Twitter Mentions and Why they are Important for YOUR Business

By Dan Burdick


       There are so many metrics available to marketers today, it is difficult to choose just one or two to monitor. To help narrow the search, we will first take a look at an article by noted metrics guru, Avinash Kaushik. In Avinash Kaushik’s article, he examines four attributes of great metrics. Kaushik’s first rule is: all great metrics must be “uncomplex.” In short, this means a metric needs to be easily understandable to everyone in the company. Kaushik drives home the importance of this rule when he writes, “Decisions in companies are not made by one person. If you want action then the democracy needs to understand performance, the democracy need to make decisions.” In congruence with Kaushik’s theory, I believe Twitter mentions are a straight-forward and important metric to measure. Twitter mentions show one the number of times his or her company has been mentioned or referenced on Twitter. If all publicity is good publicity, as the saying goes, then twitter mentions show one the total amount of publicity that a company is getting via the popular social channel.

This metric is straight-forward, simple to understand and also provides clear and useful data, similar to the way a turnstile collects data on people entering an amusement park. If mentions are up, for a good reason, then it is good for business, and if they are up for a bad reason, then it is good for a CEO or PR manager to know this so they can look for solutions to the negative mentions on Twitter. Likewise, if Twitter mentions are down, it likely means that the marketing team needs to do a better job on social media or that business overall is down. Twitter mentions are an important metric because they can help a company keep track of numerous things including, goals, employee performance, customer growth and online presence.

In conclusion, Twitter mentions, page views or any similar customer analytics are important for monitoring customer growth. Deeper, more qualitative analytics are also important to monitor because they can help marketers build more accurate customer personas than ever before. All-in-all, it is important for CEOs and social media managers alike to grasp the significance of social media in marketing today and look for the metrics which can best help his or her individual businesses thrive.