How to Create the Perfect Twitter Performance Report

To make Twitter marketing effective, you must perform regular analysis to identify what strategies are working and what isn't. After performing the analysis, you then need to share this data via reports to colleagues or clients to demonstrate the success of your Twitter marketing efforts. 

In this article, we will look at why you need a Twitter performance report and how you can create one.

Let's get started. 

Why you need a Twitter performance report

Creating a comprehensive Twitter report is essential for explaining your social media performance to your boss or client.

An effective report will:

• Identify if your strategies are effective and whether you are reaching the business’ goals
• Prove the ROI of your Twitter campaigns
• Highlight the areas you need improvement and how you can address them
• Identify which type of content brings the most engagement
• Benchmark your social media performance against your competitors 

Steps to creating a Twitter performance report

A Twitter performance report can be used to show the progress of a specific campaign or focus on the growth of a brand’s overall Twitter presence. To come up with the report, you will need to collect performance data and analyze it. 

You can collect these data using Twitter Analytics. For more robust data all in one dashboard, you can use a social media management tool like Iconosquare.

Here are the steps to take when creating a report:

1. Identify who will be receiving the report

The person or team receiving your report will determine what kind of data you will put in it. 

Let's assume you are creating a Twitter report for a sales team. 

While you may understand the value of social media impressions and engagement metrics, the sales team might not be familiar with that. They are more familiar with tracking metrics like win rate and conversion rate. To make your report valuable to the sales team, you need to focus your report on the areas where social media and sales intersect. Your sales team needs to have this data so that they can make their offerings and outreach valuable to the brand’s Twitter audience. 

For example, you shared a post on Twitter about a specific service your client offers that resulted in an increase in messages from leads requesting more information. This is the kind of data you will include in your report as it tallies with the sales team’s objectives; increasing leads and sales. 

This is the same approach you will take when creating reports sent to managers or the brand’s leadership. Consider the recipient's perspective and highlight how your Twitter strategy is contributing to the brand’s success. 

2. What will be your reporting timeline?

These are the most common timelines you can report in:

• Weekly
• Monthly
• Quarterly
• From the start of the campaign to the end

Note: It's best practice to use a 28-day reporting period for monthly reports. This will ensure that you are consistent with your reporting as the months vary in length. For quarterly reports, use a 90-day reporting period. This means you will have four quarterly reports as the entire year can be divided into four 90-day periods. 

3. Choose which metrics to track

Here are some of the key metrics to include in a Twitter performance report:

#1: Follower growth

This metric shows the number of followers you have gained or lost during a reporting period. A follower growth report can give you a good insight into your brand's reach, popularity, and brand awareness. 

How to create the report:

If you are using Twitter’s Analytics tool, you will only be able to see the total number of followers you gained or lost in the past 28 days. 

If you use an external analytics tool, you will be able to get more in-depth data. 

On Iconosquare, you will get this extra data;

• Total followers: The total number of people following your Twitter profile
• Follower evolution: How you follower count has evolved during the reporting period you selected
• Follower evolution percentage: See the percentage of how your follower count has evolved during the reporting period you have selected
• Follower growth chart: See how your follower count is growing over time. The data in this chart is updated every hour. 

💡 When reporting your follower growth rate, use whole numbers. The recipients will better understand “We gained 1000 new Twitter followers in the past month” as opposed to “Followers grew by 0.7% in the past month. 

#2: Impressions 

Impressions are the total number of times your post was displayed on a users' feed. The viewer doesn't have to interact with the post for it to be counted as an impression. Impressions count exposure, not engagement. Also, a single user can have multiple impressions on a single post. 

How to create the report:

On Twitter Analytics, you are shown the total number of impressions you had in the selected reporting period. It also compares the percentage growth with the previous period.

On Iconosquare, you will get data on:

• Total Impressions: The total number of times your tweets and replies have been viewed during the selected reporting period. 
• Average engagement on impressions per tweet: The average engagement on impressions per tweet published during the selected reporting period. It is calculated by dividing the total engagement by the impressions of the tweets
• Average impressions per tweet: The average number of times your tweets have been viewed during the selected reporting period 
• Average impression rate per tweet: This is calculated by dividing the total number of impressions on a given tweet by the number of followers at the time of posting.
• Impressions history chart: A chart of how your impressions evolve over time.
• Average impressions per tweet type: The average impressions received by each of your publications, grouped by type. 
• Tweets with the most impressions chart: This chart shows you your tweet with the highest number of views during the selected reporting period. You can also use a drop-down arrow to see the tweet with the least impression. 

#3: Volume of posts

When working for a client, it's important to share the number of times you have posted on Twitter. 

This metric helps you determine if you are posting content your audience enjoys. If you have published over 100 tweets in 28 days but your engagement level is low, it shows that you need to improve your content strategy. 

How to create the report:

On Twitter Analytics, you can view the number of tweets you have shared in 28 days. 

On Iconosquare, you will get data on:

• Total Tweets: The number of tweets you have shared during the selected reporting period. It will include all the tweets and retweets you published. It will not include replies.
• Total Replies sent: In this section, you can see the total number of replies you made during the selected reporting period. The data is updated approximately every hour.
• Average Tweets per day: The average number of tweets you publish per day (except replies) during the selected reporting period. 
• Total links: The total number of published tweets with a link during the selected reporting period.
• Total photos: The total number of published tweets with one photo during the selected reporting period.
• Total videos: The total number of published tweets with a video during the selected reporting period.
• Tweets history chart: See the evolution of your number of Tweets over time (the data shown in based on selected reporting period). 
• Type distribution chart: See the distribution of your Tweets by type (Photo, Poll, Retweet with comment, Like, or Video)
• Post density chart:See your posting habits per day, compared to the average per day. 

#4. Total engagement

In general, Twitter engagement is the sum of every interaction like comments, likes, retweets, and comments on a post. 

Engagement metrics allow you to estimate the effectiveness of your Twitter posts. If your engagement level on updates is high, it shows that your audience likes your content. 

How to create the report: 

On Twitter Analytics, you can view the engagement rate for each of your posts in Tweet Activity. 

You can also view the average engagement for each post.

On Iconosquare, you will get data on:

• Total engagement: The total number of interactions that you get on your tweets and replies. 
• Average engagement rate per tweet: The average of the engagement rates per tweet across all tweets published during the selected reporting period. 
• Most engaging tweets: In this section, you will see the top 10 tweets with the most engagement in the selected reporting period. 
• Total likes: The total number of likes received in the selected reporting period.
• Average likes received per tweet: The average number of likes received per tweet during the selected reporting people. 
• Simple Retweet: Total number of retweets your tweet receives during the selected reporting period. 
• Average retweets per tweet: The average number of retweets received per tweet during the selected reporting period. 
• Likes history chart: Evolution of your likes over time.
• Retweet history chart: Evolution of your retweets over time.
• Average engagement rate history: See how your average engagement rate is evolving over a selected reporting period. Each data point represents the average engagement rate for all tweets posted on that day. 

#5: Clicks

This metric allows you to measure how often people click on the call-to-action on your tweets. It's an important social media KPI to track as it gives insight into how compelling your offer is to your Twitter audience.

How to create the report:

You can view the number of clicks you have gotten in a selected reporting period on Twitter analytics. 

#6: Referral traffic

Reporting on Twitter referral traffic allows you to show how successful your Twitter marketing strategy is in driving people to your website. 

With referral traffic, you will see how many visits to your site are coming from Twitter. This traffic can come from links on your tweets or from any links shared by others on Twitter. 

How to create the report:

In Google Analytics, go to All Traffic > Channels.

The report will show the percentage of traffic that came from social media, alongside other traffic sources like organic search, email, direct, other websites, etc. 

To see the breakdown of traffic coming from Twitter, go to Acquisition > Social > Network Referrals. You can then see how much traffic has come from Twitter. 

#7: Funnel report

A social media funnel is the path customers take in their journey with your business. You can use funnel reports to show not only the traffic to your website but also what the visitors end up doing. Does the link clicks from your Twitter content translate into leads? Sales? Or subscribers? The funnel report will show the visitor's entire journey; from seeing your tweet to visiting your website, and then taking an action. 

How to create the report:

Here is a simple way to track your social media funnel using Google Analytics Goals. 

• Log into Google Analytics and click on the Admin link at the top of the page. 
• Once on the dashboard, select your website from the drop-down list on the left. 
• Click on Goals in the the right column of the page.
• Next, click the “+New Goal” button. Google Analytics will display a template of goals you can easily set up. 
  

You also have the option to create a custom goal. 

• After adding a goal, click on the Continue button. Next, give your goal a “Description”.
• Then choose your “goal type”. For example, if you want to track sales, choose “Destination”. Then click Continue.
• In Goal details, put the URL you want to track. Since I want to track sales that originated from Twitter, I will put my thank you page URL that is shown to customers after they make a purchase. By tracking the visits to the thank you page, I can know when sales conversions happen. 

Finally, click on Save, and your goal will be set up.

After setting it up, you can view the analytics for this goal by clicking on Conversions > Goals in your Google Analytics dashboard. You can also see how much social media contributes to the goal conversions.

#8: Twitter Ads

If you are running Twitter ads, you can see insight into the performance of promotions using Twitter Analytics.

On the “Tweets” section, you can see your paid promotions in chronological order when you click on “Promoted”. It will show you the number of impressions and engagements each promotion earned. This will allow you to identify the promotions that are working and the ones that aren’t. 

To learn more about your ad performance, click on “Conversion tracking” under the “More” section.

4. Presenting your report

After choosing the metrics to include, there are two ways you can present your progress and growth in the report.  

• Snapshot - Here, you look at your progress over a specific period, without considering any previous history. 
• Week over week or period over period- Here, you compare the progress of a specific period with historical data from a previous period. 

When presenting the report, make it easy to understand. Use a mix of visual aids like graphs and charts to explain the data you are reporting on. 

Use short descriptions, and when possible show examples of the Twitter posts you are measuring.

Finally, finish your report with key takeaways. For example, the areas where there was significant growth and where improvements might be needed. 

Conclusion

A Twitter report will give you insight into the performance of your social media strategies. It is also vital for showing clients the value of your social media efforts to their business. 

Note: If you are using Twitter Analytics, you can export your data only by tweet or by day. Not only that, you only get a little data compared to using a social media management tool. 

If you want to create an in-depth Twitter performance report, use a tool like Iconosquare. You will get access to a lot of useful data. With this one tool, you will also be able to analyze data from Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Iconosquare also helps you to create and deliver visual reports to recipients of your choice.