Is Twitter introducing Analytics?

A phrase we use over and over here at iMod Digital is, "if you're not measuring, are you even marketing?" This rings true for all things inbound marketing and that's why we invest a huge amount of time into refining Google Analytics to be just the way we need it. This allows us to report accurately on really interesting statistics that can affect the bottom line of a business and show return on investment. When it comes to social media however, measuring isn't nearly as powerful. Facebook has insights which is decent, but nothing amazing and Twitter seems to have been left behind, or have they? Twitter's business model, or money model rather, has been rather non existent. They have their ways, but there isn't really a big thing that brings in the cash and covers their costs. Advertising is always an option, but it's annoying for users and the return probably wouldn't be that great. So, how about opening up Twitter Analytics, which would in turn encourage more business usage in my opinion, which could ultimately assist with wider options for monetizing. It seems like this might just be it as reports around the Internet have spotted some interesting things. Take a look at this:

and

Pics by Christopher Penn.

Interesting! After clicking on the "Timeline activity", you are presented with this:

Unfortunately this functionality isn't available to everyone and the more I read, the more it appears that Twitter might have accidentally released the changes.

Just imagine how useful this would be! It would be a social media marketing jackpot of sorts. Sure, FollowerWonk is fantastic and there are several other pieces of software to analyse followers and various metrics, but nothing could beat an analytics area that Twitter themselves create.

This is going to be an interesting space to watch - building relationships online is becoming a crucial part of any inbound marketing strategy and this will assist with the process immensely.

What next, hashtags on Facebook? Oh.. wait.