How many people saw my tweet? How many clicks did my link get?

As a Twitter user, you have access to a whole world of analytics you might not know about. In 2014, Twitter rolled out an in-built analytics dashboard for all users – whether you’re running a business account or a just tweeting in a personal capacity. To access it, all you need to do is visit analytics.twitter.com while logged in to your account.

A quick summary

When you visit the analytics dashboard, the first page you’ll see a a quick insights snapshot from the past 28 days and how your page is performing compared with the previous 28 days.

Keywords you’ll need to know:

Tweet impressions: The total number of times your tweets were seen on Twitter.

Profile visits: The number of times your profile was actively visited by other Twitter users.

Mentions: The total number of times your handle (e.g @UniOfSurrey) was used in tweets.

Followers: Users who have actively decided to follow your account and receive your tweets in their timeline. Remember, just because someone follows you doesn’t mean that your tweet will be automatically seen by them – It’ll depend on numerous factors such as whether your tweets were sent at a time of day they’re likely to be online.

Beneath this top-line information, you’ll be able to see information about your top tweets from the past few months, top followers and top tweets you were mentioned in.

Specific tweet analytics 

However, this isn’t all the information you can access – you can dig a little deeper. Visit the ‘Tweets’ tab at the top of the page, where you’ll find analytics on the performance of individual tweets and average engagement statistics from the past 28 days.

You can edit the date range for the analytics to a specific time period which can be useful when comparing performance over time. This data can also be downloaded in a handy CSV file.

At first glance the data provided covers specific tweet impressions, engagements and an engagement rate (the percentage of those who saw the tweet and chose to engage with it). If you click on the selected tweet you’re interested in, this information will be much more specific – looking at what actions made up the total engagements.

This information can help inform your social media strategy, providing insight into the type of content your audience engage with and want to see.

You’ll also be able to see the impact of adding visuals, how time of day can increase or decrease to the reach of your tweets and whether anyone is actually reading the articles you’re posting. It’ll also allow you to test the impact of any A/B testing you do on individual tweet engagement.

By posting on social media, you’re not only promoting your content. You’re also creating a community of users who choose to follow you. Use your analytics to provide them a mix of what they want to hear (relevant to your subject area, of course) and what you want to tell them.