I’m guessing if you are reading this is because you use or want to use Twitter for more than just pure fun. Maybe you even have an objective in mind. Maybe you are trying to convert followers into prospects for your product or service or you are trying to increase traffic to your website or blog.
Whatever those objectives are, having the right tools handy is always important. Think of a traditional marketing campaign, big or small, there are tools that help you measure your performance, compare with the competition, manage your cost, track your conversion rate and many more that will allow you to adjust your strategy and go after the right prospect. Social media is no different, but I’m sure at some point you have felt that Twitter doesn’t provide you with those tools.
The good news is that there are applications out there that you can use to get some visibility on how you are doing and help you get in front of the right public. So I made a list of 10 websites to help you track, perform better and hopefully leverage from Twitter.
1. TwitterCounter
TwitterCounter shows you stats based on your growth, it obviously counts your followers and following over a period of time but it also gives you a couple of cool digits like a projection of what your following base will be in a specific time, your ranking and your average daily growth. It also offers a paid service if you manage multiple accounts and need to compare to each other. Pretty cool and simple.
2. SocialMention
Another destination with some cool data to take in consideration. SocialMention, which gathers data from all social sites and not just Twitter, analyzes positive versus negative mentions, your reach with unique authors, top keywords, users, hashtags and resources on those mentions.
3. Klout
One of my favorites. Klout measures Twitter influence. It tells you if you are a Persona, a Connector, Climber or Casual. It gives you a score from 1 to 100 based on influence and it analyzes reach, demand, engagement, velocity and activity. The other very cool feature is that you can search for a topic and it will show you who the biggest influencers are so you can learn from them.
4. Twitter Grader
Very simple, TwitterGrader gives you a grade based on the number of followers, power of those followers, updates, follower/following ratio and engagement. It also provides you with a ranking. HubSpot has also launched the FacebookGrader, but that’s a whole different conversation…
5. Monitter
What if you had the power to know what people are talking about on specific topics, let’s say… your industry or a product you sell. Better yet, what if you had a dashboard in front of you that let’s you track these conversations so you would know what step to take next, in real-time! That is exactly what Monitter does.
6. Xefer
Xefer creates a graph of your tweets by day and times in relationship with the replies you get. It is a good method to visualize the quality of your tweets.
7. HootSuite
I think I mentioned enough features on my post “10 Reasons Why I Use HootSuite… And You Should Too” but in this case, I want to point out the stats. As long as you use the Ow.ly URL shortener, HootSuite tracks all your clicks and it also displays the most popular ones. If you have a blog, this is a good tool to see what content had good responses so you can follow that trend.
8. GraphEdge
GraphEdge is not free but is very affordable depending on the number of followers you have. This is another tool that presents some pretty cool data to analyze. Some of this data includes your legitimate followers and the percentage in relationship to your total followers, your followers’ most relevant friends, which I think will be the next person you need to follow and it also shows your churn rate.
9. Bit.ly
Bit.ly is more than a URL shortener. What I like about it is the simple way of displaying data related to one specific link. It includes the clicks, the reactions on different websites including Facebook and all the conversation generated around it.
10. Tweepi
Tweepi helps you manage your followers/following by sorting information by different criteria. It helps you “flush” the people that you are following but are not following you back and keep a good ratio. At the same time, it helps you increase your following in bulk, but it is not your typical mass-following application. It is free at the moment but I expect that to change soon.
Final Thought
I’m not suggesting that you become a Twitter analytic junkie but looking at some stats from time to time can give you the answers you need to perform better. As I always say, tools are only tools. The main thing is that you have a clear objective of what you want and they help you accomplish that.
Are you using other tools? Share them in the comments…
Icon Credit: Kailoon
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