determine a base-level ROI
of your Twitter campaign. While it may not reflect residual brand awareness and later referral
traffic, it can set the tone for future campaigns.

45

Influence

Most Engaged Users
billxaruto
RaulElcheVettel
moreira_osman
DamienSeuzaret
stinglove002319
PierrickLM
lirrycupcake
Myll_Erik
Rhino_219
RedBullBOS
SmalexTheSkater
AllejanDR0oo
redbullw1ngs
VulgarDaClown
Gabearchambault

Most Followed Users
54

40
33
31
29
28
27
26
25
23
22
22
22
21
20

RyanSheckler
MaciBookoutMTV
BigBoi
John_Wall
GameOfThrones
JonahLupton
GoPro
marinapajon
DefJamRecords
brentnhunter
XGames
abc_es
redbullracing
AntonioMartez
BrooklynNets

Top Users by Klout Score
2.4M

1.2M
748.4K
726.9K
650.4K
546.8K
544.6K
530.1K
393.1K
369.5K
317.2K
299.5K
253.7K
242.6K
242.5K

DefJamRecords
SPIEGELONLINE
GameOfThrones
exclaimdotca
Applebees
BrooklynNets
XGames
pizzahut
BigBoi
Jason
redbullracing
Dolby
KeystoneMtn
AtlanticStation
SnowboardMag

89
89
88
88
88
88
87
87
86
86
86
85
84
84
83

When running any kind of campaign, your goal isn’t to simply reach people – it’s reaching the
right people. With Twitter, you can easily see whether or not you did. How influential was the
audience you engaged? Not only can this be valuable insight for your campaign’s success, it can
give you targeted goals and opportunities for future ones.

46

Impressions & Reach

Impressions vs. Reach
Total Impressions

Total Reach

500K
450K
400K
350K
300K
250K
200K
150K
100K
50K

3

5/

30

/1

3

3
/1

5/

27
/1

3
/1
5/

24

3
/1
5/

21

3
18
5/

/1
15

5/

/1

3

13
9/

12
5/

13
6/

5/

13

5/

3

3/

/1
30

4/

5/

3

3
/1

4/

27
/1

3
/1
4/

24

3
21
4/

/1

3
18
4/

/1
15

4/

/1

3

13
9/

12
4/

13
6/

4/

3/
4/

4/

13

O

The two metrics that tie in the audience of your followers – impressions and reach – can be a
great way to tell if you were successful. Benchmark against standard impressions and reach,
discover the key reasons for increases during your campaign, and set the tone for future activity.

47

7 ways to measure influence on Twitter
Twitter is a goldmine for social marketers. The audience is there, the conversation is rich, and
the power players are actively engaging.
What do we mean by power players?
That depends on a lot of different factors: Your product, your goals, your engagement strategy, etc.
But it boils down to one key factor that we often ignore: Influencers.
Let’s take a look at some of the different ways you can measure influence on Twitter.
Measure your most engaged followers
Which users are interacting with your brand regularly? These are your brand ambassadors.
They’re promoting and engaging with your content in ways that no one else is. It’s important to
focus on the types of Tweets that engage them. There’s a lot to be learned there.
Look at which types of activity engage your most active users, and utilize them to drive an even
larger audience for your brand.

Most Engaged Users
JetBlueNews
LFANTBRAND
Runway1R
Yaerospace
SteveMAbrams
WanderingAramean
Mdholidayz
yankees368
VivaJazzOrlando
LonesTarLou
tvladeck
autiglobetrot
htctest02
JeanetteJoy
DaniQT314

48

151
53
30
28
28
26
25
23
21
20
18
17
16
16
16

Identify your most followed followers
Which of the users that you’ve engaged have large audiences? What did you do to get them
involved with your Tweet?
These users have the potential to influence large audiences beyond your own. By identifying
them, you can foster that relationship and increase the types of content that they’re interested in.
If these influencers are engaging with different content from the rest of your audience, it’s
important to identify what separates them from the rest of the pack.
Most Followed Users
GMA
TheSamSlater
HarvardBiz
Jillzarin
FortuneMagazine
AmericanAir
McHypeMedia
TheRealRaye
MILKTYSON
CNTraveler
theoverheadwire
chrisborgan
DanKimRedMango
kanygarcia
fodorstravel

1.8M
961.9K
732.6K
547.6K
542.4K
375.6K
374.1K
292.6K
226.3K
224.7K
217.8K
210.1K
206.7K
179.6K
170.2K

Analyze the visits driven by users
Top 10 Users Driving Visits to Your Site

Size of bubble = # of Tweets
simplymeasured

1.2K

rsarver

1.0K

randfish

800

bahoo

600

MissBerry206

400

BessemerVP

200

Visits

1.4K

KevinSaysThings

0

0

50K

100K

150K

200K

Followers

250K

300K

350K

jaybaer

Audience Stats

2,020
39
1.24

Avg. # of Followers
Avg. Klout Score
Avg. Tweets per Person

Traffic Stats - Top Users by Visits
1,633

By Top 10 Influencers

1,357

All Other Users

KristinEIDE

Influence is more than just the number of times people reply to your Tweets. If your primary job
is to engage potential customers on Twitter, there’s a good chance you have some bottom-line
goals to meet. By tying Google Analytics into your Twitter reporting, we’re able to break down
the individual Twitter users driving site traffic for your brand.

49

Break down the people Tweeting links
Just like you want to identify the people amplifying your Tweets, you want to know who is
amplifying your website content.
By identifying users sharing the most links to your site, you can create engagement campaigns
to thank them for acting as ambassadors, create content geared towards them and their
audience, and focus your efforts on earning their continued involvement.
By Number of Tweets
ptnovaodessa
IfUSeekLeo
McBoessio
pt_novaodessa
Bjorn_ds
isqais20
AlbionKryeziu
nodessa
elgrodo
Joe2596
tipsJP
_justpp
liesatrosewood
PigglyBigglyBoy
earthtoalliee

13
10
6
5
5
4
4
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3

Measure the Tweets driving the most visits
Identifying the users who have the greatest reach with the least effort is a crucial step in the
influencer relations process.
If a user has an audience so engaged that they can Tweet a link to your site once and get a
huge response, you’ll want to focus on increasing the amount of content they’re willing to share.
By identifying the top visits-per-Tweet, you can identify these users and engage them further.
By Visits per Tweet
i999y
_CallMeJohn
start_write
DonaBibes
carofjx
Far0s
hollyabingd0n
CasperDeWinter
bellaale
thijsvdvaart
ItsMeKillian
Feadare
prezlinator
mickhinds
REVEALERblog

50

26
20
20
17
16
16
16
14
14
12
12
11
12
11
10

TOOLS
Example reports
Understand the performance of your brand’s Twitter account.
Answer questions about Twitter Account performance and engagement, as well as followers,
sent Tweets, retweets, mentions and engagement trends. Dig into the most effective Tweets and
the impact they’ve had on your account and your audience.
Twitter Account Report (JetBlue)
Twitter Follower Report (StarwoodBuzz)
Twitter Audience Analysis (Tide)
Multiple Twitter Channel Analysis (IPG Agencies)
Vine Tweet Analysis (chrisbrogan)
Benchmark your brand’s performance against competitors
Analyze the audience, content and engagement trends of any Twitter account, allowing you to
understand your competitive position, relative performance, and market share compared to your
competitors.
Twitter Competitive Analysis (Hotel Chains)
Measure your customer service efforts on Twitter
Dive into individual user Tweets, track response rates and times, and analyze a dedicated
customer service handle in relation to your main brand account to understand your customer
service effectiveness.
Twitter Customer Service Report (Ford)
Multiple Twitter Customer Service Report (Ford)
Compare your efforts on Twitter against those on other social networks
Measure your efforts on Twitter in context with Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, Google+, and
more. Compare audience size & growth, as well as post engagement across all major networks.
Complete Social Media Snapshot (RedBull)

51

ABOUT SIMPLY MEASURED
Simply Measured is a fast-growing team of data geeks dedicated to making
the world of analytics and reporting a better, more beautiful place.
Our goal is to put the tools to understand business data in the hands
of business users. We think reporting should be simple, beautiful, and
accessible for everyone – not just data scientists. Our software streamlines
the process from data to deliverables and eliminates the countless hours
spent on everyday reporting tasks. We do this by putting cloud data sources
at your fingertips, providing a marketplace of best practice reports, and
generating beautiful deliverables on the web, in Excel, and in PowerPoint
with a couple of clicks.

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