Are Your Tweets Effective?

Twitter has pushed well beyond many peoples expectations as both a communications and marketing tool and you will be hard pressed to find a major brand without a presence on the platform. Whether their account is doing anything for them is another matter all together.

However, many Twitter accounts do not return on the investment of time, money or energy poured into them because of simple omissions of errors that when corrected can turn those 140 character missives into powerful drivers of web traffic and potential conversions.

As a consultant, on of the things I am most often asked is, "am I doing the right things on Twitter?"

Calculating social ROI is the most effective way to work this out and it is something that all larger brands should be doing but this is often something that smaller businesses find harder to keep track of. Instead they are looking for a simpler way to score their social media investment to make sure that they are at least not wasting their time.

Enter the 'Grade Your Social' tool from Hootsuite. A rough and ready tool to give a snapshot of your effectiveness on Twitter.

The Grader compares the data it skims from your account (after giving permission) with a series of standardised metrics and then provides a report card that breaks down your efforts. It's a simple idea well executed that can give a time poor social media manager an idea that they are at least on the right track.

Let's start with what it is not. It is not a replacement for a comprehensive social media plan or strategy. The Grader only looks at Twitter and can only compare to a set of general measures. For more in depth analysis you will have to dip back in to the data or bring in outside help. It is also not going to fix anything it finds that is wrong, it is a report card and nothing more.

On the plus side the Grader is enticingly simple which is a large part of it's power and appeal.

The sections it analyses are Reach, Engagement and Profile. Profile is fairly self explanatory, how much have you customised the Twitter page for your account. Reach looks at your follower base and the types of content you share with them offering tips for rich media and on how to grow your follower base. Finally, and most importantly is Engagement. The Grader will look at how often you do things like respond to @mentions, RT follower content and interact with your fans. More than any other part of the grader, this section provides you the most important insights into how you may improve.

The individual section scores are combined into an A-F grade overall that you can share (because who doesn't want to brag about an 'A').

As a consultant this is one of the first things I do with a new client, often in the first meeting right in front of them, as it allows me to discuss options for improving grades but it is often reflective of the way a client approaches social on all platforms. It is free, looks great, works every time and the clients always seem impressed and from a consultant's perspective it gives me an immediate insight into the clients existing social media strategy and how I can work with them to build and grow.

Try it out today and see if you're flunking social media or sitting at the top of the class.

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