In this post, we’ll focus on how to measure the impact of Twitter, which
reached about 22 million people in May.
1. #Hashtag research = keyword research
Just as people had to learn how to search using traditional search engines like
Google and Yahoo, people are learning how to better search social media sites like
Twitter. Increasingly, they are using hashtags. A hashtag is simply including the #
symbol in front of a keyword. For example #diabetes . People can subscribe to follow
hashtags or they can search for them, allowing them to stay current on specific
topics, and recently Twitter began hyperlinking hashtags within tweets allowing
people to go diretly the search results for that hashtag instantly.
Here we can see that tweets tagged with the #diabetes hashtag are on the rise:
By researching which keywords are popular at the moment, you craft messages that
are relevent and timely, and by including the hashtag in your post, you expand the
reach of your tweet beyond your follower list, which leads us to…
2. # of followers you have
The more followers you have, the more likely the content you post will be seen
(found).
Your number of followers measures your immediate audience on Twitter. It’s a
way to measure the opportunity each of your tweets has to reach and engage your
audience.
TwitterCounter allows you to measure and compare your profile against
competitors (or friends 
Here we can see that Bing has more followers
than Yahoo; and it’s growing it’s follower count faster than Yahoo.
Additionally, Twitter directories like
Social Brand Index or
Technobabble, list Twitter profiles and usually rank by number of followers.
Since we’re focusing on measurement, we will not discuss why focusing purely
on your follower count ignores some of the core principles of social media (e.g.
listening, engaging in conversation, adding value, etc.)
3. # of clicks on the links you post on Twitter
Linking to relevant content within your tweets adds value to other users, and by
utilizing URL shorteners with tools like Tweetburner you can measure how
engaged people are with your tweets by tracking the number of clicks on the links
you post.
Sites like Tweetburner rank top URLs within Twitter and post lists of the
top-clicked links. Appearing on these lists is similar to getting your content voted
up on Digg; though the traffic impact is not as substantial…yet.
Similarly, posting pictures to your tweets adds value, and using a service like
TwitPic
allows you to measure how many people are viewing the pics you post.
4. Search for People Who Are Sharing Your Site or Blog Post on
Twitter
You can now track when other people post links to your content on Twitter using
tools like
backtweets .
This is similar to Google’s
Webmaster Tools, but specific to Twitter.
It’s different from tracking when people click on the links you post.
Backtweets actually shows you when people post links to your content organically.
Without checking a tool like backtweets, you would only be seeing a portion of how
the community is engaging with your content. It’s also a great way to find new
people who are interested in your content. Follow them, and they’ll likely
follow you back, if they aren’t already.
I encourage you to explore these tools. There are others, so please let me know
which you find most useful. You can find me on Twitter @iano1000
UPDATE:
TweetReach.com shows you how many impressions your tweets have generated
broken down by the users that helped spread your message via retweets. Very cool.
Klout.net shows you the reach of your individual tweets and those that were
retweeted, and also allows you to see how you influence and are influenced by people
geographically.
Are you already using the tools above or others? Please leave
a comment with a link to your blog and I’ll be sure to stop by!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
What about retweets? How do they help our tweets be found by a larger audience? And how can we measure the impact of retweets?
So one way I've found to begin measuring retweets is Retweet Rank, as recommended by Guy Kawasaki in his "How I Tweet" FAQ.
https://www.retweetrank.com
Any others?
Also be sure to check out Tipereth Gloria's great set of posts on how not to use hashtags over at Digital Tip down under in Australia. Check it out at:
https://www.digitaltip.com.au/index.php/habitatuk-apologises-twitter-hashtag-issue/