Social Outreach Tools: New Followerwonk Twitter Metrics

There’s been a lot of changes at Followerwonk since we featured them as one of the 5 Free Tools for Finding Targeted Twitter Users last year. The big news? They were acquired by SEOMoz. And more recently, Followerwonk unveiled a host of new features for their Pro users (which, by the way, are included for SEOMoz pro members). There’s no time like the present for a little catch up, so here’s the scoop on the new functionality.

First, some quick back story. Followerwonk is a Twitter analytics tool that allows you to search bios, compare users and analyze your followers. If you’re using the free version, you’ll still get these features. If you’re a Pro member, however, you’ll have access to new metrics, which mine Twitter user timelines to bring you data that helps you better understand your audience, prospects and competitors. And you know me, I love me some data.

New metrics: Choose from three new metrics when you ‘roll over’ a user from a search result. You’ll get engagement, a percentage measure of how much a user engages on Twitter (determined by how many sampled items from their timeline are @ mentions or retweets). You can also drill down to Retweets and @Contact, the percentage of tweets that directly mentioned another person. Lastly, Tweets with URLs show you how often someone’s tweets contain links.

This sort of data can be incredibly valuable if you’re using Twitter as part of your digital outreach strategy. By compiling these new metrics about a Twitter user, you can quickly ascertain whether or not that person is a broadcaster or listener—and that input will help guide whether or not you pursue a connection based on the potential value someone brings to the table—err, timeline. After all, connecting with someone who merely uses the Twitter stream as a link posting factory but opts not to converse and engage with others is likely of little use to you, regardless of your specific strategy.

Analyze your followers: Followerwonk’s new stats also tell you which users are likely to be the most receptive. Search a Twitter user’s bio for a relevant keyword and use Followerwonk’s Analyze feature to see a detailed breakdown by engagement presented as a pie chart. Clicking on any segment of the chart will display overlays of users in that segment and, when you roll over a user, you can see more details on that person’s engagement.

One note? These Followerwonk metrics are only available for Twitter users with more than 2,500 followers, as well as all pro members. If you’re in the market for some detailed Twitter analysis, Followerwonk might be worth exploring as you build your outreach pool and craft your approach.

Are you a Followerwonk user? I’d love your take on the new metrics.

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