Twitter Followers Metric

Twitter Followers Definition

The Followers metric on Twitter measures the popularity of your company. Twitter allows users to follow major brands to stay updated with what the company is posting. When companies tweet, their followers will have those tweets in their own personal feeds and have the opportunity to retweet and like posts, which will then reach their own followers. The more Twitter followers a company has, the higher the possibility for engagement and reach. The Twitter follower metric is considered one of the most important measures for determining the success of a company’s social media marketing.

You can review and compare your followers over time, analyzing the trends in follows compared to previous periods. You can also look at the trend in Twitter follows versus the dates of your campaigns to determine which were the most successful. With these results, you can build new campaigns with a better understanding of your key demographic. This will encourage more engagement with your company’s Twitter page which will improve reach and brand awareness.

Key Terms

• Followers: When a user chooses to stay updated on your company’s Twitter activities by following your brand.
• Following: When a brand follows users on Twitter, they stay updated on their activities.

Success Indicators

• Increase in followers
• Increase in engagements

Twitter Followers Benchmarks

It’s difficult to set a benchmark for Twitter Followers because the process is unique to your business and industry. The following are how social media experts benchmark for Twitter Followers:

Kevan Lee, Buffer

One way that has been really helpful for me to think about benchmarking is splitting it into four key segments:

1. Aspirational – Shoot for the stars by benchmarking with some of the biggest and best brands.
2. Trended – Aim to meet the high standards you’ve achieved in the past.
3. Earned – Track new campaigns side-by-side with successful campaigns from before.
4. Inspirational – Find inspiring, influential accounts in your field and seek to reach their level.

Twitter Followers Best Practices

Many businesses debate the value of Twitter for their particular industry, but the reality is that it is extremely powerful tool for any business when used correctly. The problem is, if you have no followers, you can’t experience all the benefits. Here are some expert advcie to increase your businesses follower base:

Jayson DeMers, AudienceBloom

1. Follow more people. Research shows a correlation between the number of people followed and the number of followers.
2. Use a tool like Hootsuite or SproutSocial to schedule your tweets. Posting regularly will increase your engagement and visibility, thereby increasing your follower count.
3. Use Twiends to find new Twitter users you can connect with. Once you’re listed on the platform, other users with similar interests will also be able to find and follow you.
4. Optimize your Twitter bio. Users who want to find out more about you will inevitably visit your Twitter bio. Make sure it’s professional, complete and that it does a great job of representing you and your business.
5. Use links in your tweets. Tweets with links get more retweets than those without.

How to Monitor Twitter Followers in Real-time

Once you have established benchmarks and targets for Twitter Followers, you’ll want to establish processes for monitoring this and other social media KPIs. Dashboards can be critical in this regard.

Learn more about how to track your Twitter Followers on a Social Media Dashboard.

Twitter Followers: Top Resources

50 Free Ways to Increase Your Twitter Followers, Jayson DeMers

How to get more Twitter Followers in 9 Different Ways (ethically), Luke Chitwood

So...Is That Good? The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Benchmarking on Social Media, Kevan Lee