“My business’ Twitter account has 500 followers”, says smug man one. “Well I’ve got 700”, replies smug man two, putting smug man one’s nose out of joint.
It’s a familiar scene and a conversation that now sits alongside car engine size, flatscreen TV width and annual holiday destination distance in the world of small-talk one-up-man-ship.
Even though people can get carried away with the number of people following them, the world of Twitter is most definitely not all about follower count. No matter what anyone says, bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.
You could have thousands of fans on Twitter, but if no one is remotely interested in what you are talking about the entire operation is pointless.
Which brings me onto free Twitter analytics program Twitalyzer. By visiting the site and simply typing in your Twitter name, Twitalyzer will scrutinise your account on the social network and give you a great insight into the health of your profile.
What stats does Twitalyzer provide, and what do they mean?
Twitalyzer provides loads of information for free, including the following stats:
- Impact A percentage, which is arrived at by looking at follower numbers, retweets, mentions and a few other figures
- Engagement Again a percentage, worked out by looking at the ratio of people referenced by a user compared to the number of people referencing them
- Signal An indication of the value a user brings to Twitter. Are they useful or just making noise?
- Referenced The amount of times an account was mentioned in the past seven days
- Potential reach The number of people who could potential see an update
- Effective reach A more realistic reach number, taking into account a user’s followers.
- Klout score A measure of the impact an account has in the Twittersphere
- Klout true reach An account’s engaged audience, as a number.
As with any tool (particularly a free one), the statistics shouldn’t be taken as gospel, but they do provide a really good indication as to how well your business profile is working on Twitter.
If you are trying to throw your net out wider and wider, the key numbers to take notice of include effective reach and Klout true reach.
If you only have a small follower count and are more concerned about the audience you already have, look at engagement numbers rather than reach, including your impact score.
The image here shows the results for the @yellbusiness Twitter account. How does your account stack up? If you find anything interesting, leave a comment below.
