For those who don’t have much time to devote to social media analytics or the expertise of a social media agency that will create reports, there are some excellent easy to use tools out there. These are three cost effective tools that that can enhance your brand’s Twitter presence.
For an analytics package, SocialBro has numerous features that can benefit your Twitter activities and assist with your overall social media strategy. Creating a community of relevant users is key and SocialBro allows you to find a target audience through its ‘Discover Twitter Users’ function. Find the audience most relevant to your objectives by using the search and filter functions; choose different options according to criteria such as time zone, language and whether a user has customised their profile. You can use this data to establish lists of users that you’re interested in, such as clients, competitors and key influencers, allowing you to easily track conversations by different stakeholder segments.
SocialBro also offers hashtag monitoring, which gives you an idea of who’s using your hashtags and tells you if they are currently following you, or if you follow them. Reaching out to those who do not follow you increases the likelihood that they will in the future, and is a valuable method of building your Twitter community. Additionally, SocialBro gives you the ability to analyse your competitors and review their follower base, giving your brand an insight into a rival community. You can find out whether or not they are relevant to your own Twitter community and are worth following.
Another great tool is Buffer, which allows you to manage and schedule when you tweet. Simply set the date and time of your tweets in advance to avoid inundating your followers with messages. You can also use this in tandem with a SocialBro function that lets you know when the greatest numbers of your followers are online in order to optimise Tweet times. Buffer also offers statistical reports that allow brands to view the engagement numbers for each post, including click-throughs, retweets and favourites. Additionally, Buffer helps to identify users to thank for retweets, especially those with a large number of followers.
The third and final tool brands should consider investing in is Tweepi. This allows you to unfollow inactive users, increase new followers, and follow back those who already follow you. One great feature is the ‘Follow Followers’ function, which allows you to follow the followers of any Twitter account you choose. This can be complemented by using SocialBro to determine whether or not these followers are relevant to your Twitter activities. It’s important to note, however, that following too many users at once will trigger Twitter’s in house rules and your account will be marked as a spammer. As a brand you’ll have to use Tweepi wisely and in moderation in order to get the most out of it.
There are many tools out there designed to assist your business with Twitter management and it’s important to pick the ones that work best for you. Always aim to trial tools before you purchase them and ensure those people who will utilise them day-to-day are able to get hands on experience and provide feedback.
This Guest post was written by Hugo who is an account executive at integrated PR, search and social media agency Punch Communications. To see how Punch differs from other PR agencies, or to find out how an integrated approach could help your business, visit www.punchcomms.com or call +44 (0) 1858 411 600.
