Measuring Your Business Success on Twitter

Success is a sliding scale depending on your business size and goals, but these metrics can help you determine your performance and measure your growth over time.

• Followers: You want to build your following so that there are people who interact with you, but don’t get stuck on this number. It doesn’t indicate engagement.
• Likes: On many social platforms, “likes” don’t indicate true engagement. Likes can come from bots, and even when they don’t, many people are clicking the like button and moving on. However, unlike Instagram, where a “like” is almost entirely a vanity metric, likes on Twitter do have an added benefit. When one of your followers likes your post, it can show up in their followers’ feeds — even though their followers don’t follow you.
• Retweets: Retweets are better than likes. It means people value your post enough to share it with their friends. It helps spread your message!
• Comments: Comments start conversations. Commenting is a deeper level of engagement than a like, and it gives you insight into what your customers care about.
• Engagement: Engagement is the overall metric that you want to track. It tells you the percentage of Twitter users interacting with your content as it relates to your follower count. Liking, retweeting, commenting, clicking, these all count toward engagement. A high percentage of loyal and engaged followers with a small number of followers is better than a large following and low engagement. High engagement means you have the right people following you on Twitter.

Don’t be discouraged in the beginning as you build your following. It takes some time to get your Twitter account off the ground. Your follower count and engagement rate will be low to start, but if you post consistently, engage with your followers, and encourage the right people to follow you, you’ll be well on your way to growing your small business on Twitter.