Saturday, November 30, 2019

Online Writers and Twitter Users: Do You Pay Attention To Your Analytics?

LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY

As the saying goes, "Life is for learning." They also say "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."

That second statement is bunk. If you embrace the concept of lifelong learning, you'll continuously be looking for new tricks to learn. It becomes your nature.

I've been paying attention to my blogger stats since I started blogging in 2007. Before that I noted my website stats. Having had a career in advertising, I was continuously paying attention to statistics pertaining to lead generation, conversion rates, and the cost of acquiring a new customer.

Maybe that was all fun to me because I like numbers and was always good at math while growing up. Or maybe it was fun because I grew up being a bit competitive and I liked winning. This evolved to what I hope is a healthier motivation to achieve for achievement sake and not to beat anyone.  I don't feel a need to be the best, only to be better than I was.

ALL THIS TO SAY that I learned something new today. 

I've been on Twitter since 2008 when I learned that large numbers of journalists used Twitter for a variety of reasons, including finding breaking news. It's a great way to stay in tune with what is happening on the national and global scenes. And to catch a sense of where others are at on issues, etc. But it's also a great way to share your own stories, articles, ideas and interests. Especially if you're a writer.

What I discovered today is that just as I have access to extensive stats pertaining to my blog (including where my readers are from, what kinds of devices they access the blog from, etc.) there is also a "back room" on Twitter for every Twitter user's analytics. I never knew this.

So, what did I see when I peeked behind the curtain?

Napping on the couch my son's dog Noodles also sleeping.
The Top Interest among my followers is Dogs. 
How interesting because I seldom write about dogs, though there are clues from time to time that I am a dog person.

The Top Language is English.
No surprise there.

Top Lifestyle Type is Online Buyers.
This is strange on one level. I'm still a big advocate for Buy Local, but I get it, I suppose. Maybe.

When it comes to Consumer Behavior, my followers tend to buy Premium Brands. Hmmm.

Mobile Footprint.
Verizon. There was a tie in this category with AT&T. I myself use Verizon as my mobile carrier, though I can't imagine this having a bearing on my Twitter stats.

Then Twitter does a break-out on the Interests into a more detailed set of graphs, and this becomes surprising because I write so much about writing and art that you would think those interests would dominate. Instead, the list of interests most shared with followers is as follows:
Dogs. Weather. Music festivals & concerts. Technology, Education News and general info, Government, Commentary, Tech News, Politics.

At this point I realize that although I Tweet what I blog about each day, I also re-Tweet stories and hit the "Like" button a lot. This means that I've been telegraphing my other interests even when I do not write about them on my blog.

Very interesting.

At the top of your analytics page you can see how many times you've Tweeted in the past 28 days, how many impressions were made, how many profile visits occurred (up 64% this month), how many mentions, and how many followers you now have compared to a month ago.

STILL MORE DATA
If you want to go deeper, you may. My TOP TWEET this month, based on Impressions was a Tweet about my interview with Medium writer/ publisher Nicole Akers. 
You can also find your Top Mention and Top Follower, as well as Top Media Tweet for each and every month going back as far as you want to go. My Top Media Tweet for November was about my interview with author Paul Thomas Chamberlin, author of The Cold War's Killing Fields.

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Well, it's time to break off here and start my day. Twitter has been an interesting experience and is my favorite social media platform besides blogging. It's easy, and has an international reach that is significant. Facebook feels more like a necessary evil. It's useful for staying in touch with your local tribe, and friends at a distance, but it's become a clutterer space where the platform seems keep pushing things at you and you have to swat them aside all the time.

In recent years Quora and Medium became platforms I enjoyed more. Each seems to be a home for writers. Anyone who is writing I consider to be part of my extended family. Are you a writer? Write on!

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This blog post was stimulated by an article at Social Media Today titled How to Get More Twitter Followers (Without Spending a Dime)

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